Jonathan Arnold reviewed PrairyErth by William Least Heat Moon
Review of 'PrairyErth' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I can't imagine a book that I would be less likely to not only read, but really enjoy, than PrairyErth. Never mind personal rule breaking books like The Book Thief or Gone Girl, but rather a pretty massive book of over 600 pages, which is a "deep map" of a single county in Kansas, of all places. Not too fond of the Midwest, really, but Least Heat-Moon, author of [b:Blue Highways|63832|Blue Highways|William Least Heat-Moon|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344263821s/63832.jpg|1383812], spins a remarkable tale of history, land, religion, Native Americans, murder, bigotry and more. It kept me turning the pages until the very end.
In this book, which he calls a deep map, Least Heat-Moon spends years exploring every nook and cranny of Chase County, Kansas. He splits the county into 12 even sections and spends a few chapters on each section of the county. Sometimes he might write about early explorers, other …
I can't imagine a book that I would be less likely to not only read, but really enjoy, than PrairyErth. Never mind personal rule breaking books like The Book Thief or Gone Girl, but rather a pretty massive book of over 600 pages, which is a "deep map" of a single county in Kansas, of all places. Not too fond of the Midwest, really, but Least Heat-Moon, author of [b:Blue Highways|63832|Blue Highways|William Least Heat-Moon|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344263821s/63832.jpg|1383812], spins a remarkable tale of history, land, religion, Native Americans, murder, bigotry and more. It kept me turning the pages until the very end.
In this book, which he calls a deep map, Least Heat-Moon spends years exploring every nook and cranny of Chase County, Kansas. He splits the county into 12 even sections and spends a few chapters on each section of the county. Sometimes he might write about early explorers, other times about the fauna, plenty of times about the vegetation, both native and invasive plants, and stories of the characters that inhabit the county, both past and present.
He keeps it interesting by varying his methodologies, in ways that reminded me of Neal Stephenson's [b:Baroque Trilogy|823|Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1)|Neal Stephenson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1377095669s/823.jpg|1610031]. Some chapters might be a complete flow of consciousness. Other times, he will relay a courtroom drama. Sometimes it might just be lists (of pioneer equipment, or trees, or birds) and other times full of quotes from other sources. So it seemed like there were plenty of voices that kept the stories from being stale.
The only downer were a few chapters near the end on the inevitable destruction of the Kaw tribe. Just the typical "white man's guilt", where they were just completely screwed over. And then it leads into a contemporary squabble of the tribal leaders. Just ugly.
But the last chapter is a nice travelogue, as he and a friend follow the Kaw trail across the entire county. I really enjoyed the book and can't wait to try some of his others. Heck, I haven't even read Blue Highways, which was the book I was looking for when I grabbed this one. He is an engaging, passionate writer who really entertains.
Some of the stories I really enjoyed were the ones on Sam Wood, an agitator who paid the ultimate price for having strong opinions. And a murder trial, which didn't seemed to end satisfactory. And the fatal plane crash of Knute Rockne. And how each section on a part of the county was led off by 8 to 10 pages of quotations that give you a hint of the chapter's focus.