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Summary: Understanding how the Northern Plains shaped a culture
Review: Read this book while planning a trip to N. Dakota. In a captivating and readable style Ms. Norris gives insight into how the climate, isolation, and topography of the northern plains created a unique culture. The essays are told from the perspective of a participant in the culture, removed by one generation. As she returns "home" she learns the assets and liabilities of her ancestors' neighborhood. This book really helped me to see ND as more than a cold, flat, empty space
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Summary: Earthen meditations.
Review: The subtitle here is "a spiritual geography" -- the book is roughly 20 percent northern prairie geography and 80 percent Norris' fascination with asceticism and monasticism. The book's great appeal to me centers on the fact that I spent my youth on these prairies and I recognize this landscape of drifting snow and lonely, abandoned buildings. Says Norris: "I prize the hiddenness of Dakota, ...[places] that in all likelihood few humans have ever walked... Dakotans know why they like living here, where life is still lived on a human scale..."
I found the prose evocative of Wallace Stegner's non-fiction, but with a deep spiritual center. The spirituality here is interesting, but (for me, at least) wears thin like the aging boards on a wind-bent barn. The life apart may be, in many ways, the spiritual easy-life, too easily romanticized. You'll find better books addressing meditative and practical spirituality. Perhaps I judge too harshly, you'll also find far worse. Within the scope of the physical and metaphysical landscapes considered, the book is an important one and Norris succeeds in wresting words from wells deeper than mere language.
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Summary: Thought-provoking but not wonderful.
Review: This book was recommended to me by my wife, who had read it as part of a church discussion group. I am not at all religious so I only accepted the proffer on the gounds that it would be a good travel book to accompany our vacation trip to North Dakaota. I found the book lacking in many respects. I can't comment on the spiritual portions obviously. As to the geographic descriptions, I came away with the feeling that Norris is not really happy with Dakota and really would be more comfortable in an urban area. In many ways I found her lamenting the loss of city life, instead of really comtemplating the small-town life. Further, her thesis bout small town life in tbe Dakotas really applies to small towns everywhere. I see the same problems in the small West Virginia town where my family has a weekend cabin and in the central North Carolina textile region where I grew up. Worldwide, small towns are declining and perhaps Norris is correct in pointing out some of the causes. Nonetheless, she fails to capture the awe and wonder of traveling the great plains of the United States. Norris did not manage to put what I always feel into words, but I have yet to capture the correct mood in my own words either. By the way, during our trip we pulled off Interstate 94 at Richardton, ND for a picnic lunch. As we drove back to the highway, my wife noticed a couple of steeples in an otherwise pretty abandoned town. We found the Assumption Abbey, a beautiful building quite at odds with the more pioneer appearance of the remainder of the town. A monk in robes confirmed this as the location of Ms. Norris's visits. I guess this sums up the experience of Great Plains travel better than the book -- it is a place where wonderous experiences, both good and bad, can occur at any moment. It is the mystery and one's insignificance in its midst that I could not ultimately find in this book.
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Summary: A Graceful Song of Silence
Review: This book, though not a book of poetry, is densely packed with ideas and images in the manner of poetry. When I left home, I left Christianity behind because I felt the Fundamentalism of my youth was "more about control than grace." I was raised with a "Monster God inside" me and yes, I have had a hard time regaining any trust and faith in the teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Now in my fifties, I find the gentle Benedictine truths Kathleen Norris reveals in this book luring me back to what I have rejected. Whether I return to the Christian faith or not, I feel this book has contributed to my spiritual growth. Kathleen Norris describes growth as the essense of conversion though the purpose of this book is not to convert. I don't think anyone of any faith can read this book and not be moved and enriched by the experience.
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Summary: Not what I expected
Review: This is the first Kathleen Norris book I've read, so my expectations were based on heresay from friends in Divinity school and other intelligent folk. But, based on the hype, I was expecting something revolutionary, inspiring, that would make me think. I forced myself to finish the book, and I'm glad that I did, because overall my impression improved. But I found the book very very slow (which is something I've heard many comment about others of her books). It would be best to read it a little at a time, don't plan to read it over the course of a week - take at least a month. There were some REALLY good chapters - I have them marked in mine, if you'd like a heads-up.
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Summary: From the Big Apple to Lemmon-a moving journey.
