PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country

Book Description

Three months on the New York Times bestseller list, PrairyErth is now in paperback. Robert Penn Warren pronounced Heat-Moon's Blue Highways "a masterpiece." Now Heat-Moon has pulled to the side of the road and set off on foot to take readers on an exploration of time and space, landscape and history in the Flint Hills of central Kansas.

Customer Reviews:

Almost Walden..........2007-05-15

New to William Least Heat Moon, I wasn`t quite sure what to expect with Prairyerth. Having heard about the critical acclaim of Blue Highways, I thought a lesser known work would be the place to start. And I am glad I chose Praityerth.

With Prairyearth, William Least Heat Moon has dug down to the heart of a specific place, in this case, the Flint Hill country of Chase County, Kansas. Not unlike Thoreau`s Walden, Prairyerth is an exhaustive chronicle of one man`s journey to the bottom--historically, geologically and geographically speaking--of one particular and rather insignificant place in the American landscape. Prairyerth, like Walden, is impossible to lump into one clean-cut literary category. Neither pure history, nor pure geology, nor `storytelling` per say, it is rather a brilliant concoction of all three. It is, as the author pens it, a `deep map` of one tiny piece of the New World. And deep it is. Least Heat Moon delves into every square inch, every prehistoric layer of his subject. The result is a stirring and fascinating ride through the discovery, settling, exploitation and ultimate destruction of the American prairie. Half Native American himself, Least Heat Moon walks through the tall grass of the American Sea with much the same spirit of his ancestors. Here was not emptiness as thought the first Europeans, but rather a vast ocean of endless natural wealth. Home to the once vast bison herds, the tall-grassed hills of Chase County were once giant mountains of the Kansas range that were slowly worn down into the Flint Hills of today. Least Heat Moon follows the tracks of the Osage and the Kansa, `people of the wind,` who traversed this area long before Zebulon Pike and John Fremont made their tentative forays across the prairie towards more secure landscapes. The author vividly captures the reverence that the Osage and Kansa held for the `prairie.` Tracking down the stories of the few remaining pure-blood Kansa, Least Heat Moon paints a metaphor for what looms in the future for us, lest we ignore the lessons of the past. Not only does the author richly expose the layer of Native Americana within Chase County, but he does justice to the natural elements of the place as well. Some of the most fascinating parts of Prairyerth are the sections on two of the county`s most enduring denizens, the Osage Orange tree/bush and the Wood Rat, aka Pack/Trade Rat. Least Heat Moon has an ultra sharp eye for interesting detail and oddity and knows how to bring such things to life.

The structure of the work is as ambitious as it is groundbreaking. Every other chapter covers another quadrant of the county. Least Heat Moon spends most of his time analyzing the present inhabitants of the county, trying to distill the essence of `Kansasness.` He chats with the weathered old farmers and ranchers who`ve survived every tornado and flash flood over the last half-century and who entertain no thoughts on living anywhere else. Every voice in the county gets its chance. Feminist cattle ranchers give him the lowdown on castrating bulls, local high schoolers divulge their dreams and the regulars of the Emma Chase Cafe unload gossip unaware of who`s writing it all down. Kansasness, according to the author, is a baffling mix of progressive politics and constrictive convention. A place of often violent contrasts. Kansas was the first state born out of the fires of abolition, first to stimulate integration (Board of Education vs Topeka), yet the `n word` is still commonplace all over the county. The forefather of the county, Samuel Wood, was one of the most eloquent voices among the abolitionists, yet he stopped short of pushing for full integration. Kansas was a place where all people had freedom of opportunity (especially to better oneself economically), as long as everybody kept to his/her own. One of the first states to allow women`s suffrage, it was also one of the first to embrace Prohibition. It also kept its archaic and puritan sex laws on the books until the recent Supreme Court ruling overturned such laws.

In between his quadrant explorations of the county, Least Heat Moon has interspersed chapters comprised of nothing but various epigrams and short passages regarding the state. Coming from sources as disparate as Horace Greeley and Black Elk to graffiti found at the KU library, these chapters are some of the most entertaining and enriching of the book.

