Gary Kern—Editorial Review, Faraway Roads

Stories of the American Desert

If there is one place that is still America ─ real America, not fake America, America as it is lived, day by day, with the burning sun overhead, a hard wind in your face and the crunching earth underfoot, where people deal with problems at hand, notice everything that crosses their path and breathe in the fragrance of sage at night, sipping tequila and never thinking of national politics, international relations or the course of human history ─ it is the raw desert of the American Southwest. The outback towns of California, Arizona, New Mexico; the drive-through collection of houses with a sign, a main street, one bar and one grill, and tumbleweed rolling past; the desolate remains of old mining settlements; the wide vistas of spiny scrub ringed by craggy mountains, where only nature lovers, coyotes and outlaws roam ─ this bleak and beautiful terrain still exists, and it has its poet. His name is Ken Wilkerson.

For many years he has explored it, lived in it and written stories about it in a style so easy to read and so much his own that it seems you are visiting the place. Every story is natural, spontaneous, yet carefully crafted; the plot moves quickly along, though perhaps not to an expected or final location. The stories are populated with his own cast of characters, appearing now in one, skipping another, and reappearing in a third, each with a healthy appetite ─ for food, booze, sex, adventure ─ and an amazing lack of restraint. His eye is sharp, his voice is quiet and his sympathy for the desert rats is evident, even as he describes their laughable crudities and ridiculous misunderstandings. Always the land, its flora and its fauna are embraced, always the highway is open and always those who would exploit the purifying wilderness are not wanted.

After reading only a few of his stories, you will find yourself remarking from time to time: "Hey, that looks like a Wilkerson town... yeah, she's a Wilkerson girl... that guy munching burgers just stepped out of a Wilkerson story..." When this happens, you know that no one else has captured the country so well. Wilkerson is a true original, the poet of the desert. May it remain as it is, and somehow hold back the drones, the robots and the imposition of false progress.

—Gary Kern is the author of the novel The Last Snow Leopard and a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Personal website or Amazon