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A review by pattydsf
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy
3.0
”Decades have passed, nearly my entire life, since a seven-year-old stood with her family at a remote point on the North Rim (Grand Canyon). I hadn’t known what to expect at road’s end. The memory of what we found shapes me still.”
“To inhabit this country is to be marked by residues of its still unfolding history, a history weighted by tangled ideas of “race” and of the land itself.
This book should have been right up my alley. I should have loved it. Savoy’s writing reminded me of Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Dillard and Ellen Meloy – writers whose nature essays have been highlights for me. When she wrote about her mother’s work during World War II and the base where she was stationed, I wanted Savoy to write more.
However, I never really emotionally connected with this book. I am sure this is my problem, not Savoy’s or the memoir itself. I am guessing it was the right book, but not the right time for me to read it.
I hope that I will encounter Savoy again at a time when I am up for the challenge. Her world about our country, the land and our people are powerful and should be read by more people.
“To inhabit this country is to be marked by residues of its still unfolding history, a history weighted by tangled ideas of “race” and of the land itself.
This book should have been right up my alley. I should have loved it. Savoy’s writing reminded me of Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Dillard and Ellen Meloy – writers whose nature essays have been highlights for me. When she wrote about her mother’s work during World War II and the base where she was stationed, I wanted Savoy to write more.
However, I never really emotionally connected with this book. I am sure this is my problem, not Savoy’s or the memoir itself. I am guessing it was the right book, but not the right time for me to read it.
I hope that I will encounter Savoy again at a time when I am up for the challenge. Her world about our country, the land and our people are powerful and should be read by more people.