William Least Heat Moon is one of the greatest prose stylists I have ever encountered in modern American letters. His writing is rich with metaphor and digression, begging second and third readings of certain passages. While sometimes he expands profusely, Faulkner-like, for paragraphs, clarity is rarely forsaken. It just means reading carefully and slowly. Prairyerth is definitely a book that needs digesting. I took me almost six months to finally devour it up and when I did, I had the distinct feeling of having consumed something grand and very nutritious, albeit a bit heavy. In fact, those without persistent natures would best choose something else to read. Prairyerth is meat and potatoes and requires a lot of chewing. And perhaps that is where the work falls a tad short of its possible ancestor. Whereas one can open Thoreau`s Walden anywhere and revel in the beauty and wisdom (albeit often cryptic) found therein, Prairyerth is nothing if not taken in its entirety. Its just too dense, with too much stuff packed into its innards. In fact, a little editing could have helped the book. Some chapters are a bit superfluous and leaving them out would have only helped the work as a whole. Moreover, Least Heat Moon`s astute observations serve his examination of the natural world far better than they support his delving into the human realm. Somehow a lot of the `characters` of Chase County never fully come to life in Prairyerth. Rather, they seem two-dimensional and oddly trapped on the page. Yet, taken as a whole and for what it is, a grand archaeological and sociological dig through the layers of New World settlement, Prairyerth succeeds grandly. Never has one tiny and often ignored section of the American quilt come to life so vividly and richly as does Chase County, Kansas in Prairyerth. A place so seemingly devoid of life, is, in actuality, overflowing with the past, present and future. All you have to do is look,look carefully. The author himself says it best: `A traveler(who cannot even remotely detect the thousand-mile-an-hour spinning of the planet he rides through space at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, to say nothing of its solar and galactic movements and its precession) writes in his notebook, ~nothing is happening~. Man muses, God guffaws.` Next time you feel that nothing has ever happened or is happening now or will happen where you`re at, pick up Prairyerth and be amazed.

Interesting and thought-provoking .......2006-12-28

If only every county in the United States had as passionate and articulate a chronicler as William Least Heat-Moon.

I came to "PrairyErth" after having read and loved "Blue Highways." This tome--though longer and less expansive, geographically--possesses many of the qualities I admired in Heat-Moon's earlier work: the narrative tone (there's none of that stuffy, impersonal, third-person prose one finds in some travelogues; the author is himself part of the story), the occasional dips into philosophy and history; the candid interviews with "locals"; and the intense search for meaning in the most ordinary of places.

I have never been to Chase County, Kansas, but after spending a month or so accompanying Heat-Moon through the pages of his book, I feel as though I have. The book is subtitled "a deep map," and that is indeed what the author provides here. Square mile by square mile, the reader is introduced to the prairie, its topography and history, its residents and its wildlife. Heat-Moon correctly understands that the essence of a place is often best captured through anecdote and observation. There is nothing sweeping or grand about his narrative, and that's what makes "PrairyErth" such a delight. It's a detailed, intimate read; one almost has the feeling of looking over the author's shoulder (and back through history) as he ambles and rambles about the quadrangles of Chase County.

If there's one criticism I would offer, it's that Heat-Moon sometimes lapses into needless digressions about himself and the challenges he faced while writing the book. It struck me as a bit self-absorbed--as did the occasional Faulknerian stream-of-conscious, punctuationless prose. These stylistic excesses add little to what is otherwise a magnificent and fascinating travelogue.

