Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch - Hardcover

O'Brien, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375503250 ISBN 13: 9780375503252

Publisher: Random House, 2001

Synopsis

For twenty years, Dan O’Brien battled drought, overgrazed pastures, and falling cattle prices as he struggled to maintain his cattle ranch, The Broken Heart, nestled at the foot of South Dakota's Black Hills. Having to take stints as an endangered species biologist, English teacher, and handyman to help pay off his accumulating debts, he questioned the logic of this losing enterprise, but never lost his fierce love of the Great Plains. So when a neighboring buffalo rancher invites him to lend a hand at the annual buffalo roundup, O’Brien comes face to face with these mammoth, impressive creatures, and the seeds are planted for converting his own ranch from cattle to buffalo. Starting with thirteen calves, "short-necked, golden balls of wool," O’Brien embarks on a journey that returns buffalo to his land for the first time in more than a century and a half.

In BUFFALO FOR THE BROKEN HEART, Dan O’Brien, a writer possessed of “a keen and poetic eye” (The New York Times Book Review), ranges freely under the big western sky, bringing the Great Plains to life in clear and vibrant prose. Whether he’s describing the grazing pattern of the buffalo (moving quickly from one pasture to another, thereby maintaining the diversity of the grasses), the ancient thrill of watching a falcon hone in on its prey, or the comical spectacle of a buffalo bull wallowing in the mud, O’Brien brings together a novelist’s eye for detail with an ecologist’s understanding to create an entertaining and enriching narrative.

At once a heartfelt account of his struggles at the Broken Heart, a short history of the buffalo and its near extinction, and an engaging lesson in wildlife ecology, BUFFALO FOR THE BROKEN HEART illustrates the power of a dream and how life becomes infinitely richer when we dare to follow one. This is Dan O’Brien’s greatest achievement to date, placing him firmly in the canon of other great writers on nature such as Annie Dillard and Peter Matthiessen.

About this title

Review:

Some 20 years ago, Dan O'Brien, intoxicated by the Black Hills region of South Dakota, purchased the Broken Heart Ranch and began running cattle on more than a thousand acres. Though the decision ultimately cost him his marriage and, at times, his peace of mind, he feels a connection to the land and the lifestyle that continues to justify the decision. When necessary, he has even worked as an endangered-species biologist or English teacher in order to support his ranching habit. His engaging book, Buffalo for the Broken Heart, details both the rebirth of his ranch as well as himself.

"Desperate to rediscover purpose" in his life and disillusioned with working like a serf for the bank while supporting cows--those lumbering, small-brained icons of the plains that O'Brien describes as "a sort of reverse beast of burden. I was carrying them!"--he made a snap decision one day in January 1998 to take in 13 orphaned buffalo calves from a fellow rancher. Later, after much soul searching and contemplation of both practical and emotional matters, he decided to jump headlong into buffalo ranching. He expected differences between the two animals, of course, but was pleasantly surprised by the buffalo's self-sufficiency. Since buffalo are native to the plains, they are much gentler on the land and are able to find most of their own food and water. Plus, their meat is healthier than beef (and delicious to boot), and buffalo do not need the heavy doses of antibiotics, steroids, and hormones that cattle require--a process O'Brien likens to "locking children in a room with ice cream and potato chips and treating the health problems that result with expensive medicine."

O'Brien is a splendid storyteller, and his narrative is a skillful weave of the history of the buffalo on the Great Plains, colorful portraits of fellow ranchers, descriptions of the plains' rugged beauty, and a clear-eyed account of the harsh realities of ranching in this unforgiving landscape. --Shawn Carkonen

From the Back Cover:

"A wonderful book. Artful, lucid, down-to-earth, poetic, and entertaining, BUFFALO FOR THE BROKEN HEART is a tale told with uncommon gentleness, decency, and discretion, much humor, and real wisdom. There's enough sorrow to break your heart, and enough joy to mend it again. A classic."
—John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War

"This book is a phoenix, a thing of beauty rising from the ashes of loss. In this story of one ranch, Dan O'Brien tells us important things about the world we live in, and what it means to risk doing the right thing."
—Kathleen Norris, author of The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace

Other praise for Dan O'Brien:

"Dan O'Brien's BUFFALO FOR THE BROKEN HEART at first appears to be an agrarian fable on the high order of James Galvin's THE MEADOW. But then O'Brien picks up the energy, and his urgent, desperate attempts to save his ranch explode on the page. I was carried away by O'Brien's intense familiarity with his beautifully-rendered western landscape and the drive entailed in his turning his life around by his attention to an ancient beast."
—Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0375503250
• ISBN 13: 9780375503252
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272