cover image A VIEW FROM THE INLAND NORTHWEST

A VIEW FROM THE INLAND NORTHWEST

Stephen J. Lyons, . . Globe Pequot, $16.95 (204pp) ISBN 978-0-7627-3052-0

This brief, meditative essay collection describes the land and inhabitants of an often overlooked area of the West: between the Cascade and Rocky Mountains, centering where Pullman, Wash., meets Moscow, Idaho. Lyons (Landscape of the Heart ), a transplant who's observed this region for more than 25 years, writes with great feeling for daily life there, covering his own habits and haunts and keenly observing the movements of others, both animal and human. Even in this rural region, the pressures of development and increasing population are ever-present and hotly contested, as seen in Lyons's reports from a local government meeting that pits farming landowners against environmentalist folk associated with the local university. Amid this tumult sits Ben Benthien, county chaplain, whose wide-ranging beat includes helping the police department inform relatives of the victims of frequent highway accidents and serving as pastor of a dwindling church. Lyons rode with Benthien sporadically for most of a year, and the stories of the everyday grief the two encountered are moving. Lyons isn't misty-eyed about the wide open spaces and their future, though he is sheepish at the thought of telling friends he and his wife might move "back East," a decision that becomes final at book's end as he ventures back to Illinois, full of questions about what the West has meant to and for him. (Sept.)