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| The Loop | 
| Author: Nicholas Evans
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $25.94 (100%)
New (70) Collectible (35) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  209 reviews
Sales Rank: 583845
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 434
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 038531700X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385317009
ASIN: 038531700X
Publication Date: September 8, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
interesting mix of fact and fiction April 19, 2008
This is interesting, especially now that Bush has stated a desire to once again kill off wolves that have been reintroduced. This book gives me a desire to visit this area. Living in the Northeast the ranching world is so different from what I am used to.
This book was not very deep but it was interesting and I got involved in the story.
 good but so sad April 14, 2008
This is a good book but so sad. Almost sad enough to say that I didn't like it. But I did like it but being a wolf lover it was so hard to read. It's so sad to know that there are people that would really want to destroy wolves.
Captivating Wilderness Adventure October 11, 2006
Helen Ross is a wolf biologist that is called in to track and tag several wolves near an area of Hope, Montana. Dealing with her own inner demons (dumped by her boyfriend who ran away to volunteer in Africa, torn that her father is marrying a younger woman)
Evans brings a great cast of characters into the world of Hope. Anti-wolf rancher (and aged romantic rogue) Buck Calder and his introverted 18 year old stuttering Luke.
These characters are set against the current controversy about reintroducing wolves into the West.
I could *feel* the Montana wilderness in Evans prose. The characters all had depth, even the 'villans.' Scenes are well detailed and pictured.
You will get lost in this book. I have already lent it out.
Highly recommended.
Excellent story! Well-crafted in all ways-very detailed! A++ September 13, 2006
This is a must-read, and also I found it very educational as well about the lives of wolves.
The story begins with Helen Ross, just turning 29 years old and is a wolf biologist. She has a sister Celia who is married, and Helen herself is on the verge of a big break-up with Joel, her current lover. Her father who is divorced from her mom, is 56-years-old, and fell madly in love with a young woman of only 25 years of age. Helen is livid about this whole situation, and can't see having a stepmom younger than she is.
When Helen's new assignment comes up, of traveling to Montana to tag and collar the wolves, she gladly accepts it along with her colleague Dan Prior. She is assigned to stay in a cabin while completing her assignment of tracking the wolves, and there on that ranch meets up with Buck Calder, of whom is nothing but a womanizer and anxious to get rid of the wolves, along with Abe Harding, a very sadistic man, and Lovelace, who created what is called, the "loop," where the wolves are trapped by a method of ensnaring them so that they die. This is against the law in Montana. But since the ranchers are tired of these wolves killing their farm animals, they will stop at nothing to put an end to it-and even the collared ones-which when killed leave a track back to Helen. There are neighborhood fights over this during the whole book, and Abe Harding gets sentenced to jail for a long time. Lovelace hasn't yet been discovered-at least not until later on.
Buck Calder is very sadistic-especially with Luke, his 18-year-old-son with a severe stuttering problem. He and his wife Eleanor tragically lost his favored son Henry in a car accident with his grandfather, and Henry always came up on the short end of the stick. Buck is also having affairs with Ruth, Helen's friend, along with other women. Eleanor knows about this secretly.
Helen and Luke form a very special bond in the story, and the two actually fall in love. But of course, since Luke is only 18, this is cause for a lot of talk within their community there. He is her partner in wolving, and reguardless of what anyone else says, their relationship continues. Luke's father though, confronts him with it at the supper table one night, and Luke stands up to his dad for the first time ever. He is kicked out of the house, but then at that point, Eleanor is sick and tired of Buck's abuse and unfaithfulness, and leaves with her son too. Eleanor is totally on Luke's side, and though there is a difference in age of course between Helen and Luke, she completely supports their romantic intentions.
I highly recommend this book, and found it hard to lay down.
Beautiful, Breathtaking, and Heartwrenching. August 8, 2006
Nicholas Evans has more than redeemed himself with this novel as I hated the Horse Whisperer. This book involves a likeable protagonist in Helen Ross who is a wolf biologist that gets called by her exboyfriend to help him save endangered wolves in Hope, Montana, and she finds more adventure and danger than she'd ever anticipated in her wildest dreams.
A wolf has killed a labrador retriever on Clyde Hicks' property, probably never intending to hurt his baby son, but it starts a community war in the destroying or preservation of all the wolves in the area. More threatening than Clyde is his father-in-law, politically active and philandering egotist Buck Calder. He and his friends are as passionate to destroy the wolves over things their guilt can't be proven as Helen is to save them from the local ranchers' ignorance. Meanwhile, Helen also becomes involved with Calder's son Luke, who has a stuttering problem, but proves himself to be ten times the man his father is.
This time, Evans' female protagonist Helen is smart, empathetic, resourceful, witty, and extremely likeable as is young, gentle Luke who falls for her. Calder's long suffering wife Eleanor and his mistress Ruth, who become good friends, are very likeable characters as well.
There are many layers and stories inside the main story, all told with acute sensitivity and rapturous, if sometimes violent, beauty. This time I'm also pleased to see Evans give lots of attention and detail to the wolves and their real behavior as opposed to the ranchers' superstitious beliefs. He often discribes some brutal scenes, but they are always factual rather than gored up or painted over with pleasant colors. Highly and emotionally charged, this is a book that will change your views about wolves and also about human nature. I cried a few times, and that doesn't happen very often when I read a book, save for Roseanne Bittner's Song of the Wolf. From the beginning, I couldn't put this one down and, if you like very well written books of this style, neither will you. This one is now a new favorite!
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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