The linearly minded critic might wish to encompass the arc of Barry Lopez's oeuvre chronologically, in which case one would begin with Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven, which appeared in 1976, and continue through to his most recent work, Light Action in the Caribbean: Stories (2000). Others might attempt to fix him by genre: the frontispiece of his latest book lists his previous work as nonfiction, fiction, and essays. It does not mention that all these pieces seem to cross the boundaries of genre and also include the collection of American Indian myths Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter: Coyote Builds North America (1977) and the illustrated young-adult works Crow and Weasel (1990) and Lessons from the Wolverine (1997). Within the context of the human relationship to landscape that pervades Lopez's body of work two more subtle themes emerge--the sense of mystery that he illuminates without damaging...