SOURCE: A review of “Fiber,” in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. 66, No. 15, August 1, 1998, p. 1067.

The review that follows presents “Fiber” as another of Bass's repeated attempts at advocating conservation of American wilderness.

[“Fiber”] is the first separate publication of a fierce plea for the preservation of nature, in the guise of a short story, originally published in the anthology Off the Beaten Path: Stories of Place (not reviewed). The themes raised here will come as no surprise to fans of Bass’s work as a novelist (Where the Sea Used to Be, p. 510, etc.) and essayist (The Book of Yaak, 1996, etc.); wild nature still offers, for those willing to seek it, a “blessed landscape,” diverse and instructive beauty, and a reanimating strength. The protagonist of the tale lives (as does Bass) in the Yaak Valley of northwestern Montana, a region still largely wild but also profoundly endangered by logging and...