One Degree West: Reflections of a Plainsdaughter (First Series:Creative Nonfiction)
"At night we had distant yellow lights to remind us that we did have neighbors, but when those blinked off at bedtime, only the moon and stars penetrated the dark. Coyotes howled in our front yard." This sense of place and isolation frames Bair's account of her childhood in rural Kansas during the 1950s, and it festers during her adult years as she returns to and again leaves these same fallow prairies. She tells the story of her place in a family made up of a father who lives to work the land, of fieldhand brothers with disparate futures, and of a mother who has "a policy of not asking," as well as an extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins. These 11 carefully crafted essays provide an exploration of the individual as Bair escapes, recaptures, and rebuilds her identity beyond the place where she was raised. Recommended for public libraries and academic libraries supporting creative writing programs.-Sue Samson, Univ. of Montana Lib., MissoulaCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.