SOURCE: Bryant, Paul T. “The Structure and Unity of Desert Solitaire.” Western American Literature 28, no. 1 (spring 1993): 3-19.

In the following essay, Bryant examines the complex structure of Desert Solitaire.

Edward Abbey was often at pains to present himself as a blunt, straightforward, uncomplicated, unsophisticated writer who simply expressed things as he saw them. A careful reader will soon discover otherwise. Writing that reveals more with each successive reading, as does Desert Solitaire, is a mark of an important writer whose work will last because the careful reader is never “finished” with it. In this book new associations of images, new structural relationships, new patterns of ideas, new allusive associations, indeed significant new meanings may emerge with each new reading.

Abbey in fact is quite sophisticated, both philosophically and artistically. He illustrates the Latin proverb, “Ars est celare artem,” art lies in concealing art. I am reminded of Harold...