A geography of saints

the long version

"A Geography of Saints is an exhilarating, deeply moving, and clear-eyed account of the author's first year caretaking a horse ranch outside Saints, Oregon. In the depths of the Reagan recession, Allen, a Portland, Oregon radical filmmaker, leaves the comforts of the city behind and moves, with her new lover, to a remote ranch in the high desert of Central Oregon. There, hard by the Metolius-Windigo trail on the edge of the national wilderness, she finds herself in the middle of diverse unfolding dramas, and a real-life modern-day range war. In language as terse as Tom McGuane, as wondrous as Rachel Carson, Penny Allen tells of challenges both natural and human: the predations of clear-cut loggers, how the cult of Rajneeshpuram took over the town of Antelope, the crucial and ceaseless importance of water on the desert, the odd security provided by a reclusive Vietnam vet "on patrol" in the forest, and the highs and lows of a love affair conducted in big sky country. With its mountains and plains setting and laconic cowgirl drawl, A Geography of Saints is not just a great western story; but a great American story."--BOOK JACKET.