When Harley Simmons, a “latter-day mountain man, river rat, and desert scoundrel,” returns from the wilderness to the town of Del Cobre he finds his life in siege. His father, a legendary wilderness hunter, is dead; his wife will have nothing to do with him; his son is protected from him by the courts; and sunbelt boosters are closing in on New Mexico’s last wild river, threatening to cut deep into his wilderness home. In his attempts to accommodate civilization with his own wild yearnings, Harley learns to pay dearly. Ultimately, a creature even more wild provides some clues for resolution. A Romance of the modern West, imbued with realism, horses, hounds, wolves and women, “Home is the River” transcends the Western genre to reveal life as it is on today’s frontier.
