cover image Silhouette on a Wide Land

Silhouette on a Wide Land

Alan S. Kesselheim. Fulcrum Group, $19.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-55591-092-1

Flat, dry and lonesome, eastern Colorado is one of America's least examined regions. During a recent year, Kesselheim (Water and Sky) worked on a ranch there, living alone six miles from the nearest neighbors, tending cattle, mending fences and performing odd jobs for an absentee landlord. Although alien to such barren lands and inexperienced in this line of work, college-educated Kesselheim found the seemingly empty environs growing on him, but never enough to prompt him to plunk down roots. In this evocative account of that year on the High Plains range, he vividly captures the tedium, the few joys and the continual hardships of living on the unforgiving soil, and recalls a two-day blizzard and its devastating effects on his psyche and his wallet. (Sept.)