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Summary: insight into a harsh world
Review: A riveting collection of essays about the harsh and beautiful world of growing up isolated on a dude ranch in Northern Wyoming in the 60's. And the sad consequences of a sensitive boy being forced to "be a man" by an intransigent father. Striking is how good the boy was at his assigned tasks, but that the lifestyle just didn't take. So he wanders about, lost between two worlds, not knowing what happened to him. Spragg can write!
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Summary: growing up cowboy
Review: As a person who also grew up in the NW part of Wyoming in the time period of this book there is much here that resonates. To me this was the journey of a young boy expected to be a man, perhaps sooner than he should, expected to be self sufficent, to put emotions aside and to deal with life at it's basic level-- in essence to grow up "cowboy". In that journey Mark could have turned hard and cold, instead he became introspective and uniquely sensitive to the world in which he lived. As an adult he examined in detail and with prose those relationships and rememberances and gave them to us. If you have ever wondered what happened to the cowboys of the long-ago-time they are here in this book. These days few people can live by or appreciate that philosophical outlook and even fewer try to maintain the effort. At times this was a hard read, often harsh and emotional, but an excellent trip. It was also a rememberance of wonderful Wyoming and home. Thanks Mark.
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Summary: A Great Story, not just great literature
Review: Call me an unsophisticated reader if you will but when I read a book, I do it for the story without much caring about the greater and deeper meaning. As I read Spragg's book I got to BE a "horse girl", I got to BE a ranch hand. I got to work a dude ranch and have far more responsibility than I could have imagined at that age. I got to live that life and still get the kids to soccer on time. It is the adventure I couldn't have imagined then and desperately needed now in my mid-forties with far less exciting responsibilities. I nearly passed on the book after reading the reviews, fearing it was too much "Art" and not enough "Story". Not only am I delighted I read it but am anxiously awaiting Spragg's next adventure.
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Summary: I loved this book!
Review: Having never heard of Mark Spragg, I bought this book because it was the winner of the 1999 Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award. I can hardly wait for him to write more! The beauty of this book is how the author relates events of his life, particularly his boyhood, with such matter-of-fact innocence and honesty. I marvel at how candid he is with his thoughts and feelings. Wyoming comes alive because of the vivid pictures he paints with his words. I feel thankful that I found this gem of a book! This book also has a recommendation by Teresa Jordan, author of Riding the White Horse Home, another of my favorite books.
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Summary: What a wonderful book!
Review: I absolutely loved it...and I'm from the East. I hated for it to end. This man can WRITE! You must read this book -- it's transporting!!!
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Summary: You can almost physically feel the words of this book
Review: I found this book totally amazing. When I'm forced by my daily routine to put it down, I can't put it out of my mind. Phrases such as "I didn't want to die, but death seemed less than a lifetime away," haunt me all day long. Spragg has an amazing ability to make the places and experiences, especially of his childhood, hyper-real in my mind. I can feel the cold river water, the stale-adrenalin fear, the deep emotional aches that he writes about. A wonderful book for anyone who relishes life.
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Summary: Shared memories
Review: I have been to the places Mark Spragg wrote about. I spent summers at Rimrock Ranch and lived in Powell. I know the painter but not his son.(I knew the daughter) I was the daughter of one of the hunters from the east. I did not want his stories to end. The writing was descriptive, concise, from the heart and told of another side of life than what I knew. Yet there were some shared memories; the horse "bear baits", the rivers, the cold, the horses, the boys/men on the ranches. Thank you for these stories, these reaches into your life. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know if your pain ended. Thank you for these memories. I'm sending this book to my brother and to my male friends who know these rivers.
Rating:
Summary: Shared memories
Review: I have been to the places Mark Spragg wrote about. I spent summers at Rimrock Ranch and lived in Powell. I know the painter but not his son.(I knew the daughter) I was the daughter of one of the hunters from the east. I did not want his stories to end. The writing was descriptive, concise, from the heart and told of another side of life than what I knew. Yet there were some shared memories; the horse "bear baits", the rivers, the cold, the horses, the boys/men on the ranches. Thank you for these stories, these reaches into your life. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know if your pain ended. Thank you for these memories. I'm sending this book to my brother and to my male friends who know these rivers.
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Summary: Wonderful memoir of childhood
Review: I have never been within a thousand miles of Wyoming, and never sat on the back of a horse - but I was entranced by this book, or at least by the first three-quarters of it. It is sad that the child is so often more attractive than the man - full of promise and idealism and vision which are thereafter never truly realised. The final 3 or 4 chapters are really rather sad: here we see the middle aged Mark, childless, one failed marriage behind him, semi 'new-age, into philosophising about life, with (seemingly) litle of that earlier promise actually realised and much of the vitality gone. I longed to meet with the younger version; as for the older, I felt I already knew him in myself and many other men of a 'certain age'. But I will never forget those earlier chapters, and am better for having met with the young Mark Spragg and his brother.
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Summary: Best book I've read this year
Review: I know the lanscape where Mark grew up and live in the state of Montana where folks are much the same. Unlike some books I have read lately about life in the western culture, this book was so true, uplifting, about wonderful people and so beautifully written, that I could not wait to read a new chapter. I know these people, but with different names. Mark was very courageous to write about his rather stark yet rich childhood existence and his father's expectations of a boy who was more a man. I have given this book to many friends and will keep on recommending it as one of the best books I have read in a long time. Even if you don't know horses, you will after this read. I hope Mr. Spragg's life has a happy ending.
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