Lasso the Wind

Away to the New West

By: Timothy Egan

Narrated by: John McLain

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Winner of the Mountains and Plains Book Seller's Association Award

"They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it," writes Timothy Egan of the West; still, "this region's hold on the American character has never seemed stronger." In this colorful and revealing journey through the eleven states west of the 100th meridian, Egan, a third-generation westerner, evokes a lovely and troubled country where land is religion and the holy war between preservers and possessors never ends.

Egan leads us on an unconventional, freewheeling tour: from America's oldest continuously inhabited community, the Ancoma Pueblo in New Mexico, to the high kitsch of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone; from the fragile beauty of Idaho's Bitterroot Range to the gross excess of Las Vegas, a city built as though in defiance of its arid environment. In a unique blend of travel writing, historical reflection, and passionate polemic, Egan has produced a moving study of the West: how it became what it is, and where it is going.

©1998 Timothy P. Egan (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Sprawling in scope.... Mr. Egan uses the past powerfully to explain and give dimension to the present." ( The New York Times)

"Fine reportage... honed and polished until it reads more like literature than journalism." ( Los Angeles Times)

Worth the listen except for ...

This is a good and important story. But I was surprised he did not cover anything going in the Seattle area. I've been a fan of Eagan but like others here this narrator just did not seem a good, quite a few mispronunciations and his cowboy demeanor seemed out of place even though it was about the west.

Engaging

Love Timothy Egan's work. well researched and easy to digest. Great way to hear history come alive.

Stereotypical Cowboy Voice

The narrator seemed to put on a "cowboy" voice and lilt which I found annoying. Several Native words were mispronounced,thos discredited the narrator to me.
The book itself was good, but very outdated. It is a book about the "new" West but it's nearly 30 years old. Nevertheless, it is extremely interesting. I really liked the one chapter, one city format.

Worst Narrator Ever

written as a loose history of the American West. Well crafted by Tim Eagan as usual. I hated the narrator. will never listen to another of this narrators books.

Narrator mispronounces everything

Narrator can't pronounce Spanish words or place names and recites in a semi-monotone. Like all Timothy Egan books, this combines geography, history and personalities of locals wonderfully. But if you wince, like me, at someone mispronouncing every Spanish is weird, including Senor, the name of towns written about, and most western place names, read this book.

Don't eat that burger!

A spectacular rolling account peppered with brilliant story and ascerbic observation. Egan knows the West in all its natural beauty and corrupt politics. It is a primer in what went wrong, and what continues to be a failed vision of the West.

Brilliant.

What a pompous know nothing!

Despite the credentials, the author is apparently quite proud of his knowledge of natural resources, particularly with regard to the timber, or grazing industry, is ridiculously superficial. Only those in the environmental movement, who have found cushy jobs where they are paid extravagantly for creating emergencies out of nothing, and spend their time crying that the sky is falling would agree with his conclusions. On top of that his efforts to belittle and malign the local people tell me he is not a very nice person in the first place, and apparently a lot of arrogance spends most of his time, telling others how to run their lives when he has few clues on how to accomplish anything dealing with natural resources or life in general apparently. This book is a waste of time and paper. Can you put the

As poor as it comes

This author must think that inaccuracies and ignorance is funny, it is not.
The narrator miss pronounced about every place and tribal name.

This book is junk