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In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.
As Utah-born naturalist Terry Tempest Williams records the simultaneous tragedies of her mother's death of cancer and the flooding of the Bear River Migratory Bird Sanctuary, she creates a document of renewal and spiritual grace destined to become a classic in the literature of nature, women, and grieving.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
John Murray
reviewed Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place on May 17, 2007
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Williams is an especially confounding writer, and part of it has to do with her voice'it's very assured, but in that certainty lie the seeds of alienation and annoyance. It's the assurance born of privilege, of money, and of an intact family. She can speak of democracy all she wants (and she does, especially in later works), but she's at the higher end of the social spectrum'democracy (or any system) tends to work out for those people. Additionally, she tries too hard to wring some elemental truth from her prose, which, in many instances, results in a feeling of artifice. Interwoven with this tendency is perhaps the most irritating facet of her work'what can only be described as degeneration into "crystal gazing prose," or abstract, highly pretentious, spiritual drivel. Much of her dialog rings untrue'as do several moments in the narrative (e.g. when she sticks a middle finger in the face of the hicks). On a mechanics note, her incessant use of passive verb construction acts as a sea anchor on the text. On the other hand, and this is why she is so confounding, there are moments of sublimity, truth, and flat out dynamite writing that almost make the journey worthwhile. She manipulates thematic elements throughout, balancing the concepts of "isolation" and "solitude" in a dialectical dance. "Solitude" seems the goal, synonymous with "refuge," an acceptance of life's rhythms (including death). And her use of the lake level is quietly effective: the story begins and ends at the same level'a subtle way of achieving a sort of closure.
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Add Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place to your collection on WonderClub |
