36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courage and Candor, October 23, 2007
This review is from: Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family (Hardcover)
I didn't know Lynne Vincent or Dick Cheney when I grew up in Casper,Wyoming. I did know, at one time or another, many people mentioned in Lynne Cheney's memoir. She has portrayed them accurately, from the stern Dean of Women at the high school to John and Shirley Gray who operated the best after-hours joint in town.
In my experience, as both a writer and memoir workshop leader, if a memoir isn't honest, candid, and courageous, it's just fiction. Cheney's book is definitely not fiction; it's what a memoir should be - candid, honest, and true. I know. I went to the same high school, walked the same streets, played in the same parks, shopped in the same stores, people watched with my parents on the same corner (2nd and Center), and cruised the same drive-ins. While that may seem to impart an obvious bias, I read Blue Skies, No Fences with a critical eye. The book did not disappoint me.
Casper wasn't, and still isn't, like anywhere else I've ever lived or visited. Isolated on the high plains, at the foot of a mountain range, Casper developed a unique character - half-Western, half-cosmopolitan. A boom town (and occasionally a bust town), it had an influx of energy, money, and culture that created a "can-do and it's your own fault if you don't" mentality.
Self-reliance was admired; success was encouraged. Individuals were judged on their own merit. If people harbored a prejudice, and I remember very few who did, it took second place to respect for an individual's character and efforts. Harsh winters and the omnipresent wind bred hardy people who approached life with a certain stoicism laced with humor. Cheney has deftly captured both the mood and the impetus of Casper in the middle of the 20th century.
With courage and candor, Cheney has opened the closets and introduced us to the skeletons. And, those skeletons have emerged as real people, with all their gifts and virtues, vices and shortcomings revealed.
I believe there are three basic approaches to memoirs: some write it like it really was; some write it like they wish it had been; some write it the way they think readers want it to be. Lynne Cheney wrote it like it really was at that time and in that place, neither glorifying nor exaggerating her hometown.
A carefully written, well-researched memoir enhances our collective history. It's this history that enables us, and future generations, to understand - indeed to vicariously experience - the spirit of a place or time different from the present. Cheney has written a true account that transcends nostalgia and provides another piece to the puzzle that is our American heritage.
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent view from the fence line, October 12, 2007
This review is from: Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family (Hardcover)
Lynne Cheney's self proclaimed "Valentine" to her home town of Casper, Wyoming is truly a captivating, inspiring and heart warming read.
For those of us in Generation X it is a detailed view of our parents' childhood - a time when the world encompassed your neighborhood and being respectful to others - despite race, creed or color - was modeled by all. At times the books demonstrates how far we have come as a society - the treatment of an unwed mother in the 50's versus the lessened social stigmas associated today - and how much we have lost since the glory post World War II days. Television was not the favored tool for rearing children in the 50's, it was the tool to bring families together to observe national events and celebrations.
Mrs. Cheney's writing is entertaining and at times quite humerous. It truly shows the 50's were a time that boys and girls could become whatever they set their minds and hearts too. It is an emotional story where we can all feel loss for those who are no longer with us.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A favorite of mine......, October 24, 2007
This review is from: Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family (Hardcover)
Maybe its the fact my families roots go back eight or more generations here in the west (Montana, Sierras of California) that I loved this book and any book that is about the richness and positive aspects of the rural wild west, where personal responsibility, self sufficiency, and common sense are the norm. Even in 2007. I also recommend Justice Sandra Day O'Connors book Lazy B which is about growing up in a cattle family here in the west. Both books show why so many of us call the west home. As well as why the west produces such strong smart women.
Fact is, the west builds character, because of the harsh summers, harsh winters, the need to be prepared because one often goes without power and cannot simply run down the street to a plethora of restaurants or stores. It also as the book notes, builds strong communities. And friendships that last thru thick and thin for decades. People have a tendency to stay put or as the saying goes, to put down roots. And as the author notes, the west makes for secure, thinking people. Quiet people who don't always have to be the center of attention. People who don't easily get flustered when those who denounce them or make fun of them, show up.
This is my favorite book by the author and is one I plan on giving as a gift to friends and family. Sure makes me happy I live here in the real west.
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