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sbn42 's review for:
Prairyerth
by William Least Heat-Moon
Do not start this book if you can't commit to a long relationship.
Over three decades ago the author spent more than five years collecting historic stories, geology, geography, hagiography, spiritualism, botany, zoology, medicine, and the near extinction of the native people living in what became Chase County, Kansas. This lengthy tome covers nearly everything that may have happened in that small 778 square mile patch since Pangaea split into 3 large chunks and does it all in only a bit more than 200,000 words.
The Flint Hills region of Kansas started as a great inland sea. As it emptied sometime in the Permian Era 200+ million years ago, all the wee swimming beasties died and formed the limestone the area is known for. These fertile plains were home to the Indians for many millennia. They thrived until European "Discoverers" started the wholesale slaughter of buffalo and native people in the "untamed" West. Indigenous people had related everything to a living universe, while Western people reduced everything to an object to exploit.
Least Heat Moon becomes self-indulgent at times, rolling off dozens of paragraphs in a Seinfeld-esque manner. While these may be boring, they eventually get around to making a point. Had these instances been a little scarcer, this would have been 5 stars.
Ultimately, I will likely read this again in spite of these peccadilloes
Unfortunately, this version was an e-book that was obviously scanned from a print copy. As a result, there are many little errors in transcriptions that are jarring as you try to decipher a non-sensical word or two, such as "ram"for "rain" and "bam" for "barn".
Over three decades ago the author spent more than five years collecting historic stories, geology, geography, hagiography, spiritualism, botany, zoology, medicine, and the near extinction of the native people living in what became Chase County, Kansas. This lengthy tome covers nearly everything that may have happened in that small 778 square mile patch since Pangaea split into 3 large chunks and does it all in only a bit more than 200,000 words.
The Flint Hills region of Kansas started as a great inland sea. As it emptied sometime in the Permian Era 200+ million years ago, all the wee swimming beasties died and formed the limestone the area is known for. These fertile plains were home to the Indians for many millennia. They thrived until European "Discoverers" started the wholesale slaughter of buffalo and native people in the "untamed" West. Indigenous people had related everything to a living universe, while Western people reduced everything to an object to exploit.
Least Heat Moon becomes self-indulgent at times, rolling off dozens of paragraphs in a Seinfeld-esque manner. While these may be boring, they eventually get around to making a point. Had these instances been a little scarcer, this would have been 5 stars.
Ultimately, I will likely read this again in spite of these peccadilloes
Unfortunately, this version was an e-book that was obviously scanned from a print copy. As a result, there are many little errors in transcriptions that are jarring as you try to decipher a non-sensical word or two, such as "ram"for "rain" and "bam" for "barn".