Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The only constants in nature are change and death. Terry Tempest Williams, a naturalist and writer from northern Utah, has seen her share of both. The pages of Refuge resound with the deaths of her mother and grandmother and other women from cancer, the result of the American government's ongoing nuclear-weapons tests in the nearby Nevada desert. You won't find the episode in the standard history textbooks; the Feds wouldn't admit to conducting the tests until women and men in Utah, Nevada, and northwestern Arizona took the matter to court in the mid-1980s, and by then thousands of Americans had fallen victim to official technology. Parallel to her account of this devastation, Williams describes changes in bird life at the sanctuaries dotting the shores of the Great Salt Lake as water levels rose during the unusually wet early 1980s and threatened the nesting grounds of dozens of species. In this world of shattered eggs and drowned shorebirds, Williams reckons with the meaning of life, alternating despair and joy.
the Great Salt Lake, there is much to learn about the long term consquences of our short sighted acts. Everyone should read and reread and pass on this book.
Honest and unique, September 28, 2000 - Reviewer: Ken Parsons from Idyllwild, CA USA
Rarely has the inner landscape of a person's soul been so honestly described in print. Terry Tempest Williams presents us with an intensely personal look at herself and still manages to remain the private person behind the book. This is no small feat... and the writing in "Refuge" is up to the task. This is very lyrical writing and could easily remind us of an older tradition of verbal story-telling and the passing on of history from generation to generation. Williams has a recurring theme in her work: that of being connected with and living fully in the physical earth surrounding her. "Refuge" illustrates this connection beautifully as the flooding of Great Salt Lake parallels her own journey through death in her family, her realization that these deaths were not innocent and, finally, her acceptance that she herself is looking down the barrel of a gun. Very haunting, sad in places and yet full of life, "Refuge" is a very unique way of looking at some of life's most demanding challenges. I sincerely hope that the author is able to avoid that fate which she leaves us thinking about at the end of the book and I applaud her decision to be so brave and honest with her writing. "Desert Quartet" by the same author is an absolutely priceless little book, and "Refuge" is the second book by this author I have read. I look forward to more releases from this dynamic and very relevant author.
The perfect marraige of nature and family life. . ., February 9, 2003 - Reviewer: wood031 from Tuscaloosa, Alabama USA
Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting and attending a reading by Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. At the time, I was unfamiliar with her work, but I was nevertheless astounded by her presentation. Immediately, I bought two of her novels-- one of which was Refuge. When I read it a few months after meeting her, I was amazed at the tone and emotion in the text. Williams' book can be a source of peace or healing to many whether you have experienced cancer, a loss, or just adore nature. The language is rich yet gentle. The structure of the narrative is such that, during reading and after, a reader feels she has experiences a unique marriage of nature and family issues. The way in which Williams weaves the Great Salt Lake and its inhabitants with her own family's suffering is not only amazing but especially touching as well. Just as the waterfowl and other creatures are evicted from their home during the great rise and flood of Salt Lake, so does William's mother fight for the domicile and dominance in her own cancerous body.
This is a must read. A wonderful story of love, hardships, and more love, REFUGE is a truly breathtaking piece of art. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. |
