Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
Description
Details the author's journey through the 744 square miles and meeting the 3,000 inhabitants of Chase County, Kansas.
User reviews
LibraryThing member anterastilis
I'm claiming temporary defeat.
I love, love, love Least Heat-Moon's other two books with a reckless passion. Blue Highways blew my mind and I consider it to be one of my favorite books, certainly my favorite Travel book. River-Horse was a joy to read. I read it while in Prague: for a while, I was
But PrairyErth. William Least Heat-Moon wrote in this book a "Deep Map": a thorough map of one county in Kansas. History, geography, geology, sociology, religion, everything. About Chase County, home to some of the last tallgrass prairie in the United States.
This book is enormous, at least twice the size of his other two books, but covering a much smaller space. If it were not for his beautiful writing style, I would have put it down long before now. The beginning was quite fascinating - descriptions of what the tallgrass prairie looked like before agriculture and settlements flattened it: grasses so tall that the Indians would have to stand on their horses to see over the waves. Can you imagine that? Doesn't that just level the playing field - animal, human, predator, insect...all hidden from each other in a virtual sea of grass? I found that concept particularly appealing, and I read the first part of the book with this in mind.
But as time wore on and the book wore on and on...I had to come to grips with the fact that I would not be able to finish it. At least not right now. It was in no way torturesome to read, but it kind of reminded me of watching baseball on television: it's engaging, but minimally so. It doesn't require much brain activity. It was lyrical and easy, a minor stimulation. Like listening to one of those 'atmospheric' recordings that is meant to be meditated to, not enjoyed on it's own.
Listen to me make excuses. Can you tell that I had a hard time deciding to put this book down? I'm going to do it and move on to something different - and will come back to it later.
I love, love, love Least Heat-Moon's other two books with a reckless passion. Blue Highways blew my mind and I consider it to be one of my favorite books, certainly my favorite Travel book. River-Horse was a joy to read. I read it while in Prague: for a while, I was
Show More
more involved with the waterways of the United States than I was with the centuries-old city that surrounded me.But PrairyErth. William Least Heat-Moon wrote in this book a "Deep Map": a thorough map of one county in Kansas. History, geography, geology, sociology, religion, everything. About Chase County, home to some of the last tallgrass prairie in the United States.
This book is enormous, at least twice the size of his other two books, but covering a much smaller space. If it were not for his beautiful writing style, I would have put it down long before now. The beginning was quite fascinating - descriptions of what the tallgrass prairie looked like before agriculture and settlements flattened it: grasses so tall that the Indians would have to stand on their horses to see over the waves. Can you imagine that? Doesn't that just level the playing field - animal, human, predator, insect...all hidden from each other in a virtual sea of grass? I found that concept particularly appealing, and I read the first part of the book with this in mind.
But as time wore on and the book wore on and on...I had to come to grips with the fact that I would not be able to finish it. At least not right now. It was in no way torturesome to read, but it kind of reminded me of watching baseball on television: it's engaging, but minimally so. It doesn't require much brain activity. It was lyrical and easy, a minor stimulation. Like listening to one of those 'atmospheric' recordings that is meant to be meditated to, not enjoyed on it's own.
Listen to me make excuses. Can you tell that I had a hard time deciding to put this book down? I'm going to do it and move on to something different - and will come back to it later.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Polaris-
A deep and lasting impression of a prairie county halfway along Highway 50, where the west begins, where the author senses a pervading Americana. I love William Least Heat Moon's books, and I took my time with this one - dipping in and out over months. It is so rich and varied - it has everything.
It truly is a 'deep map'. His writing on nature and the living earth is beautiful. The chapter nearer the end on the last full-blood Kaws was extremely moving and full of sadness. This book is rich with quirky interludes and oddities. I feel like I was there with him in every corner of the place. I loved it, and it has a perfect ending. If it had included more photographs It would get 5 stars. Why not?
Show More
Solid and absorbing, he builds a vivid picture of the characters who live in a place like Chase, Kansas, lived there, built it, worked it, farmed it, hunted it, sold it, crashed in it, and just about every aspect you could imagine. It truly is a 'deep map'. His writing on nature and the living earth is beautiful. The chapter nearer the end on the last full-blood Kaws was extremely moving and full of sadness. This book is rich with quirky interludes and oddities. I feel like I was there with him in every corner of the place. I loved it, and it has a perfect ending. If it had included more photographs It would get 5 stars. Why not?
