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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book about a young woman looking for her elusive father. I identified with it on a psychological level, as someone whose father was there, but just as elusive. It was also an interesting look at a subculture of Idaho hippies and the dreams they started with and the elusiveness of those dreams.
Novella Carpenter is the author of one of my favorite all time books, Farm City (see Goodreads review!) so I was surprised I had not yet come across her book, Gone Feral, a story about finding and tracking down her father. A slower, more personal read, we glimpse Carpenter’s early years gaining insight on how she was almost destined to one day write Farm City fueled by her predisposition to the living off the land lifestyle, even if in an urban setting. Initially setting off to reconcile a lifetime of on and off estrangement with her father, she ends up embarking on a journey of a personal level of letting go and acceptance. Rummaging in her parent’s past before she makes the life-changing plunge into parenthood, she discovers a truth about her father that shatters her almost mythological romantic notions of his life. By the end, Carpenter is healed from old anger and is ready to embrace motherhood with a new understanding of family and love. - Lisanne E.
Carpenter tries to find her father, who left the family when she was a kid. It's an interesting journey b/c she figures out that even though she doesn't like a lot of what her father is or does, she (and her sister) have inherited many of his quirks. She tells the story with a lot of her characteristic humor, and she ostensibly says she's looking for her Dad b/c she believes in genetics--and she's about to do what she has sworn she would not do--become a "breeder" herself. But I feel like her search is about something more primal and fundamental as her father comes to represent the off the grid, foraging, feral and ethical lifestyle she's tried to create on her farm in Oakland. Unfortunately, once she figures out what's under the surface of her father's life, she realizes his life style is less about ethics and more about an inability to fit into "civilized" culture. I am really glad she explored these complex topics. I read this very quickly by the way, so think it's a fast, but lovely, read.
I hope this author's family was agreeable with hanging out the family dirty laundry. I found this awkward although interesting that someone would be compelled to write about it. I've certainly read memoirs before of individual journeys. I just don't think I've seen so much put on someone's expectations and then discovering the reality. The best part of the book for me was that it was basically short.
reflective
medium-paced
I would read this as more of a personal essay than a full book. As an Idahoan I was interested in her childhood in N Idaho and continued trips back, but I didn’t find much to take away from her reflections on her relationship with her father.
Note: I won this book in a First Reads drawing. Thanks so much!
Gone Feral is a lovely memoir about a woman attempting to make a lasting human connection with a father who has little use for human connections. Novella Carpenter's father remains mysterious, both to her and to the reader, through this look into his life. Fortunately, what Carpenter learns in trying to know him speaks to things beyond his biography, including childhood, marriage, responsibility to others and to your own dreams, and finally parenthood, when Carpenter makes a point that will stick with me. She learns that her parents will always love her more than she is able to love them back, however much she loves them back, because parenthood is all-consuming. An interesting thought. A wonderful book.
Gone Feral is a lovely memoir about a woman attempting to make a lasting human connection with a father who has little use for human connections. Novella Carpenter's father remains mysterious, both to her and to the reader, through this look into his life. Fortunately, what Carpenter learns in trying to know him speaks to things beyond his biography, including childhood, marriage, responsibility to others and to your own dreams, and finally parenthood, when Carpenter makes a point that will stick with me. She learns that her parents will always love her more than she is able to love them back, however much she loves them back, because parenthood is all-consuming. An interesting thought. A wonderful book.
So, it's hard for me to know how to feel about this book. I wouldn't call it amazing, the writing was more mediocre than anything. I would venture to guess that, for most people, the story would also feel a little "meh." Yet, though this paints a MUCH more extreme version than I certainly ever knew, so many of the themes in this book reflect my own life and childhood back at me. How many of us were raised this way - free-range children of idealists trying to make it work? The parallels are very broad, but there is something SO familiar about this. I felt like despite it's flaws, this book comes from a place of someone who "gets" it. For that, I really connected with this book.
This was not the book I expected to read as a followup to Farm City, but I really enjoyed it. Farm City is a book about scratching an urban farm out of an abandoned lot and Novella's journey as a farmer and a food activist.
This book is an even more personal history, an exploration of how family shapes each person in it, and what happens when the quest for fertility becomes an internal, rather than external focus. I found it moving, and deeply interesting as a chronicle of the generation after back-to-the-land. Also, as a blog reader, it was really good to know what happened with the goats.
My copy provided by Edelweiss.
This book is an even more personal history, an exploration of how family shapes each person in it, and what happens when the quest for fertility becomes an internal, rather than external focus. I found it moving, and deeply interesting as a chronicle of the generation after back-to-the-land. Also, as a blog reader, it was really good to know what happened with the goats.
My copy provided by Edelweiss.
Wouldn't recommend this to someone who hasn't read Novella Carpenter before. I was only interested because I read Farm City.
*** I recieved this as an ARC from Penguin Canada. ***
Wow. I am just completely blown away from this book.
This is the true story of Novella Carpenter, and her struggle to understand and love her wayward father. Novella, having a pretty rough upbringing, and a confusing early adult life, strives to come to terms with her dad, try and make sense of his life and his actions, before fully committing into having a child with her partner, Billy. There were many times during her childhood when her father had disappeared for long moments of time, even being reported missing. Why does her father insist on shunning most of society, and why doesn't he want to spend time with his own daughter?
She takes us through key moments in her childhood, her teenage years, and her early college life. We are there with her during her struggle to get pregnant, and her constant frustrations when it seems like building a decent relationship with her hermit father seems to be completely one-sided at times.
I'm so glad that this book was sent to me. Personally, having a few people in my life who fall into the "hermit" status, I could relate to what she was going through, and how lonely and sad it can make you. I admire that she never gave up on him either, which takes more strength and will power than anyone could imagine. She is very lyrical with her words, even when she is being brutally honest. This is a very real book, and a very real struggle that many people go through, and even if you don't have a friend or family member that disappears for months at a time, everyone can learn something about themselves in this book.
Wow. I am just completely blown away from this book.
This is the true story of Novella Carpenter, and her struggle to understand and love her wayward father. Novella, having a pretty rough upbringing, and a confusing early adult life, strives to come to terms with her dad, try and make sense of his life and his actions, before fully committing into having a child with her partner, Billy. There were many times during her childhood when her father had disappeared for long moments of time, even being reported missing. Why does her father insist on shunning most of society, and why doesn't he want to spend time with his own daughter?
She takes us through key moments in her childhood, her teenage years, and her early college life. We are there with her during her struggle to get pregnant, and her constant frustrations when it seems like building a decent relationship with her hermit father seems to be completely one-sided at times.
I'm so glad that this book was sent to me. Personally, having a few people in my life who fall into the "hermit" status, I could relate to what she was going through, and how lonely and sad it can make you. I admire that she never gave up on him either, which takes more strength and will power than anyone could imagine. She is very lyrical with her words, even when she is being brutally honest. This is a very real book, and a very real struggle that many people go through, and even if you don't have a friend or family member that disappears for months at a time, everyone can learn something about themselves in this book.