Review: This was one of the most enjoyable and stimulating reads I have had for a long time. It is doubtful whether any other reader of this book is so far removed, geographically, from Lemmon, South Dakota, (where the author Kathleen Norris lives), as myself. Yet, living in the open spaces of the wheatbelt in Western Australia allows me to probably identify with the author's situation more than a New Yorker (and NY city is where Norris relocated from - back to her family roots in SD). Her instinctive knowledge and portraits of small town life is applicable not only to her own patch, in the far northwest of SD, but also, in so many respects, to other lands.Kathleen Norris gives a nice blend of Dakotan history-interwoven with topical,personal and spiritual issues. The chapter on the small church at Hope gives a great insight into the dynamics of a small farming/ranching community. 'Getting to Hope' filled me with the same. Presumably, the great colour picture on the cover of 'Dakota' was of this prairie church that somehow typifies the spiritual geography,described by Norris in her text. The author's ecumenical bent is obvious by the fact that, although solidly Protestant, she values the monastic life and, as a Benedictine oblate, she takes the reader with her, 'on retreat,' behind the walls, giving a realistic appraisal of the community of Catholic monks and making some interesting comparisons between monastic life and that of small towns. Visiting 'the Big Apple' Norris is told by a dying friend, " I like the person you are becoming...those monks are good for you. Don't let them forget me." Norris notes:" Suddenly I saw...what monks are for. Their hospitality allowed us to say our goodbyes and allowed my friend a chance to bless me and charge me with keeping her memory." Any lingering notions that Norris had of monks being an anachronism went out the window and into the Manhattan night! In a sense, 'Dakota'did much the same for me. I read it in mid- January as I spent time in my parents home, usually alone, cleaning up after my step-father's death (on Christmas Day). Birth, death, new life are important subjects and Norris has the ability and strength of writing to gently make her reader reflect on these great issues. She writes for all, yet writes for one. (I suppose it is appropriate that I write this review on my birthday). In writing this book Norris has crossed many boundaries-far wider than the Great Plains. She has not made me want to visit South Dakota- I have wanted to do that for a long time- but she has ensured that when I do I will certainly take-in her remote part of the state. However, one doesn't have to physically travel to Dakota to make a great journey- that happens when you commence to read this book. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Wish Norris were my preacher.
Review: True, "Dakota" is a book you can set down for months, pick up again, and not skip a beat. For that reason, it's easy to not pick up again. But what Norris says when she gets down to it . . . . As one trying to connect back up to her own spiritual upbringing and trying to make sense of her spirituality in present-time . . . . whew! . . . I wish Norris were preaching at my church. The writing is accessible and approachable and intelligent. Norris sounds like one of us.
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Summary: Wide open spaces
Review: We have read of the emptying out of the population in selected areas of the prairie states. We have also read of the demise of the family farm because of competition from industrial-style farming operations and consequent over production. We have also read of the destruction of the habitat and other kinds of environmental abuses resulting in the near disappearance of the actual prairie eco-system. Some or all of the factors noted above have resulted in the creation of a new frontier. Kathleen Norris provides a subjective account of the same phenomena in her book, Dakota.In immediate and human terms she identifies the economic causes and cultural consequences of a broad regional trend. In places her commentary is caustic as she quotes someone who opines that now the farmers are becoming Indians, too, that is to say that everyone in the western areas of North Dakota and South Dakota is becoming marginalized. She describes well the defensiveness of the remaining people who question the motives of professionals who seek to settle in their midst, deeming that such individuals must be second rate or failures of some sort. Another related characteristic is the inwardness and the creeping parochialism of the community subject to population loss. It would seem that there is a loss of connection to the values of the greater society. She finds that in the course of her observations she has seen instances where families overvalue the children who manage to leave the region and undervalue those who remain to care for family members and to farm. It seems as if the children who stay in the region are seen as losers, diminished beings, who did not cope well in the competition of life. In addition to the bitterness imposed by psychology and economic circumstances, Norris leads the reader to a position of hope and opportunity in the creation of new American deserts suitable for personal artistic and spiritual growth. For example, deserts make people slow down and take stock of one's surroundings. They may heighten awareness as limitation of sensory input opens out to attention to detail and wonder.
Rating:
Summary: Wide open spaces
Review: We have read of the emptying out of the population in selected areas of the prairie states. We have also read of the demise of the family farm because of competition from industrial-style farming operations and consequent over production. We have also read of the destruction of the habitat and other kinds of environmental abuses resulting in the near disappearance of the actual prairie eco-system. Some or all of the factors noted above have resulted in the creation of a new frontier. Kathleen Norris provides a subjective account of the same phenomena in her book, Dakota. In immediate and human terms she identifies the economic causes and cultural consequences of a broad regional trend. In places her commentary is caustic as she quotes someone who opines that now the farmers are becoming Indians, too, that is to say that everyone in the western areas of North Dakota and South Dakota is becoming marginalized. She describes well the defensiveness of the remaining people who question the motives of professionals who seek to settle in their midst, deeming that such individuals must be second rate or failures of some sort. Another related characteristic is the inwardness and the creeping parochialism of the community subject to population loss. It would seem that there is a loss of connection to the values of the greater society. She finds that in the course of her observations she has seen instances where families overvalue the children who manage to leave the region and undervalue those who remain to care for family members and to farm. It seems as if the children who stay in the region are seen as losers, diminished beings, who did not cope well in the competition of life. In addition to the bitterness imposed by psychology and economic circumstances, Norris leads the reader to a position of hope and opportunity in the creation of new American deserts suitable for personal artistic and spiritual growth. For example, deserts make people slow down and take stock of one's surroundings. They may heighten awareness as limitation of sensory input opens out to attention to detail and wonder.
Rating: 
Summary: More spirit than geography
Review: When I read this book my expectations were high and remained on that level for the first 20 pages. After that I realized this book is less a realistic description of what life in the plains is like but appears to be the authors personal point of view on religion. She mixes up subjective opinions, religious terms and a pseudo-sophisticated, yet more symbolic language that destroys any kind of pleasure that one might find reading this. The description of harsh climate, life in lonesome, empty spaces is realistic but its nothing innovative that one wouldnt know about without reading this book. I think this opus might be interesting to read for everyone living in rural Dakota but to everyone else it is nothing but a mix of bible quotes, simple facts and personal experience as to be found in every issue of National Geographic (except the religious part...).
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