SOURCE: A review of Winter: Notes from Montana, in Western American Literature, Vol. 27, No. 2, Summer, 1992, pp. 153–54.

In the following favorable review of Winter: Notes from Montana, Long examines Bass's work as a contemplation of human civilization juxtaposed with nature.

“It’s easier to learn certain things when you’re watching them occur in slow motion.” Thus Rick Bass assesses his winter learning in the Yaak valley of Montana which he describes unsystematically in these journal notes dealing with isolation and community, snow and fuel.

Fuel is not a new interest for Bass. His 1989 Oil Notes is in substantially the same journal form and deals with the search for underground reservoirs of oil and gas; it reflects his career as a petroleum geologist in the South. In Winter, most of the search is above ground and the fuel which fascinates is wood, especially the giant larch whose interior is...