I am a huge fan of Edward Abbey, owning nearly every one of his books in first edition, many signed, as well as a very liberal dose of ephemera associated w/ the author. This was a ridiculous book, absolutely ridiculous. Prentiss is a 'writer' (a teacher of the art of writing, actually) and this book has project written all over it. His hero worship of Abbey borders on the asinine as he multiple times talks about how he and Abbey would be the best of buddies if Abbey was still alive. I find it hard to believe that Abbey would be caught in the same state as the author. I strongly suspect that Abbey's buds were just being nice to him over and over again as they told him how cool he was (and then he has the audacity to put this in his book!). The guy is/was looking for a woman to help him create a home, which by the end of the book he finds in the northeast. The one redeeming factor in the book was his search for Abbey's grave, although again, I kept wondering "Why?". Possibly the worst Abbey book I've yet to encounter.... ( )