‘Wilderness’ is a look at life

"WILDERBESS"

Book review

Book: “Wilderness”

Author: Denes McIntosh

Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc., 2012, softcover, 381 pages

Cost: $18.95, ebook version $5, Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com

“Wilderness: Where One’s Inner Wilderness Meets the Natural World” is Denes McIntosh’s first novel.

“The Old Coyote,” as McIntosh, styles himself, is a songwriter, recording artist, poet and cultural blogger, but “Wilderness” is his first foray into the world of adult fiction.

In “Wilderness,” David, a 58 year old product of the ’60s, is writing a novel at “The Last Café.” His observations of the other regulars at the café offer insight into the human condition — people you want to know; people you probably already know.

When David becomes involved in a horrific situation, the moral dilemma it creates between his own altruistic character and the actions he feels he must take, cause him to explore his inner wilderness, searching for a way to make sense of it all.

There is a wide range of characters in “Wilderness,” from poetry writers and femme fatales at the café to the clients at the Center for Creative Living where David works as a counselor, to the characters in his novel who are facing their own moral and religious conflicts.

The line between reality and fiction becomes blurred when David’s actual world and the world he’s creating in his novel begin to co-mingle. He needs to resolve his moral dilemma in order to preserve his own sanity.

McIntosh, who said he is 63 going on 15 1/2, has a long song writing and recording career beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present.

The Georgetown resident is completing a new album and in the midst of publishing his first book of poetry. He’s also working on a new novel, titled “Every Man.”

“I’m really excited about this book,” said McIntosh. “Much of it takes place in El Dorado County and it’s really interesting to me.”

Locally, “Wilderness” can be purchased at Books ‘n’ Bears in El Dorado or from McIntosh’s Website theoldcoyote.com.

Wendy Schultz

Wendy Schultz has been a columnist for the Mountain Democrat since 2002 and a staff writer since 2005. She covers Placerville city events and City Council meetings, writes feature stories and reports on things of interest in El Dorado County.

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