The Nature Of This Book Is Like That Of Full-Body Meditation.......2006-11-25

In Blue Highways the inimitable William Least Heat Moon drove across the backroads of America. In River Horse this courageous, spiritually-venerable man floated in a barge across this nation's waterways. In Prairy Erth, he does his exploration mostly on foot. Confining himself to a microcosmic canvas, Least Heat Moon spends over 600-pages describing how he spent months delving into a single county in the heart of Kansas. Packed with maps of Chase County, its hills, waterways, roads and farmsteads, the author tells a sometimes dry but often rich story of one remote but improbably charming spot on planet earth. He meets many of the county's 3,000 residents, hears and tells of the folklore, the history, the textured layers to life in such a location. By the book's end an unknowingly begun spiritual journey reaches its conclusion, which is the way with all of William Least Heat Moon's writings. If you have the time to put into Prairy Erth, it is a compelling book that challenges the nature of individual outlook.

Experience Kansas.......2003-07-20

If you want to experience Kansas, with its excruitatingly boring places that slowly creep up on you and leave you blissfully satisfied and in awe of beauty; if you're willing to read long passages of flat text just to discover the beauty of burning fields; I highly recommend PrairyErth.

I grew up in Kansas, about 2 hours from Chase county and was always facinated by the hills, the people, and just the auroa that came from Strong City and Cottonwood falls. After reading "PrairyErth" I am even more mesmorized by the locale.

I have been out of the state for 2 years now, and long to go back. Many friends have complained about the long drives through Kansas, the flat scenery, and boring people. PrairyErth brings to life these flat lands and opens up new worlds of community and life.

For me, reading Moon's book was much like experiencing life in Kansas. I did find some of the chapters long, dry, and dull.. but, that's how some Kansas life is. Moon always concludes these sections with a gorgeous snapshot of the land. He shows us what it is like to be in relationship with the land just as we are in relationship with one another.

He concludes the book with a beautiful journey down the Kaw Trail.
"How do you know when the Prairy is in you?"
"When you see a tree as an eyesore."

Chase County Saga.......2003-06-21

Open the book. Chase County, Kansas has U.S. Route 50 and the Kansas Turnpike running through it. The Flint Hills are the last remaining grand expanse of tall grass in America. The population of Chase County is 3,013. This is clearly William Least Heat-Moon's masterpiece. The closest reading experience I can summon is that of Barry Lopez's ARCTIC DREAMS.

Chase County, Kansas is an empty area in relative terms. The arrangement of the book is to follow a sort of geographical grid. The author introduces new concerns with a series of paragraphs and quotations from other works. Individual stories are inserted for interest and historical verisimilitude. For example, Gabriel Jacobs was a Dunkard preacher from Indiana. He and his wife arrived in Chase County in 1856.

The book is filled with maps. Cottonwood Falls, State Lake, Spring Creek, Den Creek, Rock Creek, Cottonwood River, Sharp Creek, Roniger Hill, Landon Rocks and Bazaar are shown on the map of the Bazaar Quadrangle. Chase County is tall grass country and beef is the major pursuit. It absolutely depends upon grass. The work of Chase is to turn soil and cellulose into humaly digestible carbohydrates and protein. Tribal people took their health from prairie plants. Antelope are returning to the Flint Hills through a restocking program. The author observes that the land in Chase County is like a good library, it lets a fellow extend himself. Common Chase properties of the land are the vales and uplands through which the author enjoyed traveling.

A review by me cannot do justice to this book. The work is as multi-dimensional as EXECUTIONER'S SONG by Norman Mailer. Vachel Lindsay traveled down the Cottonwood Valley. A student going to high school in Chase County thinks there is no privacy, no opportunity to be one's self. A grade school teacher told the author she hoped that pople in Chase County could learn to love themselves less and the children more. The largest cottonwood in Kansas has a trunk 27 feet around. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 gave 160 acres of land to the settler who would plant ten of these acreas in trees. In 1931 a Fokker plane carrying the famous football coach Knute Rockne crashed in Chase County near Bazaar. People ariving in Chase County after 1862, the Homestead Act, were limited to taking a quarter section, 160 acres. Most county bottom land had been claimed by 1870. Absentee land ownership has been a fact of life in Chase County since the 19th century when the English aristocracy and the railroads owned large tracts.

