Naming the Winds: A High Plains Apprenticeship

Rating:
Summary: A Quiet Book with a Loud Message
Review: After I heard Caroline Marwitz speak on Wyoming Public Radio about her book, Naming the Winds, I had to buy a copy. You see, so many talented writers such as Gretel Erlich visit Wyoming, and are so taken and inspired by its stark, demanding beauty, that they end up staying a while and writing their best work as a result. And for this, all of us sensitive readers in Wyoming are very, very grateful. No surprise to me that Wyoming has this effect on people, as I have lived here nearly all my life.

However, with this latest quiet ode to Wyoming--and I fear that it will remain all too quiet without people far more influential than I shouting its virtues from the mountaintops--a Wyoming writer, someone raised here through her youth and early adulthood, has captured the true full naturalist's experience of this state.

Marwitz interweaves the narrative of a talentedly sensitive girl's apprenticeship on "The Prairie", as she calls it, with the fascinating story of her relationship with a mentor in the form of a much older woman willing to share her amazing background and a subsequently thrilling outlook on life. Though nonfiction, this book has a clear storyline, with direction, plot, climax, and a wonderful conclusion. That said, I would do a serious disservice to Naming the Winds if I didn't say that the strength of this book is the honest, non-high-fallootin', lyrical poetry used to describe the natural environment of the high plains. No other word but 'poetry' fits for many of the chapters of this great work.

The author's bio says that Marwitz is working on a second nonfiction work, as well as finishing a novel, Chameleon Man. I just wanted to say that she has at least one devoted reader and fan for all her future work in Thermopolis--one who is spreading the word every chance I get.

Plainly put: Anyone who thrives on naturalist works by western writers such as the late Edward Abbey, William Kittredge, and Terry Tempest Williams, will enjoy discovering this newest talented writer.

Rating:
Summary: A spiritual look at nature, the wind, and wild lands
Review: Naming the Winds is a small gem of a book that will be recommended by word of mouth, from one friend to another. It is organized by the seasons (mid-summer, late autumn, winter, deep winter, etc.) and by the winds that the author named as a child (Thunder Hoof wind, Silk Wind, Grass Comb Wind, etc.) Like many of us who grew up before computers and the internet, she roamed the wild, left-alone land behind her family's house in Laramie, Wyoming, and came to know the flowers, sagebrush, prairie dogs, and yucca as friends. Though I don't live in Wyoming, where it is set, I can identify with the author's sadness when the land she grew up on is bulldozed for streets and houses. She tells stories about an elderly woman who befriended her, who also loved to roam the land, and the "apprenticeship" she had with the elderly woman as she learned about the plants and flowers and skies of southern Wyoming. It's a quick read, but you'll want to take your time, as the author is a poet with images and colors. It'll make you want to go back to where you grew up and see if your favorite wild places are still there. I would recommend men buy this book for their wives, and women buy it for their mothers. I certainly am.