Outside
By Barry Lopez
2014
First Published
3.71
Average Rating
118
Number of Pages
The six stories in Outside showcase Barry Lopez’s majestic talent as a fiction writer. Lopez writes in spare prose, but his narratives resonate with an uncanny power. With a reverence for our exterior and interior landscapes, these stories offer profound insight into the relationships between humans and animals, creativity and beauty, and, ultimately, life and death. Again and again, whether describing a Navajo rug possessing the essence of its maker, a boy who can change places with his half-coyote dog (named Leaves), or a teacher whose presence brings into question the meaning of friendship, Lopez portrays elemental and sacred places. His prose transcends its simplicity to enter spaces of wonder and mystery. As James Perrin Warren says in his compelling introduction, “Lopez’s narrators bear witness to extraordinary patterns and purposes . . . The storyteller is vital to the community and to a healthy landscape, but the vital relationship is also reciprocal... We participate, along with Lopez, in the long history of storytelling. We become part of the atmosphere in which wisdom shows itself.”
Avg Rating
3.71
Number of Ratings
112
5 STARS
25%
4 STARS
36%
3 STARS
29%
2 STARS
5%
1 STARS
4%
goodreads
Author
Barry Lopez
Author · 22 books
Barry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns. Lopez has been described as "the nation's premier nature writer" by the San Francisco Chronicle. In his non-fiction, he frequently examines the relationship between human culture and physical landscape, while in his fiction he addresses issues of intimacy, ethics and identity.
