Bone Deep in Landscape: Writing, Reading, and Place

Literature of the American West Series

by Mary Clearman Blew

The great-granddaughter of Montana homesteaders recalls her rancher's life of physical labor, cruel weather, and beautiful vistas with affection but without nostalgia.

Genres: Writing, Essays

197 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Mary Clearman Blew is the author of the acclaimed essay collection All but the Waltz and the memoir Balsamroot. She is the editor of When Montana and I Were Young: A Memoir of a Frontier Childhood, available in a Bison Books edition. Her most recent novel, Jackalope Dreams, is also available in a Bison Books edition. She is a professor of English at the University of Idaho and has twice won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, once in fiction and once in nonfiction. She is also the winner of a Western Heritage Award and the Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

Reviews

[Cm · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot to be said about writer from Montana--first, of course, that there A LOT of them...and Blew is another in a long and fairly star-studded list. That's not to say that everything that comes out of Montana writers is good and not somewhat redundant. In this collection of essay's Blew is examining her time in Montana and then talking of her time now in Idaho (yes, she is one of my advisor's, but no, we are not facebook friends..). This book is very feminine and that shows in many of her essays. She is examining her family and her role in it, but not so much because of the geographical environment, but because of the people and their stories as they filtered down to her. For aspiring writers of the Memoir genre, it is a good study, for those maybe interested in the particular areas Blew is from, or on female independence, it is worth your time...but it is not my favorite book if you are seeking something genuinely Montana or genuinely Idaho. This is an earlier work of hers and I think there are better. If you come across a copy and can pick it up, it'd be good to have around for a story here and there, but I doubt it will change your life.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovingly crafted narrative of place, a beloved place where the land is memory and memory is eternal. Mary Clearman Blew writes of Montana and beautifully weaves the narrative of her personal history and path to writing with the western writers who have come to represent the canon.

I want to go to Montana and see these places, follow the Big Sandy and wonder at the sky.

Thanks for persevering Mary Clearman Blew, for telling stories, for finding the women writers who told a different story and for teaching.

--Ashland Mystery

[Vanessa Hall-Belluscio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great autobiographical collection of essays by Blew, mostly focusing on the landscape/history of Montana and Idaho. She traveres literary criticism, autobiography, and nature writing beautifully. If you know those states, you will particularly like this collection.

[Andy Arthur · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sounds like a good book, but I'm under impressed by the writing style -- not super interesting to me.