The author says that for him writing is not a search for explanations, but a ramble. He believes that Chase County is the ideal place to develop a prototype of a new agricultural community. The book began when the author arrived at Roniger Hill with an image of a topographical grid in his head. Of the dozen settlements in Chase County, three or four can still be called villages and two are towns. The significance of praryerth is that Chase County lies among it. "The Praryerths and Blackerths are deep soils, lightly granular, relatively nonacid, unleached, with full stores of humus and minerals."

Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures

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What to do after the tomatoes die
Great Garden Writing
Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures
The Garden as a Door
Gardening for life...

Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures
Anne Raver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679767983
Release Date: 1996-04-30

Book Description

As gardening columnist for The New York Times, Anne Raver is one of our foremost authorities on making things grow. Even non-gardeners will find this book of essays a source of profound pleasure, for Raver is a writer who transcends her subject even as she illuminates it, writing with such passion, wisdom and stylishmess that her book will enchant anyone who reads it.

Customer Reviews:

What to do after the tomatoes die.......2007-07-31

Now that summer has reached its peak and the gophers have snatched my tomatoes; the pressure's off. Either it is or it isn't a Better Homes and Garden garden. (It isn't) And once again I can enjoy reading gardening books and begin plans for next year's successes and for overcoming this year's failures.

Anne Raver, garden columnist for the New York Times, has written a truly funny and charming book in which she shares her own successes and failures.

Raver offers interesting perspectives on the familiar: from the arrival of the tomato seeds via postal carrier to the introduction of a cat into her dog-loving ( and cat hating) household. Just so you aren't kept in suspense, the tomato lives and the cat is loved but both had to overcome a few obstacles.

The Dirt On Earthworms presents these little fellows in a new light. "Aristotle called earthworms `the intestines of the earth'..[It] is barely more than a digestive tract, with just enough brain to shovel food in one end and send nitrogen-rich humus out the other." One of Darwin's volunteer earthworm watchers (yes, there is a hobby for everyone) noted `with interest' that earthworms plug up the mouths of their burrows at night. She even went out, lantern in hand, to watch their evening activities. There she discovered that they affix their tails to their burrows and grabbing stones in their mouths, pull them back to the entrance. From this Darwin surmised "Earthworms...were civilized enough to seek comfort." Hmmm.

Other chapters include "A Plant Is Not An It", "Never Say Thank You For A Plant", "The Year Of The Tomato", and "Gandhi Gardening". However, this is not just another `how I learned to live in harmony with nature by crawling on my belly in the garden' book. Yes, there is a hint of that, but Raver takes her reader further, as she explores country pleasures and successfully translates these pleasures into language. And that is not as simple as it may sound. She says "When you're passionate about something, you often, mistakenly try to get the other person to understand. You keep bringing up little details and profound events, thinking that maybe this time the person will get it, will see what you see." This person got it. A great read!

Great Garden Writing.......2002-11-20

People who get the New York Times and read the garden section are probably totally familiar with Anne Raver's writing, but those in other parts of the country may not be. For many years she was the garden editor of the NY Times and although I don't think she holds this position any longer, I still do find her articles now and then in the Times.
I am a garden writer myself (Allergy-Free Gardening, Safe Sex in the Garden) and I read the work of as many different garden writers as I can. I especially try to read as much material as possible from writers who write for newspapers, since so often they are tuned in to the most current tastes in horticulture. Then too, as a writer I always appreciate extra quality work when I read it, work such as that of Ann Raver (who by the way, I don't know and have never met.)
Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures is a little book but it's packed with useful gardening tidbits and the writing is superb. Like some other reviewers of this book, I too would like to see another book from her, perhaps a sequel to Deep in the Green. I am always on the lookout for neat little books on gardening to give as presents to my friends who garden, and this one is always a hit. A collection of articles published first in the Times, each chapter here is lively, charming, often darn funny, and in the tradition of great garden writers (especially some of the great English writers), the material is based on true life garden adventures, and it is always close and personal. If you've never read any of Ann Raver's work, I suggest you give it a try. Almost anyone who loves to garden and read will enjoy this book.

Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures.......2002-09-19

I read this book for the first time in 1999 and I have returned to savor the pages each year since. I have bought 3 extra copies for gifts for my nature loving friends. I am hoping the "next generation" appears on the horizon soon!

The Garden as a Door.......2002-01-13

Welcome to the world of Anne Raver as seen through her garden. Here you will meet her loveable old dog Molly, "a twelve -year-old Saint Bernard squished into a setter's body with some collie thrown in," and Mr. Grey a long-haired feline acrobat that endears himself to both Molly and the author despite all their efforts to dislike him.

Here too you learn about Raver herself as she plots and plans her gardens, agonizes about a move to a new house, struggles with insects and pesticides, life in the city versus the pull of her country roots, and her conflicted if loving relationship with her parents. Raver's interests, even with gardening as a base, are eclectic and far ranging. In one essay she waxes eloquent, though tongue in cheek, about breaking the law by growing poppies. In another she tells how she came to discover that cricket manure is a great fertilizer. In a third she tells of her triumph over a paralyzing fear of climbing ladders. All in all it's a wonderful stroll through one woman's life with plenty of amusing observation and touching insight thrown in.

My one complaint was that the length of the essays (they are reprints of articles Raver wrote for The New York Times) often means that the reader is left wanting to know more, to hear how a story ended, how a problem was resolved, whether or not Raver ever finds a man she can co-habitat with, what finally happens to the old family homestead. While I realize this is a limitation of the genre, I am hoping that Raver will eventually sit down and write a non-stop tale of her rich and varied life. Otherwise this is a wonderful, uplifting read.

Gardening for life..........2000-05-12

This book is more personally revealing than the garden columns Anne Raver usually writes for the New York Times. Her columns tend to be filled with practical advice interspersed with personal anecdotal information. In her book, Raver writes reflectively about her return to the family farm in Maryland and gardening in her 'single' flat in NYC after her divorce.

Ms. Raver reveals she has discovered gardening can provide a theraputic outlet, that it is a healing actitivy that helps one maintain balance through life's trials. She shares a tidbits of her inner life as she struggles to maintian equilibrium and deal with being single, aging parents, and a farm that can be a challenge most of the time. Some passages read like letters from a sister or a good friend.

Book Description

John Lane has scaled a granite dome in the Suriname rain forest and waded past cottonmouths in the heart of a Florida cypress swamp. He has shadowed crocodiles in a Yucatán mangrove thicket and paddled the rapids of North Carolina's Tuckaseegee River in search of a drowned kayaker. Waist Deep in Black Water offers a collection of Lane's writings, which range in topic from wilderness exploration, to conservation, to family history in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Customer Reviews:

Exploring American Landscapes .......2005-08-03

Set in a "world where time moves in more than one direction and no landscape holds steady for long," these essays are steeped in both American literary naturalism and environmental conservationism. John Lane offers geodes of clarity and beauty that are spiritual, philosophical, and autobiographical.

The book is divided into four themed sections: "Edges", "Field", "Home Territory", and "Family Wilderness". The essays are at times humorous and adventurous, but these essays also explore the human relationship to physical landscape, and many explore the landscape of the writer's consciousness. Lane becomes more than a recorder of landscape; he becomes a part of the landscape and, at times, the voice of the landscape itself.

In the closing essay, "Confluence: Pacolet River," Lane joins the resilience of our landscapes with the resilience of the human spirit. The essay has a spirit of hope and a sense of unknown possibilities. As Lane takes refuge in his home landscape, he finds space to reflect: "my history is adrift on it as surely as today I have drifted on the surface of this living stream."

John Lane witnesses the contradictions of our modern landscape and chooses to stir up conversations of national significance through these essays, while refraining from offering oversimplified solutions. Rather than advocating any type of political agenda, Lane sincerely models behaviors of inquiry, advocacy, and awareness in relation to our personal and physical landscapes.

