THE HIGH SIERRA - Kim Stanley Robinson

 For a very long time, I had a list of five authors whose books I would buy, in hardcover, as soon as they were published.  Kim Stanley Robinson was (and still is) on that short list as his books have never disappointed. One of the aspects of his work that I like so much is his appreciation and use of nature/ecology/environment in his works. His latest book, The High Sierra: A Love Story, is a departure from his science fiction, but right in line with his love and appreciation for wilderness.

The key thing to know about this book is in the subtitle, "A Love Story."  This is absolutely accurate.  This non-fiction work is part essay, part autobiography, part geology, and 100% a love story of Robinson's love of the mountains, the Sierra Nevada's in particular.

I really enjoy the wilderness (one of the reasons I like Robinson so much) and though I've only spent a little time in the Sierra's myself, I can fully understand someone's passion for them. And I really like Robinson's writing. But this book just doesn't do anything for me.

If you are old enough to remember 35mm slides you probably once sat in a living room and watched a slide show of a relative who went away for a vacation.  As exciting as the trip was for the picture-taker, it will never have the same experience for a slide-viewer who wasn't there. That's how I feel about this book. 

Robinson's friends are his friends, and no matter how well he describes them and relays the joys and sorrows they've experienced, it will never have the same impact on me, the reader, as it does on him.  And the details he provides on very specific areas in the Sierras means little to me. Even with the geological maps and photos provided.  Some areas are big, some are deep, some are windy and curvy, hiking can be treacherous and demanding and doing it with friends (and family) can be really rewarding.

I found the latter part of the book more enjoyable than the earlier portions.  Here the one is a bit more somber. Robinson the adult is reflecting more and the chapters felt more like individual essays.  

This passage probably had more impact on me than the rest of the book, when he writes about a friend who died at age 32 - another lover of the Sierras who climbed everything he could:

Pete Starr’s mom, in Berkeley, was said never to be the same after he fell and died. It must be so hard to lose a child to a game. I still find the idea repellent. Is it the hunger I saw on my friend Steve’s face that causes the disgust I feel when anyone risks their life for fun? But if climbing is some kind of condition of consciousness, then when you have it, you can’t change it.

Of course many passions and hobbies are dangerous and we know the answer when climbers are asked why they risk their lives and climb mountains ('because it's there'). "If it's in your consciousness, you can't change it." Likewise, I would argue, if it's not in your consciousness, you'll never truly understand it.

I'm not surprised Kim Stanley Robinson has written about climbing and the Sierras.  I'm more surprised that it's taken this long to do it. If you've read his books (I've read them all) you can see how climbing is important.  He nods to this near the end of the book:

Indirect influences of the Sierra are especially prominent in my Mars trilogy (1992–95). In describing the Martian landscape as if it were the high Sierra, I was really fudging it, because only by terraforming Mars could I make that cold poisonous planet into a place anything like the Sierra. Several landscape passages in Green Mars and Blue Mars, especially when Sax or Ann take walks, were lifted directly from notes I wrote while in the Sierra, sometimes specifically to put into the books. Reviewers who wrote things like “It almost seems as if Robinson has been to Mars” always made me laugh—they had seen through my method. Since that three-decker novel is still my most famous, I think it’s right to say that the Sierras have always played an important role in my fiction. How could they not? They are the spirit of the place.

This doesn't change my mind ... I'll still buy any new KSR book as soon as it comes out, but this one doesn't have the fire for this particular reader.

Looking for a good book? The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson is the authors love letter to his friends and his favorite place to spend time. It's clearly deeply personal, but it doesn't have the impact I was hoping for.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

The High Sierra: A Love Story

author: Kim Stanley Robinson

publisher: Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 9780316593014

hardcover, 560 pages