B o o k R e v i e w s The West Side of Any Mountain: Place, Space, and Ecopoetry. By J. Scott Bryson. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2005. 156 pages, $27.95. Poets on Place: Interviews & Tales from the Road. By W. T. Pfefferle. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005. 294 pages, $21.95. Reviewed by Laurie Ricou University of British Columbia, Vancouver Following on his Ecopoetry: A Critical Introduction (2002), J. Scott Bryson’s The West Side of Any Mountain develops a definition of ecopoetry, a subgenre to be distinguished from “conventional lyrical nature poetry,” and elaborates charac teristic features of the “mode” in chapters on Wendell Berry, Joy Harjo, Mary Oliver, and W. S. Merwin (2). Bryson summarizes the defining elements of ecopoetry succinctly in his final chapter: “ecocentrism, an appreciation of wil derness, and skepticism toward hyperrationality and its resultant overreliance on technology” (121). In his preface, Bryson insists that the second criterion is consistently discovered in “deep humility” and that the third typically leads to “warning ... of potential catastrophe” (2). George W. Ackerman. FARMER READING HIS FARM PAPER. Coryell County, Texas. 1931. Photograph. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration. 33-SC-15754c. 1 9 8 W e s t e r n A m e r ic a n L i t e r a t u r e S u m m e r 2 0 0 7 Bryson presents his definition as incorporating central aspects of current ecocritical discussion, including Leonard Scigaj’s emphasis on nature as a cyclic feedback system, Laurence Buell on “human accountability,” and Patrick Murphy and David Gilcrest on the politics and ethics of crisis (2). He finds his primary theoretical framework in Yi-Fu Tuan’s conceptualizing of “space” and “place,” using it to argue that the ecopoet characteristically seeks “to create place,” par ticularly as it might be understood in its “more-than-human” dimensions, while always “valu[ing] space,” implicitly unknowable (8-9). Bryson then elaborates the interdependency of place and space, particularly the perhaps counterintuitive necessity of the latter, by testing the process of “ ‘interanimation’” adapted from Keith Basso (11), of “nostalgia” as pain from Scott Russell Sanders (15), and the notion of “ ‘inhabitation literature’” (13). Quite succinctly, Bryson combines and qualifies, providing some deft expan sion in endnotes. Since reading the book, I have several times passed it along to students who are groping for overviews, definitions, and ways of framing environmentally sensitive approaches to writing. Bryson’s helpful review of the development of ecocriticism helps them articulate their questions. “Still tentative” is how Bryson describes, parenthetically, his definition (2). Leaving aside that tentative might be a definition of defining, I suggest that the phrase might describe Bryson’s whole, slim book. I found the comment on the poets less helpful and satisfying than the accumulating layering the introduc tion might have promised. Because he defines ecopoetry primarily thematically, when Bryson gets to Oliver and Merwin his first objective is to illustrate the themes. A typical passage will announce the title of a relevant poem, summa rize its narrative, and rely, often exclusively, on quotation from the poet and her/his critics for interpretive commentary. Quite lengthy passages of poetry are left to stand without answering response from the author, are reduced to bland generalization, or are announced relentlessly as one more illustration of the place/space interdependency. Bryson’s critical strategy might be termed intelligent paraphrase. It is satisfy ing in its own right but leaves me wanting more analysis. For example, if eco poetry demands skepticism about hyperrationality, to what extent do we expect poets to earn their skepticism by attempting to read, understand, even wonder at the insights available through careful measurement and intense sustained obser vation? Further, it is after all poetry we’re after here— one of the premises of the book is that we have had much critical commentary on the nature essay but not much on ecopoems. Indeed, in the summary of ecopoetry, Bryson cites Thoreau as a primary and defining ancestor and embodier— in his nature essays. So, I wanted to know more about poetry as poetry. And Bryson shows he can give informative...