The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel

Let's agree that Ed Abbey was a "nut", perhaps I should say an eccentric, however, one thing about Abbey you can never say is that he was boring. This is essentially Abbey's "fictional" autobiography and who knows what is true and what is not. You'll have to guess. You'll see from the book that Abbey became the hardcore environmentalist as a man due to an interesting home life as a child back in Appalachia. His family made a living off the land and taught Abbey well. He adopted powerful traits from both of his parents. This book begins with the protagonist killing his refrigerator with his .357. He's upset due to his wife leaving him and he decides to pack up a few things (along with his ailing dog) and depart AZ for points east. He wants to go back home and see his brother. Not all is revealed in the beginning of the journey about his medical issues. It becomes a road trip book filled with entertaining tales of his past life and then the story slips back to the present as he and his dog head east. The book is filled with humor and plenty of homespun philosophy. Of course Abbey studied philosophy in college. Plenty of beer gets consumed. The book is entertaining and funny but it is also smart and there are touching stories about his family. I got the feeling that Abbey wanted to thank his parents and everyone else who made him into the man he became. I think this was his last novel and I enjoyed it very much. Not perfectly structured but the intelligent content and insights make up for any defects. Truly a fun book to read. Loved it.

I consider The Monkey Wrench Gang one of the greatest and most influential novels I've ever read, and found Desert Solitaire to be so compelling that it led me to put Abbey up on a sacred pedestal. However, as eager as I was to read Hayduke Lives, I remember ultimately being disappointed by it and not even making it all the way through. I must say the same almost happened with this novel, but for different reasons.If The Monkey Wrench Gang presents an amplified version of Abbey as Heyduke and Desert Solitaire shows Abbey's finest, most idealistic side, one must look at the subtitle of The Fool's Progress to get an indication of its contents. It seems to be the closest Abbey came to writing a life-spanning autobiography. (Minor spoiler alert in the next sentence): I don't purport to be an expert on Abbey's life, but the novel seems to bounce back and forth between Abbey's imagination of his end-of-life journey to visit his brother before dying of a terminal illness, which is supposed to be the plot line taking place in the present, and flashbacks that seemed to be closer to actual occurrences in his life, many of which serve to explain how his life got to such a desperate state.I've tried my hand at writing some unpublished novels, and one idea I've been knocking around is writing a work of fiction with what I've come to call a deplorable first-person narrator. Reading this novel showed me how that approach can go too far. In other words, in order for this type of narrator to be appealing to the reader, the narrator must either be so over the top in his depravity that the reader doesn't see the narrator as plausible and therefore can simply get a kick out of the antics and outlooks of the storyteller, or the narrator can buck the norms of society, but with enough rationale that we can identify with him. In the case of this book, about halfway through I came to the conclusion that Abbey had a truly nasty and macho side to him that just made him look like a jerk. I found it especially troubling since I held him in such high regard. However, after putting the book down, I found myself drawn back to it after reading a few entirely different books, and I'm glad I finished the thing.After finishing, I'd say Abbey is kind of like a friend you may have who has some amazing qualities that can also be offset by equally repulsive ones, but you still want to hang out with him, maybe after some healthy time away to forget about what you can't stand. What ultimately made the story so compelling were some of the major life events that Abbey--or at least Henry Lightcap, the narrator--experienced. While you could say he had lots of the tragedies that he faced coming, I couldn't avoid feeling moved and ultimately sorry for Abbey, or Henry, or whoever.Assigning a star rating for this book was tricky since I would say that this book continuously vacillated between being two-star and five-star writing. I did the most skimming I've ever done in a four-star book, but that's because Abbey tended to go on with extensive descriptions and lists of things that I didn't need in such detail. While I'm sure some readers (the types who love the short setting chapters in The Grapes of Wrath) love those parts, I would have loved to read an edition of this text that was edited down by a hundred pages or so. However, when he was actually telling the stories of different events in his life, it was often just as rich as the action and antics in The Monkey Wrench Gang. That said, if you've read his two staple texts and enjoyed them, I'd certainly recommend giving this one a try.

A Fool's Progress by Ed AbbyI started getting into nature writers with Bill McKibben's book Wandering Home. Mr. McKibben mentioned that Ed Abbey is a nature writer and I liked both of these books for that reason. Mostly because both of these stories take place outdoors and mostly in wilderness.In The Fool's Progress, Ed Abby takes us on a journey, by pick up truck and sleeping bag, from Tuscan, Arizona to the Appalachian foothills of Stump Creek, West Virginia (near Shawnee.)I haven't been able to find Stump Creek or Shawnee on a map but I am convinced these places really do exist (with different names) because of the way Ed Abby describes his homeland and anchor of his soul. I love how he describes these places. It is like being there. You can almost taste the food and smell the aromas of this mountain home, thick, forested, and farmed out land that Ed Abby describes nostalgically throughout this book.Vulgar at times, but it lends a hand at describing the human condition of his characters.The main character Henry Lightcap, is revealed as being a laid back sort of guy who has a hard time holding his women and work, but Mr. Abby has you wondering if some of this character's life choices aren't to blame. Henry is also a likable character who loves his dog, Solstice and Mr. Abby has you accepting Henry Lightcap, faults and all by showing Henry's love of wildlife, nature, and people as he performs his daily job routines at places like the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and the welfare office in New York City.One will appreciate the adventurous and devil-may-care spirit of Henry Lightcap.A Fool's Progress is a story about a man going home in more ways than one. The story is also about justifying happiness and not always feeling worthy of it when you do find it. That feeling that something has got to go wrong surfaces in this book as it does in real life when one is feeling true happiness.Mr. Abby gives a considerate combination and adequate amount of words to convey meaning."Solstice the dog" is never referred to as just Solstice and Ed Abby leaves enough gaps to keep the story interesting and puzzling until the end. The book rings true to life and represents man's battle with himself and nature. Some of his characters win these battles and some lose. The battle that Henry Lightcap is fighting for, primarily for a life, his health, and his soul, correlate well with his descriptions of the great wars that his characters are exposed to or fought in.This book is provocative at times. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get to the butterfly tattoo. And, I like how he describes a scene of cattle being driven to market by making a reference to the ovens of Auschwitz, Belsen, and Dachau. Ed Abby has a way of making this book very picturesque and thought provoking.Have a box of Kleenex handy for a couple bittersweet chapters near the end.

I bailed after 100 pages of this book. Its racism and sexism was just to pervasive and annoying to overlook.A sad end to his writing career.

A great read that is sure to please the Ed Abbey fan in your life. Makes a nice gift. Highly recommended.

Wonderful book!

My favourite Abbey book by a long stretch

I don't know why certain authors appeal to me but I cannot put this book down, and when I've finished I'm going to read it again !

This book reaffirms this cynic's view of life. There is a bit of Henry Holyoak Lightcap in many of us.In a moment of introspection he asks himself, " Lightcap, how can you be such a rotten obnoxious swine? After a moment's thought, I had the answer, It ain't easy ! "