Resistance

by Barry Lopez

Book Overview

From the National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams, a highly charged, stunningly original work of fiction-a passionate response to the changes shaping our country today. In nine fictional... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400042208
• ISBN13: 9781400042203
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, 1984, Resistance

Resistance, a collection of nine character sketches, begins with references to terrorism, Inland Security . . . that ensure the reader recognize the sketches as a call to vigilance, a call to assuring that the past violations of human rights / dignity / values not be repeated under the guise of protecting ourselves from terrorism. The following sketches broaden the scope to an indictment of our culture with the normal concerns of my generation - Vietnam, environment, "aboriginal" rights, religion, etc. While I share many of Lopez's concerns, I found the volume unsatisfying. First, the characters despite coming from different backgrounds and traveling different paths never develop distinct personalities. Rather, all nine characters leaving their testimonies are drawn with the same strokes. I could get more genuine differentiation by selecting nine of my friends - and get the same dissatisfaction with contemporary American culture and similar "exotic" rebellions against it. Second, the world-view, mind-set of the characters is so firmly set in the fallout of the 60's that the book never reaches the universality of the best fiction. Nonetheless, it does maintain the usual high standard of prose I associate with Lopez. Finally, with the philosophical musings of the characters in their testimonies, the volume often slides into preaching rather than showing. I much prefer Animal Farm's "all animals are equal but pigs are more equal" showing; the reader is less apt to argue back that the presentation of (Christianity, consumerism, divorce, activist art) is over simplified or biased. Nonetheless, if you are a fan of Lopez or of activist literature, this volume is worth a read.

excellent sketches

It does not try for the attainments of great literature, but this little book is well worth reading. It may remind you of Ursula K Leguin - the loving attention to various traditional ways of life, attention to how perceptions and relationships can mature a long time, then shift to a new level - if people are willing to let anything mature for a long time, in this new age of instant insights and inexorable progress. A chilling little dystopian framework holds the chapters lightly together, putting everything in an ominous light. But all the threat comes from very far away - they would be serious stories, rather than just sketches, if some of the characters themselves showed some greed or selfishness, or any of the other faults of Mordor (I mean, Washington). Like when we used to say, the battle line runs through the human heart. But, they are excellent sketches (one of the characters makes sketches), altogether a very nice addition to Lopez's work.

Irresistible Lopez in dangerous times.

If you don't have a vigilant populus, Thomas Jefferson warned, anything can happen. National Book Award-winner, Barry Lopez (ARCTIC DREAMS), understands that finding meaning in and surviving difficult times is not easy, and RESISTANCE is his provocative response to the current administration's war on terrorism and what it really means to be a patriot. With his unique insights into what it means to be human, like Jefferson, Lopez encourages his reader to "pay attention" (p. 78). In the opening piece, "Apocalypse," an American curator, Owen Daniels, living in France receives a disturbing letter from the Department of Inland Security, advising him that the government would like to interrogate and possibly punish him and his fellow writers, scholars, and artists for "terrorizing the imaginations of our fellow citizens" (p. 13) with their antidemocratic books, paintings, and performances. As a result, the group decides to simply vanish, leaving behind this collection of nine haunting testimonials opposing their country's policies on war, globalization, wealth and consumption, the environment, conformity, and political and cultural intolerance. Each of these fictional testimonials tells the story of a powerful awakening. In Rio de la Plata," Lisa Meyer, an artist and landscape architect, looks to Viktor Frankl's MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING to find meaning in her own troubled life. In "Mortise and Tenon," Gary Sinclair, a cabinetmaker, land activist, and a victim of childhood abuse, responds to a random act of violence with excessive violence. In "The Bear in the Road," Edward Larmirande, an attorney and writer, searches for meaning in the form of a grizzly bear. Nine mesmerizing monotypes by Alan Magee compliment these testimonials. RESISTANCE is Lopez at his astonishing best.G. Merritt