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The Solace of Open Spaces: Essays Kindle Edition

by Gretel Ehrlich (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 1,122 ratings

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These transcendent, lyrical essays on the West announced Gretel Ehrlich as a major American writer—“Wyoming has found its Whitman” (Annie Dillard).

Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn’t leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on “the planet of Wyoming,” a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life.

Ehrlich captures both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the natural forces—the harsh wind, bitter cold, and swiftly changing seasons—in the remote reaches of the American West. She brings depth, tenderness, and humor to her portraits of the peculiar souls who also call it home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers, dreamers and realists. Together, these essays form an evocative and vibrant tribute to the life Ehrlich chose and the geography she loves.

Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, The Solace of Open Spaces is raw, meditative, electrifying, and uncommonly wise. In prose “as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning,” Ehrlich explores the magical interplay between our interior lives and the world around us (Newsday).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying, gleaming, still." Whether she's reflecting on nature's teachings, divulging her experiences as a cowpuncher, or painting vivid word portraits of the people she lives and works with, Gretel Ehrlich's observations are lyrical and funny, wise and authentic. After moving from the city to a vast new state, she writes of adjusting to cowboy life, boundless open spaces, and the almost incomprehensible harshness of a Wyoming winter:

"When it's fifty below, the mercury bottoms out and jiggles there as if laughing at those of us still above ground. Once I caught myself on tiptoes, peering down into the thermometer as if there were an extension inside inscribed with higher and higher declarations of physical misery: ninety below to the power of ten and so on."

After experiencing the isolated life of a sheep herder, she writes, "Keenly observed the world is transformed. The landscape is engorged with detail, every movement on it chillingly sharp. The air between people is charged. Days unfold, bathed in their own music. Nights become hallucinatory; dreams, prescient."

Ehrlich's gift is one of subtle precision. She writes beauty into the plainest of thoughts and meaning into the simplest of ideas: "True solace is finding none, which is to say, it is everywhere." --Kathryn True

From Publishers Weekly

Like many before her, poet Gretel Ehrlich discovered the therapeutic qualities of the West. In 1976, a time of personal crisis, she moved from the East to a small farm in Wyoming where she ultimately found peace of mind and inspiration. Originally, she had gone west to make a film for PBS; she returned to work with neighbors at cattle- and sheep-ranching, taking pleasure in open spaces. Ehrlich writes with sensitivity and affection about people, the seasons and the landscape. Whether she is enjoying solitude or companionship, her writing evokes the romance and timelessness of the West. November
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Many urbanites sojourn in the West to commune with nature in the wide-open spaces, but few have related their experiences, or so fully captured the essence of Wyoming, as well as this author. She was sent from New York to the Big Horn region in 1976 to make a film about sheepherders. To recover from the death of a loved one, she wandered near and far for two years before returning to northern Wyoming, where she finally found solace. The vivid descriptions of the physical aspects of her surroundings are more than balanced by her poetic commentaries on the nature of the sheepherders, cowpokes, and Native Americans who inhabit the area. This paean to Wyoming should find a place in all special collections on the West and would be a fine addition to general collections. Sondra Brunhumer, Western Mich. Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Vivid, tough, and funny . . . Wyoming has found its Whitman . . . An exuberant and powerful book.” —Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“[Ehrlich] brings the long vistas into focus with the poise of an Ansel Adams. . . . She has been to the mountaintop and seen the mountain for what it is.” —TheNew York Times Book Review

“A stunning rumination on life on Wyoming’s high plains . . . Ehrlich’s gorgeous prose is as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning.” —Newsday

“Ehrlich’s best prose belongs in a league with Annie Dillard and even Thoreau. The Solace of Open Spaces releases the bracing air of the wilderness into the stuffy, heated confines of winter in civilization.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“The most exciting new prose I’ve come across this season . . . Part travelogue, part meditation, these twelve pieces are lyrical, humorous, and eye-opening.” —Glamour

About the Author

Gretel Ehrlich is an award-winning writer and naturalist. Born and raised in California, she was educated at Bennington College and UCLA Film School. She is the author of thirteen books, including the essay collection The Solace of Open Spaces (1985), the novel Heart Mountain (1988), and the memoirs A Match to the Heart: One Woman’s Story of Being Struck by Lightning (1994) and This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland (2001), as well as The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold (2004), and, most recently, Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of a Tsunami (2014). Her prose pieces have appeared in Harper’s, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic, among many other publications. Ehrlich lives in Montana and Hawaii.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N7HZ4B9
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (February 21, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 21, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3502 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0140081135

Best Sellers Rank: #140,947 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #6 in Mountain U.S. Regional Travel
- #13 in Biographies of Environmentalists & Naturalists (Kindle Store)
- #34 in Nature Writing

Customer Reviews:
4.4 1,122 ratings

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kmd57

Prose as transcendent as the most beautiful poetry.

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2023

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This short collection of essays reminds me of why I studied literature and creative writing in college. Too often we get lost in just reading novels and need to get back to basics. A finely tuned essay is poetry to the trained ear, and these are among the finest I have read.
Yes, I must admit that I purchased this book after it was mentioned in an episode of Yellowstone, but you don't have to be a fan of the tv show to enjoy this.

12 people found this helpful

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Bubbalicious

She Paints With Prose

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2016

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I was introduced to Gretel Ehrlich by a good friend in the early 90's and was humbled by her prose. Nowhere before had I read such magnificent and insightful impressions. Her writing gave life to the subtle beauty of open sky and lent movement to the endless landscape. She painted in prose.

