25th out of 349 books
—
382 voters
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
by
Janisse Ray
Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound vacationers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars and stacks of blown-out tires. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosyste...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
July 28th 2000
by Milkweed Editions
(first published 1999)
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Perhaps this book received five stars from me out of a certain bias. I did, after all, attend Janisse Ray's reading at SUNY Oneonta in March 2010. I was entranced by a passion I had never witnessed before. Her Southern drawl, her soft voice that spoke so boldly was with me while I read through her book. I could hear every word come out of her mouth and I knew that every thing she said she meant. Maybe had I not experienced Ray's unrelenting passion, I'd afford this text one less star. I spoke wi...more
Dec 01, 2010
Amanda
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommended to Amanda by:
Got it from Coventry's free book exchange, or maybe I got it from Jessica Treat. I can't remember.
Shelves:
2010,
it-s-kinda-true
I did not like this book. It had a spanking scene and I can't overcome a spanking scene. Tooooo much for me to handle.
There were, however, two incidences of AMAZING WONDERFULNESS in this book.
A. The chapter in which she describes her father's depression, institutionalization, and love for his wife. Leafing through the pages, I can't find the passage. I am sad to not be able to re-experience it today.
B. The two chapters near the very end, entitled "The Kindest Cut" and "Leaving." She writes of sc...more
There were, however, two incidences of AMAZING WONDERFULNESS in this book.
A. The chapter in which she describes her father's depression, institutionalization, and love for his wife. Leafing through the pages, I can't find the passage. I am sad to not be able to re-experience it today.
B. The two chapters near the very end, entitled "The Kindest Cut" and "Leaving." She writes of sc...more
If you ever do pick up this book, I suggest you search for videos on YouTube of Janisse Ray and watch a couple of them - ones of her speaking. Her Southern accent is so rich and beautiful; I heard her voice as I read the book.
Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard, and at first I found her writing to be chaotic like a junkyard. A memory here, a story there. The regularity of the book is that she alternates chapters about her childhood with chapters about local ecology. After a while, though, I grew a...more
Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard, and at first I found her writing to be chaotic like a junkyard. A memory here, a story there. The regularity of the book is that she alternates chapters about her childhood with chapters about local ecology. After a while, though, I grew a...more
This book was recommended by someone whose taste I admire. The writing is lovely (shades of both Annie Dillard and Dorothy Allison). But I don't like nature. At all. I don't feel at one with the land, or any tremulous connection to all living things, blah blah blah. I hate people who personify nature, but nature is coldhearted and doesn't care about you. It wants to eat or sting you, if it wants anything at all to do with you. Um, so this book might not have been a good one for ME, but that does...more
Jan 16, 2011
Mommalibrarian
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
southern-literature,
biography-autobiography
I recommend this book for those interested in biology, ecology, the scrutiny of small environments and the interrelatedness of their living things. The main geographic area discussed is the longleaf pine woods of South Georgia but the savannas and bogs get some time as well. "Longleaf pine is the tree that grows in the upland flatwoods of the coastal plains. Miles and miles of longleaf and wiregrass, the ground cover that coevolved with the pine, once covered the left hip of North America from V...more
"What's a cracker?"
"I dunno."
"Then why are you reading that book?"
"A professor recommended it."
"Is it good?"
"I just started."
"The bits you've read aloud to me don't sound very interesting."
"You're missing all of the context."
So the conversation went. After reading Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, I can elaborate. The word "cracker" is used as a pejorative to describe poor whites in the American South, but like many pejoratives, it has been embraced by the people it...more
"I dunno."
"Then why are you reading that book?"
"A professor recommended it."
"Is it good?"
"I just started."
"The bits you've read aloud to me don't sound very interesting."
"You're missing all of the context."
So the conversation went. After reading Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, I can elaborate. The word "cracker" is used as a pejorative to describe poor whites in the American South, but like many pejoratives, it has been embraced by the people it...more
The book started off stronger than it finished--there was a bit of petering and loss of direction. I would have, perhaps, enjoyed it more if the book were more integrated; as it is, the longer memoir sections are juxtaposed with more ecological sections, and the move between the two was jarring. Perhaps, instead, I would have enjoyed this more as two separate books and read them back-to-back.
