Official Review: Black Sun by Edward Abbey

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Years ago I read Fire on the Mountain by Edward Abbey, but that was so long ago, I didn’t quite know what to expect from Black Sun. Being in-between books, I found that this was the only Edward Abbey they had in the library at the time, and that it was a quick read to tie me over.

In the foreword Abbey warns that with Black Sun “all of his reviewers hated it”, maybe because it was so different than the others. This is a love story straight from Abbey’s heart. Even at the end of it (after the story), friend Charles Bowden says, “All writers have three favorite books: the one they are writing, the one they will write next, and, almost always, one they wrote that puzzled others but fed some deep part of themselves.” For Abbey, his third book was Black Sun.

Black Sun has Abbey’s simple yet signature prose, like an Abbey-style Lolita. The main character Will is 37 years old and a former professor who lives at a fire lookout deep in the forest. He lives a simple, yet lonely life, out there by himself. He has one close friend, Art Ballentine, who is still a professor (and womanizer) who visits and writes to him often.

One day Will meets Sandra, a 19-yr-old virgin, who he falls in love with but won’t admit it. Sandy is the one who comes onto him, and although she’s a virgin, she isn’t completely innocent. Sandy has a fiance who lives far away, but something intrigues her about Will, and she pursues him.

In the midst of their whirlwind romance, Art is writing Will letters. The wife that Art constantly cheated on finally left him, and he continues to chase after women like it’s going out of style. As he questions the difference between love, marriage, and sex, he has no idea about WIll’s new girl.

Even though Will has a bit of an ego (he has another woman on the side who begs him to marry her), I view him as a good man- simple, wholesome, and lonely. There’s a beautiful scene when Sandy loses her virginity to Will and Abbey describes the coffeepot whistling, birds and chipmunks chirping, eating a breakfast of bacon slabs as thick as ham. It made me want to be there- snuggled in a sleeping bag in a remote cabin in the middle of a forest.

Their romance continues, and it reaches a point where sadly Will could never admit he was in love with her. Eventually, caught between Will and her fiance, Sandy disappears. Will searches the canyons, rivers, and desert for Sandy, but he never finds her. Her ghost haunts WIll like a forlorn Nick Cave song.

It’s like Abbey created himself the ideal girl for Will, but he’s doomed by not giving all of himself to her. Abbey uses lovely prose and rhythmic structure, while capturing the beautiful landscape of the West. Therefore, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.

Abbey is known as an environmental writer, but he’s more of a great American writer. His books always make me want to wander around the woods or the desert and be grateful for the solitude. Readers beware though, this short novel is somewhat graphic, but a must-read for Edward Abbey fans.