Book for the Outdoors Fan.......2003-04-21

John Lanes details into his daily life and his experiences are very well written in this novel. His collection of essays are interesting and enjoyable to read. The book was a pleasure to read, and I can not wait to pick up another copy hopefully very soon.

Writing with Spirit.......2002-11-07

A loving and passionate collection of essays that leave the reader with intimate knowledge of a man who lives his life with intentionality and purose. Read slowly and thoughtfully, Waste Deep in Black Water reveals the many rewards of living with deep respect for community, landscape, ecosystems, people, and all living things. With generosity of spirit, John Lane leads readers to see that how he goes about his work, travels, and everyday activities is what enriches and brings meaning to life.

Deep Blue: Stories of Shipwreck, Sunken Treasure, and Survival (Adrenaline)

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A disappointment . . .
More adrenaline, please

Deep Blue: Stories of Shipwreck, Sunken Treasure, and Survival (Adrenaline)
Clint Willis
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth, Balliett & Fitzgerald
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560253134

Book Description

Deep Blue is a book about things that go wrong at sea (and under the sea), and what happens when they do. It features the best writing from the literature of shipwrecks, nautical survival, and cannibalism as well as tales of submarine adventure including an excerpt from Peter Maas’s The Terrible Hours. In addition to such authors as Neil Hanson and Gary Kinder, Deep Blue includes classic writers like Melville, Conrad, and Crane, perennials such as Patrick O’Brian and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and far-flung, little-known surprises, from free divers in trouble to arctic explorers fatally marooned in the marshes of Siberia.

Customer Reviews:

A disappointment . . ........2001-07-04

As a collector of the entire series, no one awaited this book more than I. I feel let down. Of the 13 stories, (and it's only 318 pages, not 352), seven are fiction. These were not well chosen: selections from Treasure Island and Moby Dick are not even set at sea, but are the land-based openings of the books. The non-fiction does not live up to the billing of the editorial reviews that preceded it on this page. There is not much shipwreck or survivial: several are more like philosophical essays as opposed to stories with an edge. The story on diving the Andrea Doria is perhaps the best in the book, but many of us will have seen it elsewhere, as it is recent. Why a fictional account of the Titanic and not a true one? For a book on treasure, why nothing of Mel Fisher and the Atocha? If you want sea adventure, the earlier book in the series, Rough Water, delivers a bigger punch. This volume, regratably, is one that you can put down between stories.

More adrenaline, please.......2001-06-04

As a passive individual, I live through the words and experiences of first hand authors for my adventure. This narrative simply scratches the surface of those before it. "Ship of Gold", "The Fatal North" and "Abandon Ship!" come to mind immediately as adrenaline rush examples. Any of the several publications on "The Endurance" far exceed the expectations of "Deep Blue". The human spirit has greater tales to tell.

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In Deep
Maxine Kumin
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Women, Animals, & Vegetables: Essays & Stories

ASIN: 0670814318

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Deep Woods
John Burroughs
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0815604165

Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History

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Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History
Jim Fraiser
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 156554787X

Wellspring: A Story From The Deep Country

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A thoughtful, highly readable account of communal life.

Wellspring: A Story From The Deep Country
Barbara Dean
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0933280017

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A thoughtful, highly readable account of communal life........1998-08-28

In 1971, Barbara Dean and a dozen other people, some of whom she did not even know, purchaced a ranch on the Eel River in N. California and started an intentional community. None had any experience in country living; all wanted to find an alternative to urban American life. This book is an honest, straightforward, thoughtful and often funny account of their experiment in semi-communal living. Dean focuses primarily on the interactions of the people with the place and each other and how she and the others were changed by the experience.

Many people approach the idea of intentional communities with a sort of starry-eyed idealism: this book is quaranteed to bring you down to earth. Through their mistakes and ignorance as well as their good intentions and commitment, the members of the community learn how truly difficult community life is.

I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking of starting or joining an intentional communty, it will give you a needed dose of reality...and of hope.

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