The family was also a curious one: a kind of hoarders family for profit, dealing with a streak of madness...more
The family was also a curious one: a kind of hoarders family for profit, dealing with a streak of madness...more
An elegy for the longleaf pine forests which once covered the deep south told through the engaging life story of Jannise Ray growing up in a junkyard alongside US 1 in Baxley, Georgia. The story weaves memoir and ecological lament into a strand not easily broken. Some reviews here seem to miss that her memories and the story of the demise of a once beautiful ecosystem (and the hope for its return) inform each other.
As one who routinely drives through the sylvan monoculture of south Georgia havin...more
As one who routinely drives through the sylvan monoculture of south Georgia havin...more
I have to start this review by saying that this is a good book and one I'd recommend to others.
With that said though, I was a bit disappointed which is why I only gave it 4 stars. The cover and the reviews etc all gave me the impression that I was going to be reading about the ecology and demise of the longleaf pine forests of the south...in the form of naturalist writing. So I was expecting more of a Terry Tempest Williams 'Refuge' type book. A fluid mix of life and nature. And while there was...more
With that said though, I was a bit disappointed which is why I only gave it 4 stars. The cover and the reviews etc all gave me the impression that I was going to be reading about the ecology and demise of the longleaf pine forests of the south...in the form of naturalist writing. So I was expecting more of a Terry Tempest Williams 'Refuge' type book. A fluid mix of life and nature. And while there was...more
"When we say the South will rise again we can mean that we will allow the cutover forests to return to their former grandeur and pine plantations to grow wild." If only that's what people meant.
I envy her knowledge of flora, fauna and mechanics—you get specificity in the forests and junkyards. The way she describes the destruction, it's easy to feel like preserving the South as a place is a lost cause. Consequently, her ability to conjure a (disappearing) landscape made it more upsetting than di...more
I envy her knowledge of flora, fauna and mechanics—you get specificity in the forests and junkyards. The way she describes the destruction, it's easy to feel like preserving the South as a place is a lost cause. Consequently, her ability to conjure a (disappearing) landscape made it more upsetting than di...more
I had been consuming Janisse Ray’s first book, The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, page by page ever since I learned she was coming to speak for an event honoring the president of our conservation organization. This book is Janisse’s introduction to herself and her roots; speaking of her childhood spent in a junkyard in rural Georgia learning to love the ghosts of the longleaf pine forest. It is not a long book but I don’t want to read it too fast – I want to absorb it.
And so I did.
Even before...more
And so I did.
Even before...more
This book was a mix. Some of the writing is beautiful and poetic. The chapters go back and forth between writing about the ecology of her native land and recalling snippets of her childhood. She mourns the fact that she grew up surrounded by nature but entirely ignorant of it. Some of the chapters, especially those about the local ecology, really dragged. I didn’t feel she gave me a complete or well-formed picture of her childhood. The following quote, about the relationship between her people a...more
I read this for my MultiCultural Environmental class. For the subject we were studying, I thought this book was fabulous-- as for literature, it drove me insane. The chapters didn't seem to go in any cohesive order- one chapter we were talking about Ray's childhood, and then the next chapter we were talking about how her parents met and married. It just didn't flow, and I got frustrated by having to sort of reset my mind with each chapter.
However, it does show the importance of human use of the...more
However, it does show the importance of human use of the...more
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray (Milkweed Editions 1999)(Biography) is the biography of the author, who was born into a Southeast Georgia junkyard just above the Okeefenokee Swamp in longleaf Georgia pine country. The various chapters speak of the various denizens of the countryside: indigo snakes, pitcher plants, fox squirrels, and quail. But this book is not only about the author's surroundings; the author reveals that her father is seriously mentally ill. She relates that he was...more
This book had great timing. August marks my sixth month in Athens, and I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride. I'm meeting people and "networking" and committing to jobs and friends.
