Great Plains
Ian Frazier
2001
320 pages
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FTC: I. Bought. It.
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This was a great big snooze fest of a book, and I’m surprised by myself that I even finished it. It certainly wasn’t what I was expected, and I don’t even feel like telling you all about it. I’m just going through the motions of a post because somehow I feel like I need to document all the books that I read.
Although I guess I should mention what it was about. The author spent some time living in Montana and driving around the Great Plains. Then he wrote about it, and mostly about all the Native Americans that once inhabited the Great Plains that you get the feeling that Frazier idolizes.
There. Consider this one documented.
I think I was expecting this book to fill the gaping hole that I felt (okay, not really gaping, but there was a hole) after I read Vanishing America. Are you sensing a theme? I’m looking for a book on rural America that I can love. I just haven’t found it.
Wish I could help, but i really don’t know a lot of books about rural America that aren’t the sorts of countrified children’s classics that my mom tried to get me to read as a kid (Where the Red Fern Grows, National Velvet, The Yearling, etc).
(and for anyone who thinks I’m saying those books are bad, I’m not, they’re just not my taste)
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Isn’t Plainsong by Kent Haruf supposed to be all “rural American goodness”? I haven’t read it, but I remember when everyone and their mother read it a few years ago and were shouting their love from the rooftops and I was all, really? I don’t get it? So I didn’t read it. I think it has a sequel too, the, uh, The Tie that Binds? Maybe?
Anyway, sorry this one didn’t cut it for you. I’m impressed you finished it too!!
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Weekend Cooking – Strawberry Rosemary Jam =-.
I have a hard time with books about rural America too. They all seem to be – I don’t know, dusty, and they make my eyes smart. Too many years of contact lenses.
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Review: Wise Children, Angela Carter =-.
The title and cover make me feel sleepy, I confess. Although it is pretty, I’ll give it that. I can’t think of any rural America books off the top of my head I could recommend. I’ll think on it some more though.
.-= Literary Feline´s last blog ..Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, 2010 =-.
I don’t need a snoozefest, so I’ll skip this one. Thanks for taking one on the chin for the rest of us!
This is a hilarious review. I feel compelled to review books no matter whether I like them or not, too. But at least this review saved others from reading the book!
.-= Aarti´s last blog ..TSS – Review: Team of Rivals =-.
Lol. I’ve been there! I always feel insanely guilty if I skip a review on a book I finished but didn’t really care for.
.-= Ladytink_534´s last blog ..Musing Monday-In Books =-.
I took one look at the title and immediately felt sleepy! Good on you for finishing it!
.-= Amy @ My Friend Amy´s last blog ..Being a Fan =-.
I’m with Amy. Thank you for helping us all with our sleep disorders! :–)
.-= rhapsodyinbooks´s last blog ..May 3, 1946 – Albert Einstein Spoke at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania =-.
i’d love to pick up and move to rural america…and the snoozier the better. i’ve lived with 8 million other fools in new jersey for far too long and want some peace and quiet…
when you find a good book about rural america, let me know. in the meantime, i’ll be scouring the internet for my second empire mansion (a la the addams family) in an old-fashioned american downtown somewhere in this country…
Sorry this one didn’t work for you! I read this book last summer, and actually enjoyed it, but I read it at the same time we were doing a road trip through a lot of the same places (i.e. Crazy Horse Memorial, Deadwood) that he discusses in this book.
I loved “Way Off the Road” by Bill Geist — about quirky small towns throughout America. Hilarious!!
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I hate writing reviews about books that bore me. Almost as much as I hate reading them! Like you though, I do feel the need to at least write something about every book I read.
.-= Stephanie´s last blog ..Sunday Salon =-.
I don’t know how you feel about non-fiction, but Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish was a great book about rural America. The subtitle is hard times and high spirits on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression.
I loved Plainsong, so try that one. Also, for a bit of different look, more focused at small town America, but a lot of that is rural American, try Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent, if nothing else it is guaranteed to make you laugh.
God I wish I had the courage to review books like this. There . .. I said it.
.-= Jenners´s last blog ..Week In Review – 5/2/10 =-.
hi! I does make me sad that people assume snoozefest for the Great Plains Rural America – or am I hypersensitive since I’m have great affinity for those square states in the middle of the US. Probably since now I live East Coast, people ask me how I could live (with heavy dramatic emphasis on LIVE as used here) without seeing the ocean.
Btw, did you pick a winner of the NY poetry contest? just curious if I missed it. Of course, I want to congratulate the lucky person.
.-= Care´s last blog ..The Threadbare Heart Mother’s Day Contest =-.
Not a fan of the snooze-fest here…LOL (although I’ve had my share)
.-= diane´s last blog ..Waiting on Wednesday – The Ice Princess =-.
Shoot — Unlike Amy, the title and cover really attracted me. If I decide to give it a try, I’ll check it out from the library . . . just in case I fall asleep.