Customer Reviews

Hungry for the World: A Memoir

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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

When Kim's first book "In the Wilderness" came out, I was mesmerized by the poetic language and the compelling story of her youth. "Hungry for the World" continues where Kim's first book left off, with an equal or greater power. I have a great respect for Kim, who can share the dark periods of her life with others and do so with such clairty and beauty that she can shatter that darkness with the light in her heart. I have seen Kim read in person, and her speaking voice and her voice on the page are one in the same: spellbinding and beautiful. This is a body of work that will be remembered and respected for a long, long time.

Kim Barnes' *Hungry for the World* is a rivetingly bare and poetic examination of how Barnes translated the patriarchal, authoritative practice of her family's (especially her father's) Pentecostal faith into a hunger for worldly experience that resulted in a troubling, dark relationship with a disturbed, disturbing, and seductive boyfriend. Barnes carefully, vividly, and intelligently chronicles this relationship, exploring how she allowed herself to become entangled in this man's destructive world. As with her first book, this memoir explores family and faith and misguided love, but never does she lay blame, never does she attack. Kim Barnes works to figure out Kim Barnes.

I love to read first person accounts of high altitude mountain climbers and in the midst of a narrative I'll think, "My goodness! How will this climber ever survive this ordeal?" But I know the writer survives because s/he wrote the account I'm reading!

I felt the same way reading this memoir. I was so engrossed in the dangerous turn Kim Barnes' life took, that I couldn't believe she would survive it -- but, I said."She has to. She wrote this book!" The memoir is harrowing. It's hopeful, too. Kim Barnes left the dark side, even if the dark side never quite left her.

After reading Kim's first book, I'd search the biography section of my local bookstore at each visit, waiting for her next release. I am in awe of Kim's writing style, her beauty, her intelligence, her sculpting of words and memory, the gentleness with which she can now hold and stroke the most difficult and violent moments of her life.

Part of the beauty of Kim's work is the way she captures so well the landscape of north Idaho. Where handguns make no sense in the hands of teens as we listen to the news of junior and senior high school student shootings, the guns of teenage hunters are revealed to have a place in the wilds of this part of the northwest. Where rivers dammed for their energy use and the plight of the salmon make news nationwide, her writing helps readers glimpse the construction of the dams and the memories and homes that were drowned in their building. The only helpful addition to her skillfully crafted word pictures in this book would be a map of the Clearwater Valley inserted as a bookplate to help the reader have a visual sense of the geography of the area.

On a more personal level, reading Kim's book helps me to better understand this woman who was my undergraduate classmate at Lewis-Clark State College. It helps me to understand why the young woman who was equal in chronological age seemed so much more mature, more knowing, more insightful to the ways of the world in as applied to the literary classics we read and discussed together. I now have an inkling why I could not *know* Kim then, when the trials she had encountered were still so fresh. So I now marvel that her coming of age story -- part of it so horrific -- can now be shared so beautifully. The second 20+ years of her life have given her the perspective to write with kindness the story of the girl she has been, who continues to live within her side-by-side with the woman of grace she has become.

I highly recommend this book to other mature readers who have come of age through unspeakable trials. I am grateful Kim has given voice to the unspeakable.

Kim Barnes has created a masterpiece of her experiences. Writing with candor in a style almost poetic I read her memoir with my breath held. She describes the horrors she lived though in the same fluid manner she describes the woods where she thrived. Without judgement she writes of her younger self with insight born of suffering and self discovery. She shares her life now in little asides about her children and the lush paradise she makes her home in today. She spoke to me deeply. I must confess I had brought the book as a novel and when I read the last page and discover this was a true story I fell to my knees in wonder and amazement at the rendition of herself. Having knowlege myself of abuse from both the church and sexual I can only say that I was proud that a women could write of both with such beauty. She has transcend herself. It is both a book of beauty and courage. I can only be reminded of a poem in blank verse. Thank you Kim Barnes. It is a book I will keep and give to my friends. It is wonderful.

