Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land
By Amy Irvine
4/5
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About this ebook
Trespass is the story of one woman's struggle to gain footing in inhospitable territory. A wilderness activist and apostate Mormon, Amy Irvine sought respite in the desert outback of southern Utah's red-rock country after her father's suicide, only to find out just how much of an interloper she was among her own people. But more than simply an exploration of personal loss, Trespass is an elegy for a dying world, for the ruin of one of our most beloved and unique desert landscapes and for our vanishing connection to it. Fearing what her father's fate might somehow portend for her, Irvine retreated into the remote recesses of the Colorado Plateau—home not only to the world's most renowned national parks but also to a rugged brand of cowboy Mormonism that stands in defiant contrast to the world at large. Her story is one of ruin and restoration, of learning to live among people who fear the wilderness the way they fear the devil and how that fear fuels an antagonism toward environmental concerns that pervades the region. At the same time, Irvine mourns her own loss of wildness and disconnection from spirituality, while ultimately discovering that the provinces of nature and faith are not as distinct as she once might have believed.
Amy Irvine
Formerly a nationally ranked competitive rock climber, Amy Irvine was for five years the development director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
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Reviews for Trespass
11 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The first two-thirds of this book is as lyrical and well-written as any book I have ever read of this southern Utah section of the Colorado Plateau. Interesting, informative, and as compelling as any Terry Tempest Williams book. Irvine will remind you repeatedly of Williams, both in her writing style and in what she chooses to write about. I always enjoy learning more about this part of the world I live in, and I mean both the natural and everyday world of the Western United States.But the last third of the book began to fall apart for me. I thought it was a little disjointed and disorganized. I had the sense of an author with a lot of material still on the desk and no clear idea of how to bring the book to a close. Later, after a bit of on-line research, I realized this part of the book was written after Irvine's struggle with with a physical illness that caused a great many problems in all aspects of her life. I think that struggle is reflected in this part of the book. This is probably not the book (at least the last third) that Irvine set out to write, but it is probably the only book she could write and still get on with her life. In any case, there is enormous tallent here, and I look forward to reading the next book by this interesting author.