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• I found this book engaging, erudite, enthralling and inspiring. And it is fun to read, though you may want to take it in doses, as each reading will leave you wanting to pause and think a bit, perhaps even dream. Yes, this book is visionary, and way cool. Do your self a favor and buy and read this great book. It even inspired me to write this poem about it before I finished reading the last section. The Epilogue to Eternity by the Stars For Ben Ehrenreich, author of Desert Notebooks (After Seamus Heaney) I’ll read it then, after this happens Or perhaps before As it could have happened Many times All of them later or prior To this ever/ never now. Louis Auguste Blanqui Could not have known Yet knew He would die on the New Year And lie among his comrade Communards Who rose like dry-land wheat-sheaves Up from their graves, Ever to rise again Ever rise again. --Bill Nevins, August 24 2020

• I don’t believe I have ever read a book like Desert Notebooks before. It is part memoir and part meditation on a range of moral, philosophical, political, historical, sociological, and ontological topics. The book is about, among other things, the desert, creosote bushes, Native American history, language, time, creation myths, owls, Christianity, capitalism, the hegemony of European civilization, climate change, progress or its illusion, barbarism, Las Vegas, and of course, Trump, who is referred to in the book as the Rhino. The book reminded me of the work of English philosopher John Gray, who has written similarly structured books, which is to say not very structured books, about the false belief in the inevitability of human progress inherent in western humanistic and liberal thought, and the idea that history is much more cyclical than linear. Ben Ehrenreich is a superb writer. As someone who lives in and loves the Sonoran Desert, I found his descriptions of the desert to be beguiling (“[i]t shrinks you and puts eternity in the foreground…if you are open to it, and don’t mind a diminished role in this drama, it insists, quietly, on the surging beauty of all things and non-things living and dead and not-formally-alive”). I share his love for the smell of the wet creosote bush. But the book is only minimally about the desert, except to the extent the desert may be seen as a constant symbol of man’s essential and inevitable subservience to nature, despite his best efforts to assert dominance over something that will always be larger, wiser, and more powerful than he is. Ehrenreich is an iconoclast and a severe critic of America and western civilization generally. I am personally receptive to the kind of intense re-examination of received truths in which he engages. Our American society needs much more self-examination and skepticism about the sources and effects our own myths and what the continued prosecution of the American project is doing to the world and its inhabitants. In the end this is not a hopeful book but it is a book that expresses urgency. One senses that Ehrenreich holds out little hope for some kind of redemption for America and at times he expresses the view that we are well past the point where redemption is even possible. Nonetheless, he can still locate in nature a kind of wisdom that is vanishingly rare in human society. This book is most definitely not for everyone and I can imagine those of a conservative political orientation would find it quite distasteful. At times Ehrenreich seems too angry and even righteous. I sometimes felt that what seemed like disgust with his own culture detracted from the importance of his message and the brilliance of his writing. This is not to say that there isn't much in our history to be angry about, only that tone can affect the ability of a reader to absorb content, particularly when it challenges orthodoxy. If you can manage Ehrenreich's intensity, are not of an overly reflexive conservative bent, and can tolerate the often arcane subjects and discursive style of the book, you should find it rewarding. I did.

• Ehrenreich has written the deepest and most important book of the year. It is an amazing collection of musings, history, philosophy,and myth all tied up in a deeply spiritual work of art. Must reading for any citizen of this planet.

• Somehow, from the NYT review, I was expecting something of more depth and insight. It was okay, rather forgettable.

• A very informative book that gave me insights into several different cultures. Mythology was woven throughout, giving color to people and the times they lived. I highly recommend this book and I purchased it as a gift for some of the pickier readers I know. Enjoy!

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