A review by lpazienza26
Miracle Country: A Memoir of a Family and a Landscape by Kendra Atleework
3.0
Received this as part of a giveaway in exchange for an honest review .
I normally like this kind of book- I love Rebecca Solnit, so when I saw the book described as being like her writing , I was intrigued. My issue is that I think this book tried to do too much- I would have preferred either leaning more into the California history and nature study or more of the memoir of her family and town. While these concepts intersect, the way the book was written made them feel disparate. I can’t fully articulate what was missing, but I found myself wishing the narrative was rearranged.
I did learn some new things about CA, and I enjoyed the memoir components, but I think Atleework relied a little too much on the thoughts of other authors. The constant references to Solnit and Didion made it seem like the author didn’t have anything new to add.
I normally like this kind of book- I love Rebecca Solnit, so when I saw the book described as being like her writing , I was intrigued. My issue is that I think this book tried to do too much- I would have preferred either leaning more into the California history and nature study or more of the memoir of her family and town. While these concepts intersect, the way the book was written made them feel disparate. I can’t fully articulate what was missing, but I found myself wishing the narrative was rearranged.
I did learn some new things about CA, and I enjoyed the memoir components, but I think Atleework relied a little too much on the thoughts of other authors. The constant references to Solnit and Didion made it seem like the author didn’t have anything new to add.