The Fool's Progress

Recently, a group of my guy friends decided to form a book club. One reason: all our wives were already in one, and we felt the need to exercise our own intellects. The real reason: the NFL is over for the year, and we needed an excuse to drink beer on Sunday. (An excuse other than “it’s Sunday!”). In the abstract, I should love being part of a book club. I like reading. I like talking about what I’ve read. I like to drink. It seems a no-brainer. However – and this a big “however” [...]

Onvan : The Fool's Progress - Nevisande : Edward Abbey - ISBN : 805057919 - ISBN13 : 9780805057911 - Dar 528 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 1988

Edward Abbey is a dirty old man. Backwoods, racist, sexist, libertarian, dirty old man. I love him. I would proudly have his babies.This may be the best summary of this book ever. Really it's beautiful. Makes me homesick for the desert and the kind of rugged individualism and anti authoritarianism that Abbey represents so well. Makes me realize that coming home is a powerfully healing thing to do.

Apparently, Edward Abbey is an environmentalist whose books have been known to inspire radicals but also open up frank discussions about the treatment and protection of the western landscape. All right. That's one point of view. I can respect that.But, this was not the book to start with. I don't know if he's a great author or not, but, supposedly, this book is autobiographical and I can tell you, if it is (he's dead it's all speculative anyway) that I don't like him. Completely self-indulgent a [...]

Edward Abbey died in March of 1989. In the latter part of 1988, he saw his last and perhaps most accomplished work brought to bed at his publishers in New York. The author of many highly controversial works of fiction and non-fiction, best known for his seemingly solitary stand against the ecological destruction of the western American deserts, Abbey's last book effectively completed a cycle. At the same time it was a very close foretelling of his own probable doom.Abbey was an environmentalist [...]

This is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time."Like him I'll get shitfaced fallingdown snotflying toilet-hugging drunk. Reality management.""And why? What's my problem? Well, I have this queer thing about pretty girls: I like them. And this weird thing about steady jobs: I dont like them. I dont believe in doing work I dont want to do in order to live the way I dont want to live.""The word itself--skirt--excites im instantly. There is something about that airy garmet, he feels, that [...]

I love Abbey because he is tough nut to crack, and a hard drink to swallow. He can be downright offensive, but it's important to see his distaste is not limited to women and Mexican's but leveled fully against all participants in society not excluding his autobiographical character Henry H. Lightcap. The autobiographical nature of this novel helped me untangle a bit of the contradictory, larger-than-life image Abbey has here in the west. Reading it after Loeffler's biography was helpful. I don't [...]

This is not a review. Not yet.What I remember at the time is that this book scared the crap out of me, even as I enjoyed it. Because it showed me how out-of-sync I was with myself, my life, my sham first marriage- everything.I'm picking it up to re-read, as my life needs the shake-up this book delivered the first time, and after 13 years, it will be a different book because I'm a different person.

I was stuck for two days on Amtrak with this book and I got to page 153. The moment I stepped off the train I would have thrown it into the trash, except it was a library book.

Abbey hits all of his strengths over the course of this novel--waxing poetic about pristine landscapes, waxing poetic about women, railing against institutions and commercialismd it's all wrapped into a classic epic journey format, reverse-Kerouac style.Henry Lightcap is sarcastic and cantankerous and, in all honesty, comes across as an alcoholic misogynistic asshole, at least in the beginning of the book (when we first meet him he's shooting his refrigerator because his third wife left him agai [...]

This is an absolutely beautiful book, a meditation on life and death and everything in between as only Abbey could tell it.

Though hes racist, an idiot, and shitty towards women, some of the stuff he says is pretty damn funny and quite honest (it is an honest novel)! I enjoy his philosophical references also and his general outlook on life and political views. I disagree with a lot of his ignorant, arrogant, bigotry rants; Im not sure his point in using derogatory terms. It didnt come off as ironic or meaningful, just blatant racism. Some how he reminds sometimes of the rapist from deliverance or the creep at the loc [...]

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a long time to read it all the way through though; in classic Edward Abbey style, it is wordy with some long monologues and rants, but highly entertaining so long as you like the character. I'd say that only people who really loved Monkey Wrench Gang would enjoy this book, because that will help in understanding the main character and the writing style.Edward Abbey said that the book was loosely based on his life. It has a great premise - a man whose third [...]

The Fool's Progress is, in some ways, a synthesis of The Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire. In it, Abbey examines the relationship people have with each other and the relationship people have with nature. His acute observations and innovative descriptions create a world that is messy, mean, unfair, loving, and extremely funny - as life really is if one takes a moment to contemplate it.Of the books I read in 2016, The Fool's Progress rated near the top, but was eclipsed by Desert Solitaire, [...]

edward abbey may be america's most underappreciated writer. he is well-deserving of mention amongst our country's literary titans (whitman, emerson, thoreau, twain), and, thematically speaking, his works were as prescientort of abbey's journals (confessions of a barbarian) or his letters (postcards from ed), the fool's progess may be the most candid glimpse into his life. subtitled "an honest novel," this is still a work of fiction, but many of the events depicted mirrored abbey's own real-life [...]

Wow! A funny, emotional, thoughtful, exciting, romantic, gritty, real journey of one man's life. I had never heard of Edward Abbey until a friend recommended this book. I guess he was a bit on the extremist "radical" side - pro nature/anti industrialism type who had somewhat of a cult following in the 70's & 80's. So I wasn't sure if I would like this novel. It is now on my list as one of my all time favorites.The writing is excellent, with so many memorable lines. Also, good weaving of the [...]

I really enjoy Edward Abbey. He is an iconoclast. A real fire-breathing, truth-speaking, selfish, loving human. He takes the reader through all the emotions. This is a great book but not for the weak.

I thought this book was hilarious, which has led me to question my morals.

Semi-autobiographical. Entirely hysterical and heartbreaking all at once brings to life the old saying, 'Everywhere i go, there i am'. This is my favorite book of all time.

Absolutely Abbey's best novel. I love the Monkey Wrench stuff, but Fool's Progress takes Abbey's writing to a whole other level; a personal one. All of Abbey's work is autobiographical on some way, but this heart-wrenching and profound look at the experience of life and death is as close as he gets to true autobiography. And, yes, it's his best novel for that exact reason.

Did not finish.

Great writing about a misogynistic asshole, unredeemed.

One of the bestBeautiful writing. You need to look beyond the misogyny and misanthropic attributes of Henry and read this for its descriptions and feelings about going home.

Did not finish. Perhaps it gets better. But I don't care about the protagonist and find him despicable.

An exellent read that will be on my shelf for a long time just to be able to reread some sections and will re read in its entirety in future

I can't decide if I loved or hated Henry.

Another great road trip book to add to my list of favorites.

Not for everyone

Quite possibly the best novel I’ve read!

A middle-aged man's young wife leaves him for a college professor. With a glimpse at his own mortality, he piles his dying dog into his pick-up and embarks on a cross-country drive to visit his older brother in their Appalachian home. While he chronicles his trip, he visits old friends and reminisces on his young life."The Fool's Progress" alternates between chapters about the road trip and chapters about the writer's life leading up to the trip. During the first half of the book, the chapters a [...]