Geological jargon bogs down book

"OF ROCK AND RIVERS: Seeking a Sense of Place in the American West" by Ellen Wohl, University of California Press, $24.95 (nf)

River geomorphologist Ellen Wohl's second offering, "Of Rock and Rivers," is one-part personal narrative, one-part textbook and one-part environmental polemic.

The 240-page hardcover follows "Disconnected Rivers: Linking Rivers to Landscapes," published in 2004. "Of Rock and Rivers" traces Wohl from her childhood home in the Midwest to her young adulthood in Arizona's deserts and a post-graduate career in Colorado's Rockies.

The intricately detailed book is written in a lolling, peaceful way that made me want to further explore my own native environment. Wohl draws on both a sophisticated lexicon and a lifetime spent in the outdoors to describe everything from the Grand Canyon to desert trails and mountain streams.

In the end, Whol discovers that human societies throughout time have had major impacts on the American West. But the teacher and researcher holds out hope that future cultures will learn to live in peace with the land, even if population growth must be limited and water usage strictly curtailed. We have not been served well by legends of the West that call for conquering the wilderness in solitude, she writes.

"We can learn to define humans as an integral part of the landscape," Wohl writes in her epilogue.

"Of Rock and Rivers" is well researched, but its extensive bibliography is not linked to the text with footnotes. The book reads like a beautiful novel in the first half, but long sentences and geological jargon weigh it down in the second half. The latter half also loses touch with the story arc of a young girl experiencing her world and learning its lessons.

Rewards in store for the rare reader who finishes the book include a better understanding of the West and the ways streams and weather play into the human experience.

E-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com