My connection with her writing came from being raised in grasslands framed by mountains. I grew up outside, on horses and with antelopes too. I saw her descriptions as authentic and undiminished by cliché, the crutch of most interlopers, especially journalistic writers.

So this is my point, Gretel Ehrlich somehow has the ability to see, feel and emote what I can’t; the experience of being a tiny creature who is only part of an enormous world where beauty is often subtle. Her descriptions of the life of clouds and the movement of wind, alone, make this book worth reading.

Not many people have the circumspection to see themselves from the inside and outside at the same time. For many people, the wilderness is a simulacrum of what they project on it. For Ehrlich, it seems as though she truly allows herself to simply be a conduit for the experience.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who has gone weeks without a radio or television. You’ll recognize the life she describes. For everyone else, it may be a hint of what ‘solace’ really is.

Thanks for reading.

48 people found this helpful

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Beverly Ann McCall

The Solace of Open Space

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2024

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Solace of Open Spaces is a compilation of essays penned by Gretel Ehrlich that capture the reflecive and healing process she experienced while navigating the personal loss of a husband and the fulfillment of an assignment. I enjoyed the way she combines her observations, reflections and learning on two separate planes—the grandeur, beauty, and harshness of nature and the devasting emotional struggle of coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. Ms. Ehrlich’s skill with descriptive language pulls readers into these essays. I felt at times I was with her as she experiences the vast, isolated, and harsh environment as well as her interactions with the people she highlights. From each perspectives she allows readers to feel the tension and healing as they occur. So often human beings are so absorbed in their present and sometimes mundane existence that they become blind to the beauty around them. However, when coming face to face with the vastness and quietness of space they discover through self-reflection an appreciation of said natural beauty that allows the healing of one’s soul. This turned out to be an enjoyable and rewarding read.

One person found this helpful

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S. Peterson

Quality!

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2024

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The speed of delivery and condition were exactly as described. I’m so happy with my purchase. Already read it and loved every word.

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Elizabeth Clark

Why I love the open spaces.

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2022

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Being born & raised in a Dairy Farm in Southeastern Wi I can relate to the solace found in open spaces. As well as the fragility that comes with the struggle to survive there as the changing season, weather & prices fight against you.

The stories of the old timers, takes me back to being a young child listening to my great Aunts, Uncles & Grandparents tell of their childhood & struggles. I miss the & cherish those stories even more now.

One thing always remains even today, those open spaces no matter how harsh & barren leave a mark on us & our souls. While also giving us a peace in those places that one will love, moss and yearn for for the rest of iur lives. As one who finds solace in these places always carries a piece of it with them no matter where they go.

These Essays truly remind me of my days running, working & loving the opens spaces & brings their memories forward once again in my mind & heart. And that is the true beauty found after one leaves the open spaces.

As once you find solace, you never lose that feeling. No matter where you go, its the lifelong gift those places give you.

13 people found this helpful

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R. P. L.

Not as good as I'd hoped. Dated.

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2019

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This is a lyrical, poetic, carefully written memoir of Ehrlich's life in Wyoming following the death of a man she had loved. She's from the city, but the wild open spaces of the West do her some good. She gets married, learns to survive where there are many more cattle than people, when she once thrived in a world of the urban intellectual.

I liked the descriptions of the weather, the lonesome cowboys, the capaciousness of the sky, the hard work of ranching.

I'd come across a mention of the book after I'd finished rereading Walden. I wanted something like it.

This isn't Walden. It's quite often about Ehrlich and her emotional states, good and bad, dealing with her loss and learning to love again in an environment that teaches her patience and the meaning of hard work and hard living.

The carefulness of the writing got to me in the last quarter of the book. Too much metaphor, too much preciousness; it distanced me from Ehlich's story of rejuvenation. Ehrlich really tried to make her prose "gorgeous" (as Newsday correctly called it). I wanted it to be more straightforward. And some of her similes are awkward.

Though the book is very short, I feel it should have ended after she got married. What follows that event has a "tagged on" feel to it, as though her editor told her to "Write some more; we have to make it longer."

Her long chapter detailing her visit with the Crow and other indigenous tribes is mildly off-putting. Here's an example (p. 118): "Indians [sic] don't go home at night; they camp out where the action is, en masse, whole extended families and clans spanning several generations. It's a tradition with them the way sending our kids to summer camp is with us." Summer camp? Who's this "us" she's speaking of?

If you're going to to be visiting Wyoming, this book would be a great primer for that experience, giving you a greater appreciation of what you might experience there.

34 people found this helpful

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Off books

Grief in a western landscape

Reviewed in India on December 2, 2023

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It was probably coincidence but my three random book choices one after the other turned out to be a story about grief woven in with a story of a western landscape. The book was excellent and then I read this one which was equally good and satisfying. The writer is adept at narrating the scenes of life in a harsh and unforgiving landscape and how she comes to learn to live with it and survive physically and emotionally.

aliA

Loved it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2023

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Beautifully descriptive writing - loved it & have recommended it to others.

Kevin Ford

Very interesting book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2023

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Great stories and very well written.

Pete Howcroft

Inspiring...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2010

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This book should be in your top list of books to read.
The author moved from a comfortable life style, following a personal
tragedy, to life in the wilderness of America. Her account, her guts, her wonderful use of language, the people she met, and her perception make this a definite must. Don't let it escape.

Paul Cohen

Sublime and poetic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2017

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This is one of my all-time favorite books. A sublime and poetic collection of impressions of Wyoming, its hermits, cowboys and different seasons.

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