Customer Reviews

Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains

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People from the prairies of South Dakota and North Dakota aren't pretentious. Well, some might be, but they tend to stand out in miserable ways. Linda Hasselstrom's writing is like the people of her home: careful, persistent, simple, surprisingly complex, fascinating. Your own family and home may be very different from Hasselstrom's, but through her writing you'll gain a better understanding of your own people and place of origin. Hasselstrom is a master; she shows us how to cherish the tribes we were born into, despite the inevitable losses and disappointments of life. She ranks right up there with Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl.

I unboxed this book, flipped open some pages to preview and before I knew it, I had read 60 pages standing in my kitchen. Legs buckling, I sat and finshed the book in one sitting. The book is compelling because Hasselstrom's storytelling makes you want to read further, but also because her writing mesmerizes the soul. I found myself rereading sentences and hanging on the beauty of her unique prose. "How does she write like this?" I kept asking myself. Her ability to take you within the moment is unsurpassed. You don't need to be a cowgirl to enjoy this book, but if you are, you'll finish it in one sitting--or standing--like I did.

Reading this book was a wonderful experience. What a touching story of a family that develops as all families do; realizing we love our family members even more when we accept them loving us the only way they know how. All this against the backdrop of a still unspoiled area of America. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this region, history or living.
Allen

I've had this book, FEELS LIKE FAR, on my shelf for nearly two years now, bought along with some other books about the modern American west. At the time I'd been reading some Montana memoirs by Mary Clearman Blew and Annick Smith which I enjoyed tremendously. Unfortunately, I didn't like this one nearly as much. I'm not sure why, because the writing itself is certainly very good. Perhaps it's because Hasselstrom seems stuck in her obsessing about the thorny relationship she had with her adoptive father for the last couple decades. The particular thorn in this case was her father's belief that women didn't need all the education that his daughter had sought and earned; that their rightful place was as a dutiful and unquestioning good ranch wife as Linda's mother had obviously been. The author herself was torn between her love of the land - the South Dakota ranch where she'd grown up - and her love of books and writing. And therein lies her perpetual dilemma, which she beats practically to death in this memoir.

I liked the parts in which she talked more about her personal life - her childhood and her two marriages. She had no children, only stepchildren, which may possibly be why she continues to obsess over her difficult relationship with her parents, even as she nears fifty. What she does write about her parents' failing health, both physical and mental, is easy to relate to and quite affecting. But it gets quite literally done to death here, and I began to wish she'd just get over it. Her descriptions of the nighthawks flights and near mystical encounters with buffalo and elk are excellent, as are her memories of her close friend, Margaret, who becomes an early AIDS victim after receiving tainted blood transfusions following a horrific auto accident.

I liked this book and I didn't, depending on which part I was reading. It seemed uneven in that respect, flashes of brilliantly beautiful writing, followed by long stretches of near poetic musing which became tiresome. Maybe this is more a book for women. I didn't feel that way about Blew's ALL BUT THE WALTZ and BALSAMROOT or Smith's HOMESTEAD, which had steady narratives that carried you effortlessly forward. This one simply didn't work as well for me. In the end I was just glad to finish it. - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir BOOKLOVER

I really enjoyed "Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains" by Linda Hasselstrom. The accounts she chose to include are all common to us with aging parents. Family needs, wishes and dynamics all play important roles in how well we relate to one another. Sometimes the "unspoken" is more powerful than what is said. The one quibble I could make is that I was compelled to sit up and read the whole book in one sitting, but I am looking forward now to re-reading "Feels like Far" and savoring the stories individually. Wish I had more self-control the first time around. Sleep is good too! (-: