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Reding's first book is a fascinating tale of cattle herders (gauchos) living
in the desolate reaches of Chilean Patagonia. A successful mix of
journalistic reportage and cultural study, it uses the complex linguistic
fabric of the gaucho to weave a dynamic story that reads more like fiction
than pop-anthropological research. For the better part of a year, Reding
lived on land owned by a hardworking, harder-luck couple, Duck and Edith;
much of the account focuses on their lives and those of their few neighbors.
As a child under Pinochet's regime, Duck saw many people "disappeared" from
his semiurban slum, a hotbed of Perón-inspired socialism. Meanwhile, Reding
himself embarks on engaging cattle drives, has close brushes with devils real
and imaginary, and lives and breathes the stunning isolation and loneliness
of life on the high plains of the middle Cisnes River. Despite his fairly
intimate relationships with his generous, likable but deeply troubled
hosts--Duck is a violent alcoholic; Edith is terrified, angry and convinced
her husband is possessed by the devil--Reding also delves deep into the
inevitable cultural, social and economic divide between them. The gorgeous
landscapes, the threatening scenes of drunkenness and folly, the prosaic
workdays and the cowboy particulars are surely reminiscent of Cormac
McCarthy's Border Trilogy, but present here is a fastidiously humanist angle,
in which the interloping narrator never forgets humility or sensitivity. An
exciting third act plays out all the promise and horror when Duck, Edith and
their children leave the mountainside and move to the slums of Coyhaique, a
fated move for the story's protagonists as they undergo the trials of drink,
exorcism and urban decay.
Publisher's Weekly, September 17, 2001
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Publisher's Weekly
Book List: January 7, 2002
Book Page: January 2002
Book Magazine: January 2002
Library Journal
New York Magazine
Time Out New York Magazine: December 6, 2001
Outside Magazine: January 2002
National Geographic Adventure Magazine: January/February 2002
Amazon.com
Washington Post: January 27, 2002
Chicago Tribune: March 31, 2002
LA Weekly: April 2002
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