Show Less
LibraryThing member slatta
Tied with Arctic Dreams for my favorite nonfiction book of all time.
LibraryThing member omphale23
A favorite author, and a book that takes apart the ways that a place, even a new place, can become something more than geography. The people, the history, the myths--all of these are part of what makes even tiny pieces of Kansas universal and worth visiting.
The requirement that all the stories come
With all its good points, this still isn't my favorite work by William Least Heat-Moon. The commonplace sections were more of a distraction than the addition to the narrative they were intended to be, and some chapters managed to seem like filler, a real misfortune given that others could have been considerably longer and remained insufficient.
Generally, I suspect that the author does better work when he's moving--the tension he feels at being confined to one place shows through despite his arguments that it doesn't bother him.
The requirement that all the stories come
Show More
from one county make it seen as if this book is overblown at first glance. A few chapters in, though, and the number of things that must have been left out become evident.With all its good points, this still isn't my favorite work by William Least Heat-Moon. The commonplace sections were more of a distraction than the addition to the narrative they were intended to be, and some chapters managed to seem like filler, a real misfortune given that others could have been considerably longer and remained insufficient.
Generally, I suspect that the author does better work when he's moving--the tension he feels at being confined to one place shows through despite his arguments that it doesn't bother him.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bookblotter
I read PrairyErth right after I read Blue Highways and, frankly, didn't quite know what to make of it. On one level, I really found the book fascinating, on another my reaction was "this is more detail than I want to know about a slice of Kansas" (no offense to Kansas folks or to the state).
I've
I've
Show More
promised myself that I'd read the book again; perhaps soon. Show Less
LibraryThing member mielniczuk
Love the land; love the people.
LibraryThing member MSarki
The boat was cool as was the idea. Just too boring for me however.
LibraryThing member Nero56
Whether he became too bogged down in one area, or the inspiration just wasn't there, this was an informative but not great read.
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Probably I'd call it a four-star book. I did read a fair bit of it I just don't have the patience for the whole thing right now, and I have to cull because we're moving. I will say I'd rather not have had so many other writers' quotes - a good annotated bibliography would have been sufficient imo.
Show More
I did skip ahead and read the last bit, Circlings, and that was cool. Show Less
LibraryThing member JBreedlove
An epic by WLHM. More whimsical but still a Kaplanesque look at a county in eastern Kansas. Walking all the roads and investigating history, economcs and people in the #heartland" of America. Lyrical and insightfl and full of material I was unfamiliar with. A unique book for sure. Almost a 5.
LibraryThing member earthwind
Beware - If you start reading this heavy book you will not be able to stop reading and put it down.
LibraryThing member greeniezona
This book was another buddy read with my dad. This has been on my shelves for YEARS, so picking this as a buddy read and reading a chapter a week was the perfect motivator to get through this. This is a deep history/reading/map of Chase County in Kansas. Heat-Moon divides the county with a grid and
Incredibly rewarding. Heat-Moon is a fantastic writer who makes thoughtful and surprising connections, and regularly writes paragraphs that stop me in my tracks. So good.
Show More
takes each sector as the focus for a chapter. My dad and I both grew up in Kansas, but neither of us has spent much time in Chase County. Along the way we learned about pack rats, Cottonwood trees, Sam Wood, Knute Rockne, native prairie grasses, and so much more.Incredibly rewarding. Heat-Moon is a fantastic writer who makes thoughtful and surprising connections, and regularly writes paragraphs that stop me in my tracks. So good.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jspurdy
I wondered if I would find a 600+ page book about a single county in Kansas able to hold my interest. While it took me awhile to get through, reading only a chapter or two each day, the answer was an emphatic yes. The author so completely immerses you in a sense of the place he is exploring, it was
Show More
impossible to stop reading it. On occasion, I skimmed through some of the "From the Commonplace Books" chapters of citations from other works about Kansas, but I never skipped through the author's own writings. Particularly recommended for fans of the travel genre. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Reading the West Book Award (Winner — Nonfiction — 1992)
Language
Physical description
624 p.; 25 cm
ISBN
0395486025 / 9780395486023