book data
80 ratings, 3.75 average rating, 37 reviews
(more data...)
edit
published
July 3rd 2006
by Counterpoint Press
binding
Hardcover, 270 pages
isbn
1582433453
(isbn13: 9781582433455)
description
In the tradition of John McPhee and Kathleen Norris, a wry, moving memoir about a family farm, a father, and a daughter, and why it's so hard to go ho...more
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
friend reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 147)
Read in July, 2008
I grow tired of reading memoirs, since it's the quick and easy way to publish for tenure-hungry academics. But Marquart does something here that is unique, carefully tiptoeing self-indulgence for the greater ideas of history, legacy, land and place. Her history weaves with the landscape, with the legacies of the family and the struggles of place in such a way that you are drawn to that desolate place, hungry to discover its underlying waterway.
What makes this piece so wonderful, aside from ...more
What makes this piece so wonderful, aside from ...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in July, 2007
I bought this book at a used bookstore a couple months ago based solely on the cover and the description on the book flap. I had read a few pages of it here and there put never really got into it. And then I picked it up again recently, started reading from the beginning, and became thoroughly consumed with her writing. I finished over half of the book in that first day, and the rest of it by the end of the week. She touches on a number of ideas around growing up in the Midwest that I am just be...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
As a native North Dakotan, I can say that this book, at least in the chapters regarding North Dakota, is spot on in capturing the essence of life on the prairie in the late 2oth century.
I had the extreme pleasure of listening to the author speak at Bismarck State College, and get an autographed copy for myself and for my daughter. My daughter, like the author, was all too eager to leave the state. My hope is that she, like the author, may one day realize just what she left behind when she vi...more
I had the extreme pleasure of listening to the author speak at Bismarck State College, and get an autographed copy for myself and for my daughter. My daughter, like the author, was all too eager to leave the state. My hope is that she, like the author, may one day realize just what she left behind when she vi...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in October, 2008
I was connected to Fargo's literary "scene" many years ago and first encountered Marquart as a writer of poetry. I would classify her as a poet, who also writes prose. She writes with a poet's style, infused with rich language, metaphors, and details.
In her story of growing up in a small-town in North Dakota, Marquart weaves in references to literature, to geology, to history... that help us understand where she is from, but also show the connectedness of all these disparate things...more
In her story of growing up in a small-town in North Dakota, Marquart weaves in references to literature, to geology, to history... that help us understand where she is from, but also show the connectedness of all these disparate things...more
Like this review?
yes
3 comments
Read in August, 2008
I am not entirely sure what to think about this one. I was asked to read it for work (I work for a small liberal arts college) as they are doing a campus learning experience around this book.
I think she is a really great writer, wonderful imagery, and this book was an interesting and quick read. I also enjoyed her often mentioning different "midwest" cultural aspects, which I can certainly identify with.
I was initially a little put off by the description of this book as I tho...more
I think she is a really great writer, wonderful imagery, and this book was an interesting and quick read. I also enjoyed her often mentioning different "midwest" cultural aspects, which I can certainly identify with.
I was initially a little put off by the description of this book as I tho...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
I enjoyed "The Horizontal World"; the writing was poetic, sensual, and lush and it compelled me. The memoir is about Marquart's troubled relationship to the small, rural world of North Dakota where she grew up. She does a fantastic job of evoking the strangeness of the agricultural, North Dakota landscape -- and why that was so strange to her. That aspect of the book really interested me. And she says some really interesting things about home, land, and sexuality. But the memoir was al...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This is truly a marvelous memoir of growing up during the latter part of the boomer generation. Ms. Marquart's sense of style and flow can only come from someone with a musical tradition & experience. HIGHLY RECCOMEND
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
Thank heavens for airport bookstore and panic to find a book - quick! before I miss my plane. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have stumbled upon this wonderful memoir. I recommend it to all memoir readers.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
Having myself grown up in (suburban) North Dakota and moved away after high school, I was especially interested in reading Debra Marquart’s account of the “middle of nowhere”. I think she captures well the universal conflict of return that anyone who leaves home wrestles with as an adult, and the particular one which comes from living in, and leaving, this under-populated and under-known northern state. Her inclusion of the history and landscape of the area -- while sometimes awkward -- h...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
those who have fled the middle-west
I suspect much of this material may not ring true to suburbanites and city mice but having also been raised on a farm in the Dakotas, about an hour south of the author's, I feel that she gets so many details right: Saturday nights of L. Welk, families coming together to butcher chickens in July, gravel pit parties and the grinding and often dangerous chores of farm kids. I enjoyed this book b/c it was so relatable - others might also appreciate the common themes of flight and return. Also recomm...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
Memoirists take note - my patience is running thin with you lot. Memoir/personal non-fiction is one of my not-so-secret loves but only, and I do repeat only, when there is a point to it. Simply stringing together some essays on your life under some vague over-arching themes ain't going to do it. I picked this one up because having grown-up on the Canadian Prairies, I am a sucker for wide-open spaces like North Dakota. But too long, too loose and most importantly - WHY? Why this book, this person...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2006
I met the author at the North Dakota Library Association's conference in the fall of 2006. I bought the book because I wanted to support a local author and because the cover is so damn pretty! Yes... I judged the book by it's cover.
