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A review by alyssackim
Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life by Gretchen Legler
3.0
Let’s start with the good. It was up an enjoyable read, easy and also inspiring, the life the author described is nuanced, and enviable to some degree. I enjoyed parts of this book, it started with a thread that it followed, creating a nice patchwork of stories that blended well. Further on the quilt became more eclectic, and not in a good way. It felt unfocused and some of the discreet parts were not as polished, writing-wise, as others. It also got more spiritual as it progressed, not bad, but not my cup of tea.
She seems to have some blind spots and poor logic exhibited throughout the book that employs throwaway lines and lends broad strokes to things that should be given more time. A specifically uncomfortable example of this was her comparison of different types of pain at the very end. She lists these unimaginable traumas (rape, child death, self-harm) against mundane pains of life, not bad in and of itself, but a brittle, and left a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, it is a book that is sub-300 pages, and is meant to be a memoir (not a book on crafting a sustainable life, as the cover suggests.)
Overall I enjoyed my read, but would not read again.
She seems to have some blind spots and poor logic exhibited throughout the book that employs throwaway lines and lends broad strokes to things that should be given more time. A specifically uncomfortable example of this was her comparison of different types of pain at the very end. She lists these unimaginable traumas (rape, child death, self-harm) against mundane pains of life, not bad in and of itself, but a brittle, and left a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, it is a book that is sub-300 pages, and is meant to be a memoir (not a book on crafting a sustainable life, as the cover suggests.)
Overall I enjoyed my read, but would not read again.