It is also the first month I tried to commit to Georgia - in a geographic sense. I believe that it's really important to know and love the place you're living. This hasn't been easy for me to do in Georgia, and in comparison it was much easier for me to do in Oregon (for some reason the environment there just seem...more
It is also the first month I tried to commit to Georgia - in a geographic sense. I believe that it's really important to know and love the place you're living. This hasn't been easy for me to do in Georgia, and in comparison it was much easier for me to do in Oregon (for some reason the environment there just seem...more
This is a wonderfully written, poetic book about a family and their effect on their land in southern Georgia. I have to say I related a lot, because her family settled around the same time as mine and had a few similarities. Basically, she is grieving the loss of the southern Longleaf Pine forests. My family also owns timberlands in Alabama, consisting of slash pines sold off to Kimberly-Clark for paper when times were tough.
I felt like it ended without a definitive resolution, often an issue w...more
I felt like it ended without a definitive resolution, often an issue w...more
A very interesting story about the author's childhood, growing up in Georgia on the grounds of her father's junkyard. Okay, that's a strange environment for her and her siblings but add to that her parent's fundamentalist religious beliefs and you're talking about a girl who never attended a ball game or a party. Holidays were not celebrated, no friends from school visited, there was no television, a dress code about not showing elbows or legs above the knees, and fasting. The family also had to...more
The further that I got into this the more I liked it. I am amazed at how the author, a poor "cracker" child living in a home in a junkyard, was able to become well educated and become a naturalist and environmentalist who is so knowledgable about her homeland of the coastal plains of southern Georgia. It really showed in a truly "human" way how the land that belongs to all of us is just being thrown away for money rather than being saved for all of its beauty and all of the various types of life...more
Sep 24, 2010
Debbie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People interested in preservation of nature
It's been a long while since I read this book. As I recall I liked it better than I expected when it was assigned in an English Lit class. The story wove the author's childhood in the junkyard in with her love for the land. Much of the book dealt with endangered species, such as the red cockaded woodpecker and the ecosystem of the longleaf pine forests in Georgia. Ultimately the loss of our forests and the changes wrought in the lives of those connected to them have shown Janisse Ray the need fo...more
In my mind, strong solid Southern writing is based upon a strong sense of place. There is no place like the South and Ray does a good job of capturing it. Some of here paragraphs are postcard perfect, and will have you swearing you smell pine trees as you read.
This work of non-fiction traces Ray's family history and child rearing in rural Georgia back in the 1960's. You'll find old ladies moon shining and poor people just as proud and noble as any war hero. Just as any storied southern place ha...more
This work of non-fiction traces Ray's family history and child rearing in rural Georgia back in the 1960's. You'll find old ladies moon shining and poor people just as proud and noble as any war hero. Just as any storied southern place ha...more
May 24, 2009
Jennifer
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading autobiographical and ecological writing.
Recommended to Jennifer by:
It is on Rick Darke's reading list.
