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Down from the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging Paperback – March 1, 2014

by Joshua Dolezal (Author)

3.8 13 ratings

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A lyrical coming-of-age memoir, Down from the Mountaintop chronicles a quest for belonging. Raised in northwestern Montana by Pentecostal homesteaders whose twenty-year experiment in subsistence living was closely tied to their faith, Joshua Doležal experienced a childhood marked equally by his parents’ quest for spiritual transcendence and the surrounding Rocky Mountain landscape. Unable to fully embrace the fundamentalism of his parents, he began to search for religious experience elsewhere: in baseball, books, and weightlifting, then later in migrations to Tennessee, Nebraska, and Uruguay. Yet even as he sought to understand his place in the world, he continued to yearn for his mountain home.

For more than a decade, Doležal taught in the Midwest throughout the school year but returned to Montana and Idaho in the summers to work as a firefighter and wilderness ranger. He reveled in the life of the body and the purifying effects of isolation and nature, believing he had found transcendence. Yet his summers tied him even more to the mountain landscape, fueling his sense of exile on the plains.

It took falling in love, marrying, and starting a family in Iowa to allow Doležal to fully examine his desire for a spiritual mountaintop from which to view the world. In doing so, he undergoes a fundamental redefinition of the nature of home and belonging. He learns to accept the plains on their own terms, moving from condemnation to acceptance and from isolation to community. Coming down from the mountaintop means opening himself to relationships, grounding himself as a husband, father, and gardener who learns that where things grow, the grower also takes root.

Print length

190 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University Of Iowa Press
Publication date

March 1, 2014
Dimensions

6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1609382390
ISBN-13

978-1609382391
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“From a mountaintop childhood of baseball, the Bible, huckleberry picking, and revival meetings, Joshua Doležal narrates his story of outmigration. Yet, even as he recounts his escape, the high rugged home lives irrevocably inside Doležal, just as it will haunt the reader after experiencing this lush, transporting, and heartfelt memoir.”―Debra Marquart, author, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere

“Joshua Doležal traces the map of his life with the instincts of a poet and the sure direction of a cartographer. Intimate and lyrical, his story is one of fallen faith, found love, and the way we must sometimes circle back to find what we have lost.”―Kim Barnes, author, In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country

About the Author

Joshua Doležal currently lives half a block from the town square in Pella, Iowa, where he teaches creative writing, American literature, and sustainability at Central College. His essays and poems have appeared in journals such as The Kenyon Review, Shenandoah, and Fourth Genre.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Of Iowa Press; 1st edition (March 1, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 190 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1609382390
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1609382391
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20,665 in U.S. State & Local History
- #24,804 in Nature & Ecology (Books)
- #32,370 in Memoirs (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.8 13 ratings

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3.8 out of 5

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N Smith

Well-written and Engaging Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015

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I couldn't put this book down. Part of it is that I grew up in his childhood area, knew his family, and had similar religious upbringing; but even it this were not true, I would love this book. His writing is lyrical, and use of metaphor in his descriptions very tasteful. Raw, honest, engaging, humorous, warm and non-judgmental, he takes the reader along with him on his journey from the surety and absoluteness of fundamental religion to the expansion of his mind and spirit and a larger world-view.

6 people found this helpful

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Dana Black

Down from the Mountaintop

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2014

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I read this for a book club and overall enjoyed it. It's not a book I would have picked up on my own, but that is the purpose of joining a book club. Overall, it kept me interested and motivated to finish.

3 people found this helpful

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DavesHon

Hard to Finish

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2019

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Good start but long stretches of "ho hum." Towards the end I struggled to finish this never ending story so I finally gave up just before the last chapter which I skimmed through and found nothing worth reading. I had high hopes for a good story buy I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

One person found this helpful

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Dan Rose

Great memoir/coming of age story

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2014

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I really enjoyed this book. The story is compelling, the prose is easy, and the imagery is vivid; plus, I worked with the author for some of his summers in Montana.
Congratulations on a great first book, Josh (Dozer)!

4 people found this helpful

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Michelle Hamm

Essence Of the Past

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2017

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Amazing book! Josh's writing has the essence of the great writers of the past. His book was poetic and beautiful!

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Andrew Jon Gideon

Awesomeness Learning on the job of life

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

excellent read ... I can picture the scenery in Montana and feel the transitions of life challenging the author ...

3 people found this helpful

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Timothy J. Bazzett

A good writer, a frustrating read

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2014

My feelings about Joshua Dolezal's first book, a memoir called DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP, are mixed. My most immediate reaction was one of profound irritation at the way he tries way too hard to be the tragic hero of his own story, about a life which has not really been all that extraordinary. Boy grows up poor (but probably not terribly), the son of fundamentalist zealots in the mountains of northwestern Montana. Plays baseball, picks berries, plants gardens. In high school his right-wing beliefs make him feel isolated and 'different.' Can't get a date. Goes off to a private college in Tennessee, determined to be a lawyer. Experiments with alcohol and drugs, loses his religion. (Yawn) Doesn't find pre-law all that interesting and tests poorly in government and poli sci. Likes to read, so changes his major to English. Still can't get a date. Works summers clearing brush and fighting fires in the forested mountains of Idaho. Calls this his "Forest Service career" and attempts (unsuccessfully) to make high drama out of lousy bosses, co-workers and subordinates. Enamored of the works of Willa Cather, goes to grad school in Nebraska. (Oddly, he says almost nothing of those years.) Sappily follows a girl to Uruguay where he spends part of a year teaching bratty sixth graders and is mostly miserable. Girl ignores him, goes off with a sugar daddy. Still can't get a date. Finally lands a teaching job in the flat farmlands of central Iowa. Pines for the mountains of Montana, but plants some roots (and a garden) and, probably most importantly, FINALLY gets a date. Gets married in fact, and proceeds, we assume, to live "happily ever after." The End.

There is an air of martyrdom and pretentiousness in Dolezal's story, which all too often turns into over-the-top exasperating melodrama that left me talking to myself in frustration. Because here's the thing: Dolezal is a very good writer, one who has obviously read voluminously. He understands and uses well the rich rhythms of the language. There are many sentences in here that are a pleasure to read aloud. Here are just a couple examples -

"Pelicans spiral over the spillway, skating to a stop on the water ..."

"I can still feel the hum of the wheels, the dance of my feet, sprockets spinning and spinning, their teeth tugging the links of the chain."

So yeah, in regard to language itself, Dolezal displays the sensibilities of a poet. Poetry, in fact, may well turn out to be his métier. This story? Like I said, mixed feelings. Largely frustrating and exasperating, but with some good stuff here and there. A very promising writer trying too hard to make opera from an ordinary life. Maybe he wrote his own story a little too soon. Some years and seasoning will, I think, make a world of difference, and the next book - whether poetry or prose - is bound to be better. I'll watch for it. (three and a half stars)

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

56 people found this helpful

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