Synopsis
In THE SNOW LEOPARD, Matthiessen documents his travels in Nepal with naturalist George Schaller, including his attempts to come to grips with his wife's death from cancer, and his general pondering of questions of life and death. The snow leopard becomes a symbol to Matthiessen of the elusive silence of the peace of Zen. "On the River Styx," about an environmental lawyer who has problems with the locals in a small Florida community, is one of his most celebrated short stories.

Details
Publication Date:	1979-09-01
Edition Description:	Reissue

Industry Reviews
"Largely gone are the dry summaries, the highflown and impersonal plural nouns that have deadened many chapters of Mr. Matthiessen's previous books. A shard of rose quartz, the spores of a cinnamon fern, a companionable mound of pony dung, a dog barking at his pale tent in the moonlight, all may excite him as if this were his first--or at least last--day on earth. On the other hand, except for two or three poignant references toward the end, the interpolations concerning his wife seem not so much insincere as jimmied unnaturally into his diary. Though he must indeed have thought of her with grief and guilt under the circumstances, from falsity of placement and carelessness they do not fit."
New York Times Book Review - Edward Hoagland (08/13/1978)