Shelves:
non-fiction
"What cracker is this sames that deafes our eares with this abundance of superfluous breath?" -Shakespeare
Hardly a boaster or braggart Janisse Ray' has slowly woven together the stories of the Longleaf pine forest and her childhood growing up in a strongly rooted poor,junkyard family in Georgia. While some reviewers disliked the way she twined together the ecology of the endangered Longleaf pine forest and the events of her youth, I found them desperate and comforting, showing the fragile streng...more
Hardly a boaster or braggart Janisse Ray' has slowly woven together the stories of the Longleaf pine forest and her childhood growing up in a strongly rooted poor,junkyard family in Georgia. While some reviewers disliked the way she twined together the ecology of the endangered Longleaf pine forest and the events of her youth, I found them desperate and comforting, showing the fragile streng...more
I was really excited by this book in the beginning, but as the chapters went on, there were diminishing returns. The early chapters of lyrical explanation of the longleaf pine ecology and childhood memoirs of growing up poor and white in a southern junk yard were all very compelling. But then it started to feel like an MFA nonfiction manuscript that needed fleshing out with a few portraits of family members and what must have been op-ed pieces or hometown paper articles added in. At times Ray se...more
Very interesting and highly readable memoir of a girl's childhood in a poor, white, highly religious family in rural Georgia. Her family includes all kinds of whacked but lovable characters, and her dad runs a sprawling junk-yard for a living. There are all kinds of interesting contradictions in her life that she struggles with... She basically grows up in a dump and her family has literally trashed the land, but she ends up being obsessed with nature and championing the longleaf pine ecosystem...more
Had to bring this one back to the library, finally. After 9 months, they wanted it back (and since my days as a grad student are over, I can't borrow books for that long anymore :( )
Anyway, if you are looking for a fast-paced, witty memoir of growin' up cracka' in the south, this ain't it. If you liked Rachel Carson when you were younger, live anywhere in the southeastern US and have seen the pine forests, or have taken enough biology and environmental science classes to know and care about the...more
Anyway, if you are looking for a fast-paced, witty memoir of growin' up cracka' in the south, this ain't it. If you liked Rachel Carson when you were younger, live anywhere in the southeastern US and have seen the pine forests, or have taken enough biology and environmental science classes to know and care about the...more
Another unusual childhood--or are they all like that? Publishers Weekly: Ray, a poet and an environmental activist..(combines) memoir and nature study. She presents detailed observations of her family members, most notably her grandfather Charlie, who was 'terrifying, prone to violent and unmerited punishment'; her father, whose decision to buy a tract of land near Highway 1 and turn it into what became a massive junkyard with a house in the middle set in motion the key events in Ray's life; and...more
A beautiful intertwining of the author's personal story and the story of the longleaf pine forests. They used to cover the south and east of Georgia for mile after mile, and were decimated for profit and to build the cities of the Northeast. When they went, all the interdependent flora and fauna were decimated, too. A story of loss of those forests that parallels the loss of cypress forests and, I understand, mahogany forests as well.
Date I read this (guestimated) -- 2001
Date I read this (guestimated) -- 2001
This book is a series of beautiful meditations on the ecology and landscape of southern Georgia along with narratives from the author's childhood. She makes a few insightful points about the relationship of social oppressions and ecological destruction, and I found her gentle feminist slant refreshing without being righteous. Unfortunately, the meditative quality of the book grew tiresome by the end and I finished feeling like Ray failed to articulate her most important ideas.
I grew up a "Georgia Cracker" not very far from the author. Her writing made me long for my hometown. She is very passionate in her love of South Georgia. She made me look at my beloved southern roots with different eyes. I admit that my strong connection to the area of which she speaks may make me love this book more than other readers but honestly, if you love Southern writing and ecology, this book is for you!
I liked this book, It is a testament to growing up In Southeast Georgia as a junkman's daughter, and her realization over time of the unspeakable environmental devastation inflicted on the eastern US, in particular the almost total destruction of the Long Leaf pine ecosystem. It makes you stop and wonder , what the hell were they thinking? Simply written,touching at times, and once or twice profound.
I expected a straight-up memoir but it includes a lot of ecological writing also. The chapters alternate between stories of Ray's family and peices on the endangered ecology of the longleaf pine forests that once blanketed large areas of the South. Through personal stories, Ray shows how "her people" - the poor, Southern whites - desperately relied on the land for survival which has been to the detriment of the land's own survival. She did a great job of painting a picture of her childhood; thou...more
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“I carry the landscape inside me like an ache. The story of who I am cannot be severed from the story of the flatwoods.”
—
5 people liked it
“Turning back to embrace the past has been a long, slow lesson not only in self-esteem, but in patriotism—pride in homeland, heritage. It has taken a decade to whip the shame, to mispronounce words and shun grammar when mispronunciation and misspeaking are part of my dialect, to own the bad blood. What I come from has made me who I am.”
—
1 person liked it
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Ever read Derrick Jensen (sp?). Seems like he'd be right up your alley from an environmental standpoint.
Apr 23, 2010 12:29pm
Apr 23, 2010 12:45pm