Xerophilia: Ecocritical Explorations in Southwestern Literature

'Xerophilia' is not an unnatural affection for copy machines. Bioregionalist ecocritic Tom Lynch uses the word to indicate an embrace of deserts -- their biotic elements and their inhabitants. Lynch plumbs a sampling of fiction and nonfiction, inviting inhabitants of verdant places to see the exotic differences of arid lands rather than thinking in simplistic terms of culturally-tinted deficits. --Todd Mercer, ForeWord, Nov./Dec., 2008 ""This highly readable volume of literary criticism is based on the hope that literature can help foster sustainable ways of living in the American Southwest... The book makes a strong case for literature's role in achieving sustainable practices without overstating it. Autobiographical reflections, narrative sections, and the inclusion of photographs taken by the author confirm Lynch's own xerophilia, a condition that readers might find themselves catching."" --The Bloomsbury Review, Vol. 29/Issue 2, Mar/Apr 2009