Over the course of Robert Michael Pyle’s Magdalena Mountain, three characters undergo metamorphosis. For one, an Erebia magdalena butterfly, the metamorphosis is expected and follows the established course. For the other two, the humans, their metamorphoses become winding journeys as they work out who and where they are meant to be. But unlike other psychological portraits, this novel is written in a style I don’t often see anymore. Magdalena Mountain reads like something a nineteenth century scientist would write, fully of evocative descriptions in a rich vocabulary and a tendency to teleology. This book will be a delight for readers who want novels in the tradition of Edward Abbey.
At the beginning of Magdalena Mountain, it’s hard to see what connects the three characters apart from the fact that they are metamorphosing. First is a woman who suffers a horrific car accident while traveling through a pass near the eponymous mountain. Mary is sent to a hospital for indigents while she recovers from her traumatic brain injury. We then jump to a newly hatched E. magdalena as he crawls around the sparse and dangerous high alpine Colorado mountains. Lastly, we meet James Mead, who has just begun doctoral work as an entomologist at Yale. As the novel evolves (heh), the name Magdalena appears over and over again, linking the characters. Mead is fascinated by E. magdalena. Mary escapes from the hospital to go back to Magdalena Mountain, where we eventually learn about her connection to the name.
(Image via BugGuide)
Magdalena Mountain is a slow simmer of a book, until it hits a full boil at the end. For Erebia, the butterfly we follow around the alpine zone of the mountain, the drive to pass on his genes and avoid getting eaten or frozen grows more urgent as the summer of 1974 comes to a close. Mead’s story is amusingly (to me) similar to Erebia’s as he finds love and purpose. Mary’s plotline was the most interesting to me, as she falls in with a curious band of natural philosophers with pseudonyms and tangles with a vehemently misogynist former monk. But then, I prefer more action-heavy stories and/or psychological portraits.
In addition to the characters’ metamorphoses, Magdalena Mountain transforms, too. The first part of the book is about the natural world and how some humans chose to be close to it. But in the latter part, the general focus shifts to conservation and environmentalism (while all the other things are going on). The first part establishes the delicacy of the ecosystem, so that we know what the stakes are when activists, scientists, and others start to fight to preserve the mountain’s fragile balance. To be honest, the human characters get a bit lost in all this until Mary’s plot hits its climax.
Magdalena Mountain is a book to wallow in, to read slowly. As I read the chapters that follow Erebia around his habitat, I could clearly see the landscape in my mind’s eye it’s so thoroughly described. Readers who like to read about humans (like me, for the most part) might get a little frustrated with the slow pace of the first three-quarters. Readers who like to read about the natural world, however, will have a field day (heh heh) with this book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration. It will be released 21 August 2018.
This is intriguing! He’s also written a book about bigfoot??