Dudes and Savages: the Resonance of Yellowstone

In a book that is part memoir, part documentary and part fictional narrative, Richard Bevis follows an assortment of teenage "savages" as they descend on Yellowstone Park in 1957, looking for action (and each other) while working at a variety of jobs. Blending comedy and seriousness, *Dudes and Savages: The Resonance of Yellowstone* moves from geology to romance, from history to salesmanship, from mountain climbing to practical jokes on the hapless "dudes." The book traces the well-intentioned but blundering Mason Dixon from his setting off to his return home, and in its final chapters considers the impact that Yellowstone had on him and some other characters over the years. William Wordsworth wrote, There are in our existence spots of time, That with distinct pre-eminence retain A renovating virtue, whence... our minds Are nourished and invisibly repaired.... Mason wonders if that summer of 1957 among the bears and geysers could have been one of them.