Colton lovesall things Wyoming: horses, hunting, pick-up trucks and camping out. But all too soon it is time to grow up and, against his wife's wishes, he joins a crew of roughnecks on the oil rigs. Here he discovers the new and unkind greed that has possessed his beloved home during this latest mineral boom. Tragedy seems inevitable.

A beautifully written true story of a modern day cowboy.

Mailed this to a friend in UK as a surprise, hope she likes it as much as I did.

Hello! I got this in the post today and was thriller. Not only is it nice to get surprises, but I have been wanting to read this book for a while =)

I really enjoyed this book - read it already - so no disappointments yet from Alexandra Fuller's writing =) I've read her first two books about Africa, and they were really good.
So this is a memoir of a guy from Wyoming, where Fuller now lives with her husband. She really recreates the male culture and the tough environment of the landscape - it's very like Annie Proulx. Although in this case it's not fiction, but someone's actual life.
Colton died in his twenties in 2006 I think it was. A modern day cowboy I suppose - I love these expressions they used, like "Cowboy Up" - basically stiff upper lip! in cowboy-speak. His dad was just great. So Colton grows up with his close circle of friends, not academically bright, he then feels that he's "oil field trash" as he puts it, and works on the rigs. And if he thinks he's trash, then the oil companies definately think so. So concerned with keeping the work running fast 24/7, they make the men work long shifts (regardless of the fact that they're working with dangerous machinery and could really do with their wits about them), skip a lot of safety courses they should run, don't enforce H&S rules at the work place, don't even have safety railings on the rigs. All the men are employed on some kind of freelance temp basis - so there are no holidays, sick pay, compassionate leave etc etc (keeping costs down). The oil companies are making hundreds of millions a quarter, and yet as Fuller points out in pretty much the last sentance in this book, the missing safety rails that may well have saved Colton's life would have cost two thousand dollars to fit. And as Colton lies dying in hospital, they send out a representative to let them know they'll help with the funeral costs (nothing beyond that) as long as they can take blood and urine samples from the dying mangled man, because if they find anything in those, they won't give a penny. The disregard for human life, the landscape they're tearing up for this oil and so on is just disgusting. And it's nuts to think this is the USA - which promotes itself as land of the free, the most developed nation, that will invade other countries on the pretext of what the leaders are doing to their people, and yet they allow their own citizens to be treated like this! It brings to mind a really good film I saw earlier this year - H2Oil - it's a documentary about Oil in Canada. Makes your blood boil for the same reason.

And whats it all for? Money? So a few fat executives can buy themselves million dollar mansions and drive expensive cars? I hope it's worth it.

I am going to take this to the York Bookcrossers meet up this coming Tuesday evening.

I utterly fell in love with this book and the character of Colton. Once I'd finished (and dried my eyes) I wanted to know more about the real Colton - I'd have loved to see a photo of him. The author has obviously taken some licence with his story, but I didn't mind that - it felt like a poem in places - yes we couldn't know what Colton said exactly, but she puts words in his mouth.

Heartbreakingly beautiful

To be released at the monthly York Bookcrossing Meetup.

With OpheliaPhillips and Chuggypig selling this as strongly as they did last night, how could I resist?

Sorry to say I never got around to reading this, so giving someone else a shot at it - I'm sure it'll come round again!