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 ...
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Apr 09, 2010
Eric
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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
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Jan 09, 2011
Amanda
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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 " 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 " More...
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Nov 10, 2011
Ayla
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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, 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, More...
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Mar 10, 2008
Terry
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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
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Nov 03, 2011
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...
Jan 16, 2011
Mommalibrarian
rated it:
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
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Apr 13, 2009
Rachel
rated it:
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 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 More...
Nov 05, 2009
Katy
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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 More...
However, it does show the importance of human use More...
Dec 29, 2011
Dave
rated it:
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
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Apr 21, 2009
Mbarkle
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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, of More...
I felt like it ended without a definitive resolution, of More...
Jun 22, 2011
Judy
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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
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Sep 24, 2010
Debbie
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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
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May 24, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
"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, show 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, show More...
Sep 30, 2008
Lauren
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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
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Dec 20, 2007
Carrie
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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 ecosyste
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Jul 03, 2009
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 c 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 c More...
Apr 11, 2007
judith
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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
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Jul 26, 2011
Beth
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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.
Oct 09, 2011
Beth
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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!
May 07, 2010
Kate
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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 child
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Dec 13, 2009
Bill
rated it:
Writer and activist Janisse Ray explores her relationshiop to nature through the lens of how she grew up -- on her dad's junkyard, amidst the unique but almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem. Great characters -- including her almost mythic grandfather -- great nature writing, a passionate plea for understanding of the natural world and its conservation.
Jul 23, 2009
Allison
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Chris Caspary--thanks for recommending thisd title to me. After reading Rick Bragg's phenomenal memoir, I didn't think I could read a southern memoir that could compare. I was wrong. Ray writes poetically and lovingly about her father who loved his family so hard, whilke battling his own mental illness. She writes of her growing up in a junkyard, her brothers and sister, her mother and extended family with a keen eye, big heart, and shares memories that she obviously treasures. She writes o
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Oct 25, 2010
Skipr
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Ray alternates between descriptions of the nearly extinguished Gulf Coast Long Leaf Pine habitat and her childhood growing up in a family of Georgia crackers rooted in that habitat and in "cracker culture." I really liked the book because it captured so much of both the natural and cultural habitat that I grew up in.
Oct 04, 2010
Sarah
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This book rotates between stories of the author's life and stories about the land she grew up in. Very well-written and interesting. I didn't learn much because I skimmed the ecology stuff, but I'm sure I would have learned a lot had I paid more attention. I found it more entertaining than informative.
Jun 19, 2009
Satia
rated it:
Another time I wish that half stars were an option. They aren't and because I think this memoir has a more narrow audience, I'm erring on the side of conservative vs. generous. For my full review:
http://satia.blogspot.com/2009/06/ecolog...
http://satia.blogspot.com/2009/06/ecolog...
Jan 11, 2010
Barbara
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I met Janisse Ray when she visited Lubbock a few weeks ago. She gave one of the most engaging readings -- combining her poetry and her prose -- I've heard in a long time. I like her style and appreciate her perspective, born of a unique upbringing, on the natural world.
Sep 13, 2010
Melinda
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Greatly enjoyed this memoir about growing up poor in the South. Ray writes with love about her crazy, religious daddy and the long leaf pine. The chapters aren't really connected, but if you read the book as a series of well-crafted essays, you won't be disappointed.
Aug 27, 2010
Eleanor
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This is a memoir of Janisse Ray, who is a naturalist and environmental activist. It is very, very well done - and very moving - Janisse grew up in a junk yard and it seems like heaven to me - great family characters - beautiful writing - It really is a lovely book.
Mar 11, 2010
Chriser123
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NITE BOOK CLUB - I enjoyed the story of the Janisse life being raised in Georgia. Her family was poor but loving. The chapters about the ecology of the woods and animals was a little difficult to understand without being an environmentalist. Overall I still like it very much.
Feb 22, 2009
Shannon
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This book is a beautiful memoir and sometimes startling social commentary. I was supposed to read it for a book group years ago and am excited that I finally got to it!
