Rating: 
Summary: Gripping
Review: I have never felt compelled to review a book on Amazon before, but after reading Blunt's memoir I needed an outlet for my praise.
This is a beautifully written book. It's the first memoir I've read that I couldn't put down. In fact, it kept me up several nights. Blunt crafts her words with precision and poetry, and her story is fascinating. I eagerly await her next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fact vs. Fiction
Review: I heard Judy Blunt read a portion from this in Great Falls, MT, and I eagerly bought the book. The writing is a notch above most of what's published today, and the story was compelling and so important. I'm younger than Ms. Blunt, but many of the same issues with women, families, and power in the West haunted my adolescence. However, I couldn't help but be disappointed by the local paper's coverage of Blunt's admission that the sledgehammered typewriter scene I'd just finished was made up. I understand how emotional truth shapes the memoir, but the scene as written leads the reader to take it as literal truth, and that's just not fair play in the realm of memoir. I still recommend the book in earnest, just not as wholeheartedly as I first wanted to.
Rating:
Summary: a must read, beautiful book
Review: I just finished reading this book and as I was closing it, I realized I had on my hands one of those books that go on my special shelves with the books that I call my favorites, the ones that I know I will want to read again, and maybe even again. I was intrigued and fascinated by her life, by her family's life, and the life of the community that surrounded her growing up. The author wrote with such passion and her style of writing was so perfect, I found myself reading some paragraphs or pages twice before I moved on, just to enjoy the beauty of her writing.
Even though it is really none of my business, I really wished the author had gone more into how she made the break from the life she was living, what gave her the courage, and I also want to know how her life is now. Again, maybe it is not my business, but I wasn't ready to let her go when the book ended.
I think any "city" person, interested in a life far removed from their own, would enjoy this book, and anyone else interested in book that you can wrap around you with writing that is poetic and eloquent, will also enjoy this book. Don't miss this one!
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT READ, BUT NO ENDING!
Review: I loved this book, but at the end Ms. Blunt skipped from the early years of her marriage to the day she left with her three children. I felt cheated that she did not reveal the details that led to the breakdown of her marriage. I also thought she hinted at being gay, and also gave evidence of an early drinking problem but she never elaborated on either issue.All in all, I would recommend it, but I felt as though she only told half of her story.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait
Review: I ordered this book March 18 (used) and it didn't arrive til mid April. It was in excellent condition and made a very enjoyable read. I was raised in rural western Montana, not in the North central area as was Judy Blunt. Our experiences were very similar, even though she was born about 10 years later than me. She presents the hardships and the pleasures of rural life very accurately. I would recommend her book to those who like regional writing and biography.
Rating: 
Summary: breaking clean by judy blunt
Review: I was appalled at this book, I grew up on a ranch close to the one she writes about. Her facts about ranch life are mostly untrue and I believe she was on a vindictive rout of the people on this ranch. I do understand that she has since retracted much of the book, but after she took all her 15 minutes of fame. What has happened to her. I was furious so see such a blantant piece of writing get so much play. There are such good books about ranch life she should never again create any piece of writing and expect the public to be so duped.
Rating:
Summary: breaking clean by judy blunt
Review: I was appalled at this book, I grew up on a ranch close to the one she writes about. Her facts about ranch life are mostly untrue and I believe she was on a vindictive rout of the people on this ranch. I do understand that she has since retracted much of the book, but after she took all her 15 minutes of fame. What has happened to her. I was furious so see such a blantant piece of writing get so much play. There are such good books about ranch life she should never again create any piece of writing and expect the public to be so duped.
