Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Dear Park Ranger: Essays on Manhood, Restlessness, and the Geography of Hope

Dear Park Ranger: Essays on Manhood, Restlessness, and the Geography of Hope

Muse, Jeff Darren

Paperback

Travel GeneralNature Writing

Publisher Price: $18.95

ISBN10: 1956368523
ISBN13: 9781956368529
Publisher: Rittenhouse Book Distributors
Published: May 9 2023
Pages: 244
Weight: 0.69
Height: 0.55 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English

Throughout my life, writes Jeff Darren Muse, manhood has been a kind of topographic map. Yet it's peer pressure or social norms telling me which route to follow: Smile, Jeff, have a beer. Make babies. Make lots of money. Buy yourself a leaf blower. Hang out at parties. Lighten up.


So begins this unflinching look at a fifty-one-year-old environmental educator torn by restlessness and regret. Part Generation X travelogue, part love letter, part reflection on White male identity, Dear Park Ranger searches for purpose, companionship, a lost father, and home. Muse must break trail to find his way. From the farms and football fields of central Indiana, to snowy West Coast wildlands, from desert canyons, to meandering rivers, to a city built by slavery, he interrogates his younger years shaped by insecurity and wanderlust, as well as later choices such as marrying Ranger Paula and pursuing a tree hugger's career. The book opens in South Carolina, where Muse works as a historical interpreter at a former cotton plantation, a situation demanding not only new skills, but also discomforting awareness. Race, gender, age-all must be examined.

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