Wild Life Paperback – September 17, 2001

I just can't believe that this is the same author who wrote the fine books, "Jump off Creek" and "The Hearts of Horses." This is such a mess of the main character's ramblings as she tries to join a group of men to find a lost child. She intersperses her journal w/quotes of famous writers about the wild and the wild things that inhabit the wilds. She discusses her desire to be a literary writer but cannot due to being a mother of twins and another older child. She is molested, possibly, in a tent w/the other men who are on the search. She gets lost and is alone for months finally joining up w/a family of monkeys, gorillas or perhaps the infamous primitive tribe that is reported to inhabit the unexplored mountainous area. I almost gave up several times as it was just not interesting and often made no sense. But I held on (and wished I hadn't.) Molly Gloss is such a fine writer, I just can't imagine where this book came from.

I'm halfway through the book and I can't take it anymore! Sasquatch? Good luck finding him in this lousy manuscript. You have a better chance of actually seeing Bigfoot in the wild yourself. Almost every page is a curse against typical family life. A soft example would be where the "writer" spends one whole page discussing the scourge of ironing. Absolute garbage. Buyer beware!

Wild Life is the second Molly Gloss novel I've read, having started with her newest, The Hearts of Horses. This book was considerably denser in its nature and construction than Hearts, filled with allusions of such a variety that it was difficult at first to know what the author intended. But somehow these seemingly randomly coupled notes and interspersed quotes from folks like Samuel Butler, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Willa Cather and others all begin to coalesce and make sense in this jumbled and sometimes surrealistic tale of Charlotte Bridger Drummond's odyssey of being lost and finally found in the dark forested mountains of the Pacific Northwest in the nearly forgotten days of the "nineteen-oughts." Filled with finely drawn descriptions of how life was lived in the logged out rugged rivertowns of 1905, Gloss begins early to incorporate mysterious references to the race of giant man-like beings that were rumored even back then to exist in the dark forests and volcanic mountain regions. Think Sasquatch, Bigfoot, folks. But this is also a story of the darkness and complexity of the human heart, which incorporates tragedies both natural and man-made - timbering accidents, drownings, and even murder occur in this complex and meandering tale, which becomes perhaps just a teensy bit tedious in its second half, with its almost endless descriptions of the beauty of the Washington and Oregon rain forests where our heroine finds herself lost. The ending though redeems these long descriptive sections, and I will certainly continue to watch for other Molly Gloss titles, and already have her earlier novel, The Jump-Off Creek, in my shopping basket. - Tim Bazzett, author of ReedCityBoy

Different read

Quite frankly, I loved Molly Gloss' _The Jump off Creek_.Quite frankly this was just about the weirdest, most schizophrenic book I have ever read. Unfortunately, I was really attracted to it; the issues of a strong minded woman living in the early 1900's, the area of interest being the northern pacific, the early logging historic period, and other fish bait that would entice many of us to turn the pages of this book. Obviously, enough of us did so as to qualify for mention...However, as much as I want to scream out in favor of this book, it equally drove me insane.I will refrain from citing the background, as that is done quite well by the previous reviewers.My review is of one quite overwhelmed. Ms. Gloss wrote a beautiful novel, she just, quite simply wrote too damn much.

As usual, Molly Gloss delivers, with something unique and unusual. She has not ever disappointed me. I can't wait for the next book. There's no repetitious story line with this author!

Having read all of Molly Gloss's previous books, I was eager for this to arrive. However, I found it bitterly disappointing.Far too many 'dropped in' quotes from other authors and too much jumping around. It perhaps could have been two books; I struggled to finish as I rarely stop once started on a book, but certainly didn't yearn to just sit and read as I had with "Jump Off Creek" never wanting that story to end.

Did not like as well as her other books.

Extraordinary mixture of nature and adventure.

This book was selected for our book group. It is heavy going although there are some good descriptione of life in the ports snd logging camps. The plot moves slowly and gets increasingly improbable. The main charcter is aggressivly feminist, although it is set in a time when feminism would'nt have been an issue.The story ends with the heroine living with some strange ape like creatures in the forests in The North West of the USA. A bit like a colony of "Big Foot".