Best known today for his nature classic Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez showed off his prodigious gifts in this slim volume of short stories that came out five years earlier. Set principally in the wide open spaces of the American West, in the badlands of Wyoming and Montana and the Dakotas where only the ghosts of long-gone Indians now roam, these stories reveal Lopez as a master of mood and meditative language. Contemporary reviews likened his prose to pointillist paintings, to fine watercolours. Indeed it most reminded me of oriental art, the quiet elegance and sensitive details of a Japanese woodcut or a Chinese landscape. Just as spare, just as evanescent.Many of the stories deal with Indian myths, of rivers that vanish and herds of ghostly white buffalo that live up barren mountains. In the intensity of his connection to the West, in the efficacy of his evocation of that infinite landscape, Lopez is every bit as good as an Ed Abbey or a Kent Haruf or a Philip Connors. And yet there is a very strong debt, conscious or unconscious I don't know, to none other than Borges. A few weeks ago I was reading Danilo Kis who channelled the Argentine master so effectively in his short stories that you could dub him the Borges of the Balkans without much exaggeration. And here suddenly is Barry Lopez doing much the same thing - but in a different continent, in a different century! In stories like Restoration, Buffalo and especially The Location of the River, the shadow of the blind old man looms large. Other stories I liked are Winter Herons (a westerner marooned in Manhattan), and the title story, set in an academic conference in New Orleans, and the closest the author comes to a manifesto. All in all, an excellent find. Next stop has to be Arctic Dreams!
Nine short - but well wound stories weaving myth, fairy-tale, nature and Native American culture into the mix. It felt like a good old western meeting up with Charles de Lint or Neil Gaiman. Lopez touches repeatedly on a likable notion: that the way North America's natural world has been documented and cataloged needs to be reexamined. Instead of allowing the standing European explorers/exploiters attempts to align everything found on this continent with the outline they brought from home - something is gained and improved upon if this natural world is given a fresh treatment and recorded through the eyes of the men that are innately a part of this environment. Lopez also acknowledges that is pretty much too late and very unlikely to happen. But - his story gives the thought a spark. It's full of sparking poetry: "The other years came round him now like soft velvet noses of horses touching his arms in the dark." - "1833 Stars blowing around like snow. Some fall to earth." - “You can only tell the story as it was given to you … Do not lie. Do not make it up.” - “It is too dangerous for everyone to have the same story. The same things do not happen to everyone." I am not here to test the historical accuracy of each of his inclusions - this is a work of fiction. Lopez's words give the mind a lot of room to imagine the world differently.
What do You think about Winter Count (1999)?
A collection of beautiful, simple and elegantly written stories. Memorable characters that have some incredibly compelling, but often very subtle connection to nature--sometimes a place, an animal, a landscape, or time in natural history. These are the elements that tie the stories together into a collection, and add richness to each story without being the driving force. The author has quite a sense of humor. Several of the stories have a hilarious little twist at the end, or cleverly razz the reader throughout (esp. "A Love of Words").
—meghan
I discovered _Of Wolves and Men_ in high school, and read it until I could quote long passages. When I saw this little book by Lopez, I had to pick it up. _Winter Count_ is a book of essays that read like prose poetry. It is about American Indians and loss and mystery. Some of the essays are better than others, and some are kind of obtuse, but in the end, it does have coherent themes that hang together. Something typical: I was going to criticize the author because he mentions lying on the beach on Sanibell Island in Florida and seeing a flock of flamingos pass overhead. I live in Florida, and we do not have wild flamingos. I thought, "Surely he meant roseate spoonbills, and what a mistake from a naturalist!" But then I looked it up, and apparently we once had wild flamingos in South Florida. They're just extinct. Heh. Classic Barry Lopez.This book is perfect for the sort of thing it is. However, it's not a story-book. If you don't like poems or essays, this book isn't for you. If you don't mind puzzling over what you read, then you may enjoy it.
—Abigail Hilton
My good friend Paul recommended this book to me. Because he described Barry Lopez as a naturalist writer I initially expected this book to be completely non-fictional. Boy was I wrong! After getting involved in the stories I was shocked at the supernatural twists and turns they took. However, once I got used to this unexpected formula I found that I really enjoyed the stories. They possess a character and flair that I don't think I've ever seen before. The stories were very captivating. A couple of them were a bit slow, but still pretty interesting. I actually read this book while in the Eastern Caribbean. I found that my unusual setting added to the spirit of the stories. My favorite stories in the book were Buffalo and The Orrery. So fascinating!
—Jason
