Review: Rightful Place is honest, clear and touching

'Rightful Place' by Amy Hale Auker,
Texas Tech University, 2011.The art of the essay isn’t as easy as it might seem at first glance. Write out an experience? Share something that happened to you once upon a time? No problem.

Of course nothing is ever that easy.
That first glance may be the mile high view, but sharing that experience in a way others will find touching, or at all interesting, necessitates a sharp mind and a skill for prose not possessed by every writer.
Amy Hale Auker pens her essays from an intimate and informed street level perspective, filling in nuances of color, thought, sound, and emotion not visible from the higher perspective, and with clarity only found in hard-fought experience. For her, that street view shows readers a dirt road, far from grinding city lights and wailing sirens, in a land where coyotes howl and bats flood the night.
Her book, “Rightful Place,” published in 2011 by Texas Tech University in their Voice of the American West series, brings readers into the mud and sun, the ice and anguish, of a southwestern cowboy’s life. Not always pretty, not always easy, but just as often inspiring in a way not found anywhere else in the world, Auker paints the world of a cowboy in startling clarity. Hers is a perspective born in the lifestyle, saturated by a love for wheat grass and dark skies, and so very real. Through her frank descriptions, which fit perfectly with the no-nonsense life of ranching family, a sense of grace and place emerge. One need not be a fan of western fiction to feel the wonder of Rightful Place.
For me, having worked in civil engineering for years, and having surveyed lands throughout northern Arizona, the prose sucked me back to those days of hard, dry land and frozen winter mornings so still it feels the Earth has stopped rotating. And I never thought I’d miss the years of working under southwestern clouds until I read Auker’s collection of stories.
While completely different in tone and tale, the author’s stories reminded me of essays written by the unforgettable artist and writer Andy Warhol. Both bring their heart to the page in ways that surprise and enlighten. Both excel at challenging what it means to be truthful in art, while hypnotizing readers at the same time.
Those looking for a quick, yet wholly touching literary taste of southwestern life will find nothing better than Rightful Place.
For more on Amy Hale Auker, visit her website here .
Click here to order Rightful Place.