zachkuhn's review
4.0
"In a family as unchurched as ours there was only one sacred story, and that was the one we told ourselves every day, the one about work and property and ownership, which is sad. We had lost track of stories like the one which tells us the world is to be cherished as if it exists inside our own skin. We were heedless people in a new country; we came and went in a couple of generations. But we plowed a lot of ground while we were there."
A beautiful book, but not one with any real sense of the reader. And that's fine. Sometimes reading someone else's notes to the world is fine enough reading.
A beautiful book, but not one with any real sense of the reader. And that's fine. Sometimes reading someone else's notes to the world is fine enough reading.
kathleenitpdx's review
4.0
A beautiful memoir. Kittredge tells the stories of his family and the land they occupied in southeast Oregon. He acknowledges the mistakes they made in "industrializing" the land and he acknowledges the mistakes he made in his own life. It took him a long time to outgrow his "little boy" stage and he left some wreckage in his wake. I got a little fed up with his alcohol fueled pity parties but he does salute the people in his life who nudged him in constructive paths. His odes to the land and to the tough people who worked it are wonderful. And his deep felt history of this land and his family had me setting my roots in it along with him.
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