New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo mountains are a place where two cultures -- Hispanic and Anglo -- meet. They're also the place where three men meet: William deBuys, a young writer; Alex Harris, a young photographer; and Jacobo Romero, an old farmer. When Harris and deBuys move to New Mexico in the 1970s, Romero is the neighbor who befriends them and becomes their teacher. With the tools of simple labor -- shovel and axe, irony and humor -- he shows them how to survive, even flourish, in their isolated village. A remarkable look at modern life in the mountains, "River of Traps" also magically evokes the now-vanished world in which Romero tended flocks on frontier ranges and absorbed the values of a society untouched by cash or Anglo America. His memories and wisdom, shared without sentimentality, permeate this absorbing story of three men and the place that forever shaped their lives.
New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo mountains are a place where two cultures -- Hispanic and Anglo -- meet. They're also the place where three men meet: William deBuys, a young writer; Alex Harris, a young photographer; and Jacobo Romero, an old farmer. When Harris and deBuys move to New Mexico in the 1970s, Romero is the neighbor who befriends them and becomes their teacher. With the tools of simple labor -- shovel and axe, irony and humor -- he shows them how to survive, even flourish, in their isolated village. A remarkable look at modern life in the mountains, "River of Traps" also magically evokes the now-vanished world in which Romero tended flocks on frontier ranges and absorbed the values of a society untouched by cash or Anglo America. His memories and wisdom, shared without sentimentality, permeate this absorbing story of three men and the place that forever shaped their lives.
William deBuys is a writer and conservationist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of The Walk and River of Traps, coauthored with Alex Harris, which was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and a 1990 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. DeBuys's other books are Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California, which received a Western States Book Award, Seeing Things Whole: The Essential John Wesley Powell, and A Great Aridness. His shorter work has appeared in many publications, including Story, Orion, and the New York Times Book Review.
"Anyone who wishes to know [northern New Mexico] can skip the galleries full of pink howling coyotes, stay home and read an exceptional documentary book, River of Traps."-- New York Times Book Review "On a raft of perfectly crafted sentences, the book floats through the reader's mind, buoyant and serene. DeBuys never exaggerates or sounds an awkward note, whether in tone or detail. The equilibrium of the prose reflects a genuine empathy with the subject matter . . . The book should be admired and read for a long time to come."-- Kansas City Star "An irresistibly engaging story . . . deBuys [is] a storyteller of poetic breadth with a discerning eye for subtle, sensitive associations."-- The Nation
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