"As far as you can see in all directions, wave after wave of ridges and canyons, draws and valleys, and fortresses of rock walls placed among hair like billows of sparkling greens and distant shades of blue."
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A Place in Time by Janice Longpre Trafford Publishing
book review by Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
This memoir set in a place that is rapidly disappearing in the new world of modern times is exquisite. The author's descriptions of the natural environment he grew into and loved are vivid and poetic. The stories of the people and animals he grew to love are deeply moving.
As a child he was first afraid of the Indian people who ventured down toward his family's ranch to hunt and store up food for the winter. Then he came to understand and care about them, to feel the wrong that was done to them, because he had a strong sense of right.
Some chapters are about relationships with animals that are moving and soulful. In some chapters he relays events that are truly tragic but he does so without self-pity. Over the years, he tried hard to assist his handicapped father in the running of the ranch, supplementing what they could make raising cattle with a hunting guide business and later as a lumberjack.
The final tragedy occurred when, to his surprise and without first discussing it with him, his father felt compelled to sell the family ranch to a corporation for half its value. This event was tragic not only for the author but for friends in his community who had come to love the place. He ends on a note of gratitude that he was privileged to experience this place in time before it was too late. The reader can feel privileged to be guided there.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review