I must admit that I find Ms. Forest-Miller's "review" almost offensively empty-headed, nothing more than a chance for her to trot our her credits in upper-division psych classes. The simple fact of the matter is this: Barnes' HUNGRY FOR THE WORLD is a work of literature, and F-M approaches it like a specimen in a petri-dish. Nevertheless, it is a fact of Amazonian democracy that even show-off, wooden-ears can write their ersatz reviews. I'll wager that we never see a book by Ms. F-M listed in Amazon, unless it is some sort of big-eyed but soulless self-help dreck or, worse, some sort of academic blather. It won't be literature, as HUNGRY FOR THE WORLD so triumphantly is. Fifty or a hundred years from now, readers will be reading Barnes' work and knowing more about what it means to be human. Perhaps F-M will have grandchildren.

Kim Barnes was my instructor at Ropewalk Writer's Retreat and I consider myself fortunate to have "studied" the craft of creative nonfiction with her. She is a master of communicating the idea of the secret self that develops in most women from her background [Religious Fundamentalism] I was not raised in the same denomination but I was familiar with the lifestyle enough to understand. It wouldn't have mattered because I think Kim Barnes tells the story of EVERYGIRL and the confusion that comes with sexual maturity. I had to smile at the references to sloe gin, Harvey Wallbangers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and a car that had only one gear! More importantly, Kim tells a courageous story of finding self and safety. If you are a 40-something woman, you will smile at times and cry at others and you will close this book knowing more about yourself. A must read!

The follow-up to In The Wilderness, Barnes' incredible language and lovely lyrical prose make this memoir a fast read and one that will allow you to stop and reflect on the similarities from her life to yours. The bravery of sharing her story stood out most. We all have stories, all them in need of telling, but not many have the courage to do so. We all benefit from this book and Barnes' ability to tell her story with all it's complications and experiences, that most have hushed in the past. Barnes' ability to break the codes of silence we all feel at one time or another make this memoir one that cannot be forgotten.

Kim Barnes' HUNGRY FOR THE WORLD was an eagerly awaited sequel to her lst novel, INTO THE WILDERNESS. Kim is an incredible author. Not only is she very gifted, she is most courageous in reliving her most initmate memories of a very difficult past. This is a painful book to read, hard to understand and justify unless you have lived (and really lived) the seventies, but regardless of the depth of her dive, her true character remains just enough alive in the background to warrant our hopes for her future.

Since attending her reading in Ashland, Oregon, of her first book, IN THE WILDERNESS, I have waited for the sequel to answer so many of the questions raised by that first memoir. There are still questions I want explored and my only criticism is that she packs so much human experience into such a short space that the time and events sometimes pass too quickly, leaving me shaking my head as to what has yet to be fully explained. On the other hand, she explains more than I could expect from any woman who has gone through such a troubled transition.

This is a wonderful book. This is a wonderful read. She is my hero for having the skill and courage to write so eloquently about her life. This is an Oprah slam dunk. I'm waiting expectantly for the next one.

TT.

This is an incredible memoir that takes the reader on a very dark journey through the world of pain and despair. The writing is very rich and poetic at times, but some parts are very disturbing and you wonder how she will survive. The journey starts when Barnes runs away after graduating high school from a suffocating Pentecostal home environment only to be lost in a series of bad jobs as well as complicated and emotionally charged relationships throughout most of her young life. At times it's a hard book to read even though the language is beautiful. However, if you stick with it, you will find that this is also a powerful story of forgiveness as she develops a sense of peace in her life. This is one of those books you will never quite forget.

As lovely as her first memoir, Hungry for the World demonstrates that Kim Barnes writes beautifully. Although Hungry for the World retells some stories from her first memoir, I did not mind reading them again. In poetic fashion, she tells of her experiences beyond her strict Pentecostal upbringing in a world where she falls prey to an extremely controlling and dangerous man. The account is breathtaking.