Rating: 
Summary: don't play false with readers
Review: In one of the books early chapters, Judy's husband-to-be comes to her father's house to ask for her hand. Father and suitor sit and drink together on the porch and arrange the marriage. Judy waits inside with her mother, hoping her mother will say "Run." The reader is led to believe that the much older suitor came out of the blue and that Judy was dealt to him to be a rancher's wife. It's a nice scene, until some chapters later when readers find that the couple have been seeing each other for years. It's too bad the author didn't play square with readers. The descriptions of Montana, ranching, remoteness, families are lovely. There was nothing to gain by the lie, and readers to lose.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written memoir
Review: It is clear that after reading Judy Blunt's powerful memoir, "Breaking Clean," that this is a woman of uncommon personal strength, tenacity and courage. Simultaneously extolling the special beauty and transcendant character of the eastern Montana praires and blasting the subtle but pervasive sexism which limits the full development of Montana women, the memoir holds back no punches. In lean, clean prose, Ms. Blunt explores the pivotal events of her life which eventually compelled her to break the mold of not only her own life, but the expectations of those whose impact on her life she sought to escape. This memoir is at once liberating and harrowing, humorous and saddening, gentle and ferocious. "Breaking Clean" attempts to extol the power of communal memory and shared experience by isolated women. Blunt discovers that despite geographic separation, women's experiences "translate into the same feelings." Her own life's history encourages her to conclude that "what mattered most was the story, the truth of what we tell ourselves" and eventually pass down to subsequent generations of women. The author never loses sight that while she lovingly describes the desolate beauty of a Montana praire and gracefully acknowledges its impact on the development of a unique personality, she does not permit geography to exert a deterministic power over her own self defintion. In this sense, Blunt, from an early age, has declared war on restrictions which bound her from full development. Nowhere is this more vividly described that her useless battle with her own physical maturation. Outraged over her bodily changes occurring during puberty, Blunt tries to lance her own breast buds as a protest against anatomy's restrictions and social proscriptions due her lot as a woman. She resolves to battle sexist barriers with a burning desire to become an equal among rancheers. In an atmosphere where hard work and unsentimental vision are moral imperatives, where, as her grandfather proclaims, "This is no country for fools," Blunt develops a premature understanding of women's subordinate place. She winces at the scorn attached to the phrase: "women's work" and recoils at the idea that her mother is not accorded equal status despite her prowess inside and outside the home. This rage against silent powerlessness follows Blunt as she undergoes her own personal transformation. With descriptive language that borders on the lyrical and narrative detail that spares no-one, Blunt chronicles her life on a family ranch, the emerging independence she relishes as a high-school student living away from home, and her eventual entrapment in a sterile, repressive marriage. Her anger never degenerates into self pity, her courage never wanders into hubris. Though criticized for the inclusion of an event later discounted and repudiated, "Breaking Clean" is a vital and important memoir. Absolutely American in its affirmation of rugged individualism, uncompromising in its advocacy of equality and proudly praising the soaring, mysterious attraction of the Montana praire, this memoir will elicit strong reader response.
Rating:
Summary: fierce, powerful evocation of personal discovery and place
Review: It is clear that after reading Judy Blunt's powerful memoir, "Breaking Clean," that this is a woman of uncommon personal strength, tenacity and courage. Simultaneously extolling the special beauty and transcendant character of the eastern Montana praires and blasting the subtle but pervasive sexism which limits the full development of Montana women, the memoir holds back no punches. In lean, clean prose, Ms. Blunt explores the pivotal events of her life which eventually compelled her to break the mold of not only her own life, but the expectations of those whose impact on her life she sought to escape. This memoir is at once liberating and harrowing, humorous and saddening, gentle and ferocious. "Breaking Clean" attempts to extol the power of communal memory and shared experience by isolated women. Blunt discovers that despite geographic separation, women's experiences "translate into the same feelings." Her own life's history encourages her to conclude that "what mattered most was the story, the truth of what we tell ourselves" and eventually pass down to subsequent generations of women. The author never loses sight that while she lovingly describes the desolate beauty of a Montana praire and gracefully acknowledges its impact on the development of a unique personality, she does not permit geography to exert a deterministic power over her own self defintion. In this sense, Blunt, from an early age, has declared war on restrictions which bound her from full development. Nowhere is this more vividly described that her useless battle with her own physical maturation. Outraged over her bodily changes occurring during puberty, Blunt tries to lance her own breast buds as a protest against anatomy's restrictions and social proscriptions due her lot as a woman. She resolves to battle sexist barriers with a burning desire to become an equal among rancheers. In an atmosphere where hard work and unsentimental vision are moral imperatives, where, as her grandfather proclaims, "This is no country for fools," Blunt develops a premature understanding of women's subordinate place. She winces at the scorn attached to the phrase: "women's work" and recoils at the idea that her mother is not accorded equal status despite her prowess inside and outside the home. This rage against silent powerlessness follows Blunt as she undergoes her own personal transformation. With descriptive language that borders on the lyrical and narrative detail that spares no-one, Blunt chronicles her life on a family ranch, the emerging independence she relishes as a high-school student living away from home, and her eventual entrapment in a sterile, repressive marriage. Her anger never degenerates into self pity, her courage never wanders into hubris. Though criticized for the inclusion of an event later discounted and repudiated, "Breaking Clean" is a vital and important memoir. Absolutely American in its affirmation of rugged individualism, uncompromising in its advocacy of equality and proudly praising the soaring, mysterious attraction of the Montana praire, this memoir will elicit strong reader response.
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