The Disfiguration of Nature looks to have a strong thesis that readers will find challenging, whether they love or hate it. And I expect the book will find both responses, as it appears to bushwhack a new path, away from current ideas of right and left. I'm curious and looking forward to a read...when I turn in the novel!
Eric T. Freyfogle says that Krueger points back to "a much older, more respectful conservatism, one that holds high relationships, integrity, humility, and responsibility." Yet he calls what Krueger proposes a fresh cultural and moral vision. Interesting!
On Amazon, the hardcover is here. The kindle and paperback are here. On the hardcover page, you can use the "look inside" function and read some of the introduction by Freyfogle. And you can order from your local indie--the publisher is Wipf & Stock.
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"Beauty will save the world." -Solzhenitsyn
This sort of thing really intrigues me, because I live in an agricultural reserve that was set aside by prescient liberal county politicians in 1980 who saw that sprawl in the D.C. area would soon become ugly and out of control. At the same time, they used fundamentally conservative offerings—special market rights and financial incentives—to get land owners on board. The folks who fight to keep the ag reserve viable and natural are a happy coalition of conservative hunters and conservative and liberal farmers and locals. We benefit in several ways from having a large, liberal, well-funded county government—but we fill in the gaps with local volunteer organizations that for all the world look like the "little platoons" praised by ur-conservative Edmund Burke.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's fundamentally "conservative" to want to keep things the way they are—farms and parks and hunting grounds and woods—but it's also "liberal" or "progressive" (or whatever the term of art is these days) to oppose rapacious corporate development, encourage the small and the local, and not base community decisions entirely on money. People here work across ideologies (and in my experience, rarely talk about partisan politics) because most of us care about the same thing: i.e., keeping our region beautiful, natural, and functioning on an accessibly human scale.
All of which is my long-winded way of saying I'm eager to check out your friend's book.
Oh, good! He has an interesting mind and often thinks in ways that are stimulating. I shall read it also when I am done, done, done with the current ms.
DeleteI hope you write something about it, as such small press books don't get enough visibility. And you always have good things to say.
I too am detained elsewhere with a short story which has got out of control (morally and technically). However in the sense that a well-conceived cover may often lead to a quick flick through the pages, I am already half tempted by The Disfiguration of Nature. The photo is not only brilliantly cropped it gets its point across with all the power of a well-landed uppercut. When one resumes the horizontal I suspect the view is terrific. But alas those of us married to decrepitude would need the road's help to render our homage.
ReplyDeleteI promised to have this in a long time ago, but life has heavily intervened with some large problems, so I am partly my own giver of deadlines here! I simply must get it in because of other events, other commitments, other issues. I'm sure they would forgive me for more lateness, but I just don't have time in my life right now for more of that!
DeleteI'm really curious about the book! Any book that rejects everything and dives back into the past to start over sounds curious and stimulating. Glad you liked the cover! I'm sure the author would be relieved to hear that...