River of Traps

Book excerpt: A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Evans Biography Award in 1990, River of Traps is a portrait in words and photographs of three men and the mountain village in northern New Mexico that shaped their lives. It is now available in a paperback edition that maintains the oversize format and duotone printing. River of Traps is unlike any other book I know. In its brilliant verbal and photographic portrait of a complicated 'simple' man and his place in the world, it achieves an astounding richness and depth. Yet it never strays from the clear straight lines of human story - a man lives a hard good life and dies; two friends recall him. The reader who won't be moved and instructed is likely far past human reach; Tolstoy would have loved and honored it.--Reynolds Price