Desert Oracle, Volume 1

October 19, 2020
Layne (Dignity) delivers a playful potpourri of lore, obscure facts, geographic meditations, and conservationist advocacy in this eclectic collection of desert-themed essays. The author presents the desert as a home worthy of protecting and suggests it is a source of meaning. “There is purpose waiting out here, for anyone who comes in honest pursuit of it,” he writes in the introduction, and the essays that follow tell how he and others found such purpose. An empathetic essay on “wandering philosopher” Edward Abbey imagines wilderness as “a haven for outlaws,” and essays on UFOs and the Yucca Man tackle myths with humor and curiosity. Several pieces provide something of a cultural history of the American Southwest, covering the legacy of Marty Robbins’s western music, William Burroughs’s time in Los Alamos, and the cultish “Solar Lodge.” Layne concludes with a poetically pitched message to keep the desert “a wild, open landscape available for our encounters with the mysterious and the divine.” With his succinct, descriptive, narrative-driven prose, Layne creates a fascinating homage to the beauty of an often unforgiving landscape.

October 1, 2020
Mojave Desert rat Layne veers between the occult and the pedestrian in this mixed bag of essays. For a fan of arid lands, the author's heart is in the right place: He celebrates a Mojave Desert ecosystem that, though heavily gnawed at the edges, is protected such that it's the second largest desert wilderness in the world. "Out here, beyond the robotic grip of a civilization in disarray and despair, I promise you will feel human again, if only for a little while," he writes in a neo-Thoreauvian vein. Layne celebrates neighbors who live in his clime within sight of the Joshua trees of southern California, some anti-social, some criminal, some reptilian in their worship of the sun. The author is a card-carrying believer in the eldritch, writing about the "Sierra Highway Devil," a local emanation of the chupacabra; and the vast underground lakes that, miners swear, lie deep beneath the ancient beds of Death Valley. Layne also looks at the possibility of flying saucers ("When fighter jets were scrambled, the fast-moving objects vanished from the sky, only to return when the fighter jets landed for refueling") and shows his appreciation for the late Art Bell, who broadcast outlandish theories about secret hangars where felled extraterrestrial aircraft have been stored. Bell's radio show always aired late at night, when the listener would receive it in suitably eerie settings, "driving a deserted highway, or fighting insomnia, or working a graveyard shift under fluorescent lights." It's entertaining bunkum, though probably best for like-minded readers who buy assertions such as "our natural world functions as a supernatural habitat for an intelligence that has accompanied mankind since the beginning of our time." Still, such oddities are at least more original than his past-sell-date notes on such desert icons as Edward Abbey and Charlie Manson. If you're a fan of UFOs and insane heat, this is your book.

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December 1, 2020

Desert Oracle started out under the guidance of journalist Layne as a quarterly periodical collecting stories relating to the desert environment of the American Southwest. The periodical later became a radio show, podcast, and live performance, all focusing on the people and places located in the Mojave, either by accident or by design. The book version of the periodical is a field guide of sorts of the Southwest, featuring both previously published and new entries documenting life in and around the Mojave. The rugged environment attracts a certain type of outsider, and many of the essays feature desert outlaws, such as author Edward Abbey and biologist Edmund Jaeger. Cautionary tales of unprepared hikers shed further insight into the dangers of this harsh environment. UFO enthusiasts, mythical desert creatures including the Yucca Man and La Llorona, and natural history accounts of the flora and fauna found in the desert are all included in this slim volume. VERDICT Anyone contemplating a trip to the arid Southwest or wanting to learn more about the area and its natural history should pick up this collection of varied anecdotes.--Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2020
The desert is a powerful cocktail of breathtaking beauty, brutality, and mystery. Layne serves it straight-up in this collection of essays dedicated to his cherished, arid homeland. Some passages explore the harsh reality of desert life. Stories tell of dangerous creatures, extreme temperatures, and isolation that result in missing (or dead) tourists. Other essays discuss murderers, quacks, outlaws, and even cults that exploited the desert's solitude to conceal and commit their immoral deeds. Further macabre topics include local lore about UFOs; the terrifying cryptid known as the Yucca Man; and La Llorona, a grief-stricken ghost. Veering from the morbid, other pieces showcase the desert's role as muse, providing inspiration to writers, artists, and musicians like Marta Becket, William S. Burroughs, Marty Robbins, and Edward Abbey. Overall, this collection is a soulful love letter to the rugged landscape of the American Southwest. Layne implores readers to preserve and protect the enigmatic and wild desert. Reading this book is like swapping tales around the campfire under a star-filled sky. Recommended for Art Bell fans and naturalists.

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