SOURCE: A review of The Book of Yaak, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. 64, No. 18, September 15, 1996, p. 1364.

The review below presents a positive assessment of The Book of Yaak, praising its exaltation of the inspirational forces of nature.

[The Book of Yaak is] an urgent plea by a longtime resident to preserve one of the lower 48’s remaining wilderness areas.

Nestled where Idaho, Montana, and Alberta, Canada, meet, the Yaak Valley—the name means “arrow” in Kootenai—is a treasure vault of old-growth pine, spruce, and Douglas fir. It is also a prime target for the logging industry, which now seeks to open the Yaak to clearcut logging. Bass (The Lost Grizzlies, 1995, etc.) is scandalized by this possibility, especially inasmuch as the US Forest Service subsidizes such logging “to the tune of one or two billion dollars per decade” and “timber companies working on public lands in the West continue...