Linda M. Hasselstrom

I've had this book, FEELS LIKE FAR, on my shelf for nearly two years now, bought along with some other books about the modern American west. At the time I'd been reading some Montana memoirs by Mary Clearman Blew and Annick Smith which I enjoyed tremendously. Unfortunately, I didn't like this one nearly as much. I'm not sure why, because the writing itself is certainly very good. Perhaps it's because Hasselstrom seems stuck in her obsessing about the thorny relationship she had with her show more adoptive father for the last couple decades. The particular thorn in this case was her father's belief that women didn't need all the education that his daughter had sought and earned; that their rightful place was as a dutiful and unquestioning good ranch wife as Linda's mother had obviously been. The author herself was torn between her love of the land - the South Dakota ranch where she'd grown up - and her love of books and writing. And therein lies her perpetual dilemma, which she beats practically to death in this memoir.

I liked the parts in which she talked more about her personal life - her childhood and her two marriages. She had no children, only stepchildren, which may possibly be why she continues to obsess over her difficult relationship with her parents, even as she nears fifty. What she does write about her parents' failing health, both physical and mental, is easy to relate to and quite affecting. But it gets quite literally done to death here, and I began to wish she'd just get over it. Her descriptions of the nighthawks flights and near mystical encounters with buffalo and elk are excellent, as are her memories of her close friend, Margaret, who becomes an early AIDS victim after receiving tainted blood transfusions following a horrific auto accident.

I liked this book and I didn't, depending on which part I was reading. It seemed uneven in that respect, flashes of brilliantly beautiful writing, followed by long stretches of near poetic musing which became tiresome. Maybe this is more a book for women. I didn't feel that way about Blew's ALL BUT THE WALTZ and BALSAMROOT or Smith's HOMESTEAD, which had steady narratives that carried you effortlessly forward. This one simply didn't work as well for me. In the end I was just glad to finish it. show less

Loved the short story format that weaves together across the chapters into an understanding of ranch life, the great plains, living, and dying.

Hasselstrom's prose is tight, yet eloquent. Her search for the relationships that build community in urban Cheyenne and rural South Dakota becomes the fulcrum for the stories she tells. Great read!

DNF. I had high hopes for this book. The quality of the writing is quite variable. I get that this isn't a literary anthology, but some pieces are poorly organized, repetitive and/or confusing. After yet another one of those, I put it down for good.