SOURCE: A review of “Fiber,” in Antioch Review, Vol. 57, No. 2, Spring, 1999, pp. 242–43.

In the following positive review, “Fiber” is presented as autobiographical fiction.

In [“Fiber,”] a mysterious edgy piece of work that reads at once as autobiography, fiction, essay, and call to arms, Bass explores the taking of logs from the forest, the essence of taking—and the essence of activism. He summarizes his life: geologist, writer, activist, and cutter of sawlogs. He warns that “Fiber” is fiction, then leads the reader on a slippery trail through the woods of his beloved Yaak Valley and his protagonist’s life, part his own, part his fantasy. He says he tries “to let the land tell me who and what I am.” And almost immediately he launches into a tale of first-phase thefts, oil from deep in the earth, then boats, a picnic table, jewelry, manhole covers, cars. “It filled...