Chris F. (BookLynx) -
From the cover:
John Brandi's rambles into the unexpected nooks and crannies of the West resulted in these well drawn essays, capturing it's empty landscapes and eccentric, but always fascinating, populace. His writing - hailed by novelist John Nichols, as a "bittersweet, hardass, heartfelt swan song to the disappearing vestiges of a more truthful way of life" - celebrates maverick New Mexico cowboys, Hopi mesa dwellers, iconoclast truckers, Mexican folk artists, Hispanic curanderas, fellow poets, and hardscrabble wanderers of slickrock and sage. Through them the mystery of the West, and the refined vision that accompanies solitude, is brought into focus.
Brandi describes the wild, open spaces, while opening paths inaccessible to the uninitiated, to the abodes of desert dwellers. "Reflections in the Lizard's Eye" is straightforward and stunning, full of beauty and wisdom - a welcome companion in one's backpack and library for lovers of good literature and armchair travel.
Published by Western Edge Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2000; trade paperback, 190 pp.
John Brandi's rambles into the unexpected nooks and crannies of the West resulted in these well drawn essays, capturing it's empty landscapes and eccentric, but always fascinating, populace. His writing - hailed by novelist John Nichols, as a "bittersweet, hardass, heartfelt swan song to the disappearing vestiges of a more truthful way of life" - celebrates maverick New Mexico cowboys, Hopi mesa dwellers, iconoclast truckers, Mexican folk artists, Hispanic curanderas, fellow poets, and hardscrabble wanderers of slickrock and sage. Through them the mystery of the West, and the refined vision that accompanies solitude, is brought into focus.
Brandi describes the wild, open spaces, while opening paths inaccessible to the uninitiated, to the abodes of desert dwellers. "Reflections in the Lizard's Eye" is straightforward and stunning, full of beauty and wisdom - a welcome companion in one's backpack and library for lovers of good literature and armchair travel.
Published by Western Edge Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2000; trade paperback, 190 pp.
