Bad Land: An American Romance (1996)

Read 2016. ( )

Evocative. The Big Sky Country of Montana is a powerfully lonely place full of the abandoned houses and broken dreams of those who fell for what the railroads were selling.

Bonus for me was the Evelyn Cameron material. How nice for me that Bad Land included stories that didn’t make it into the book about her photography. She had a pretty good frame of mind for all the hard labor she did, keeping lists of the “Chores Galore!” In her diary. I liked learning that she got herself a banjo and a Victrola for entertainment.

Account of early settlers drawn to the Dakotas by unreasonable brochures and the hardships they faced. ( )

Early 20th Century settlers were lured to the Montana area for free land for settlement.
Over the years, the harsh conditions were too much for the majority of them
The author has returned to the area with a comprehensive report from the people who remained to settle these remote areas. ( )

I really enjoyed parts of this book and thought that it dealt with some of the issues in South Africa really well but I felt that the sections on the character's adult life were over-analysed and a bit over the top. The childhood section was good but also a bit overly poetic and symbolic at times - I felt the characters were overly self aware which made it a bit unrealistic. I enjoyed it though.