Them: Adventures with Extremists, by Jon Ronson

Lately I've been on a bit of a Jon Ronson binge. I first read his book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed, and then worked through The Psychopath Test. Going back through his bibliography I've now gotten to Them: Adventures with Extremists.

I really like Ronson's style. I was a huge fan of Hunter S. Thompson and although it might seem a bizarre comparison, I like Ronson for the same reasons. He may be timid and neurotic and full of self-doubt - the very opposite of Thompson - but their penchant for adventure and ability to weave a narrative is inspiring.

In this outing, Ronson goes, as the title suggests, on adventures with extremists. And he's not being liberal with his use of the word "adventure." He is outed as a Jew at a jihadi training center, followed by security agents for the world's most secretive elite, and infiltrates the Bilderberg group with a pre-fame Alex Jones.

What I love about Ronson is his ability to humanize the weirdos. Not just weirdos, but people that you really, really want to hate. In this book he tackles Islamic fundamentalists, the Ku Klux Klan, and conspiracy theorists. He paints them in a sympathetic light, causing the reader to laugh gently and perhaps wonder what went wrong to make these people the way they now are.

Ronson also weaves his stories well - connecting seemingly disparate strands. In this book he connects all these extremists not by the fact that they're seemingly crazy or evil, but rather by seeing similarities in their viewpoints and following that story to its logical and, frankly, exciting finale. 

All the West that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West, by David Gessner

I am embarrassed to admit that prior to reading All the West that Remains I had never actually heard of Wallace Stegner or Edward Abbey. Somehow, in thirteen years of studying American literature, and in particular the period during which they were most active, they'd entirely slipped under my radar.
I will, however, soon rectify that during my next Kindle purchasing session. I will also be seeking out other books by the author, David Gessner, whose innovative first-person narrative style intrigued me throughout this enjoyable book.
I'm at a loss, however, in describing All the West that Remains. Indeed, one of the difficulties in deciding whether or not to buy it in the first place was the odd description:

Now, award-winning nature writer David Gessner follows the ghosts of these two remarkable writer-environmentalists from Stegner's birthplace in Saskatchewan to the site of Abbey's pilgrimages to Arches National Park in Utah, braiding their stories and asking how they speak to the lives of all those who care about the West.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. The result was more or less as the synopsis goes. Gessner travels around his native country, visiting places he'd seen as a young man, or not, and ruminates upon the lives and work of Stegner and Abbey.
I suppose it's not so complicated, yet when reading this for the longest time you're left wondering why it's written this way... Why not a straight biography of either man? Why not a straight travel journal? Why not a literary criticism comparing their work? Why not an environmentalist call-to-arms?
Well, the book is all these things, and somehow it works. Despite the wandering narrative, or perhaps because of it, it remains engaging throughout. Despite the differences between the two authors, or perhaps because of them, it provides a gripping view of these two under-rated giants of Western literature - and when I say Western I mean the American West.
Gessner portrays this land as their land - a land that inspired them, and which they worked to save. He shows the present state of the American West long after the death of both men, and speculates that they would not be surprised by water shortages and an increasing strain that is causing forest fires and untold destruction to the landscape.
On a personal level he explores his own struggle between sensible Stegner and wildman Abbey:

The question I now ask myself is whether it is possible to live responsibly, to have a Stegnerian commitment to wife and child, family and friends, while still having real wildness in my life. Is it possible to be properly wild?

He decides that we, as hairless monkeys, are still on some level wild and that's why we need the wilderness. We need to return to the wild now and then, not to make YouTube videos or upload photos to Instagram, but to have experiences because it's still very much a part of our DNA.
And these are ideas I would very much agree with.