It's a fantastic book and a bittersweet memoire of the author's life growing up on the plains of North Dakota... and her struggle to fall in love with the place she grew up in. I love the details of this book. I was able to imagine myself with her in North Dako...more
It's a fantastic book and a bittersweet memoire of the author's life growing up on the plains of North Dakota... and her struggle to fall in love with the place she grew up in. I love the details of this book. I was able to imagine myself with her in North Dako...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2006
Debra Marquart writes of her experiences growing up in a small town in North Dakota. The chapters are little vignettes. This is clearly a memoir, not a chronological biography. Marquart is a very gifted writer. She writes eloquently and doesn't rely on cliches in her work. The only reason why I didn't give it five stars was because I thought the last chapter was a disappointment and didn't belong with the rest of this exceptional book.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
WRITERS
This is a gorgeous memoir in essays about growing up on a farm in North Dakota. It's also a lovingly honest portrait of a daughter's relationship with her father. The writing owes a big nod to Nabokov's SPEAK, MEMORY, as it combines history, geology, geography, myth, and personal memories.
I've recommended this book to my MFA students who are writing about the West and/or working on memoirs.
I've recommended this book to my MFA students who are writing about the West and/or working on memoirs.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
North Dakota. Who'd have thought I could fall in love with North Dakota. A story of her father, her life, the wild tangled place where she grew up and her wild teenage heart. I was most fascinated by the book's structure and how she leaped from topic to topic seemingly without transition and yet it held together in a cohesive narrative form.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2007
I loved this book. I was so impressed by Debra Marquart's reading at Winter Wheat in 2006 that I couldn't wait to buy the book, and I wasn't disappointed. Though at times I thought she was maybe pussing a little too hard, for the most part I adored the stories, the dispersement of facts/research, and the beautiful depiction of landscape.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
My sister Karol heard this author at the SD Festival of the Book and bought copies for her sisters! Can't wait to start.
A wonderful collection of essays on growing up and leaving the middle of nowhere. Her North Dakota sensibilities (no matter how she tries to reject them) rang true for me. Sad ultimately but genuine reflections.
A wonderful collection of essays on growing up and leaving the middle of nowhere. Her North Dakota sensibilities (no matter how she tries to reject them) rang true for me. Sad ultimately but genuine reflections.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Impeccably written. Engaging and clever and never didactic or annoying. This is a beautiful book. Read it as you drive across America. Read it if you're from somewhere hateful and dear and flat. I've now read it twice in one week, once aloud and it only got better. The best book I have read in a very long time.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
I faintly recognize some of the names, and my Grandpa now lives in her hometown. And we're both somewhat related to Lawrence Welk. I've either lived part of her life, or known someone who has. Anyone from rural/small town ND will see at least a part of themselves in this book.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I am from North Dakota. About 90 miles from Napoleon. I can relate to a lot of what she wrote. Quite a bit left me wondering what the heck! There were a few places where I literally scanned over her explanations. Some parts were just so disjointed, and confusing.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
to-read
(on 46 people's shelves)
currently-reading (on 12 people's shelves)
memoir (on 4 people's shelves)
counterpoint (on 2 people's shelves)
favorites (on 1 person's shelf)
books-read-in-2008 (on 1 person's shelf)
sociology (on 1 person's shelf)
place (on 1 person's shelf)
dakota (on 1 person's shelf)
non-fiction (on 1 person's shelf)
More shelves...
currently-reading (on 12 people's shelves)
memoir (on 4 people's shelves)
counterpoint (on 2 people's shelves)
favorites (on 1 person's shelf)
books-read-in-2008 (on 1 person's shelf)
sociology (on 1 person's shelf)
place (on 1 person's shelf)
dakota (on 1 person's shelf)
non-fiction (on 1 person's shelf)
More shelves...
groups with this book
