Hole in the Sky: A Memoir

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A worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold

Lost on the range

The frontier we all can imagine

Dispelling the romantic myth of the American West

Read once and then again

Hole in the Sky: A Memoir
William Kittredge
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
West | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679740066
Release Date: 1993-06-01

Book Description

William Kittredge's stunning memoir is at once autobiography, a family chronicle, and a Westerner's settling of accounts with the land he grew up in. This is the story of a grandfather whose single-minded hunger for property won him a ranch the size of Delaware but estranged him from his family; of a father who farmed with tractors and drainage ditches but consorted with movie stars; and of Kittredge himself, who was raised by cowboys and saw them become obsolete, who floundered through three marriages, hard drinking, and madness before becoming a writer. Host hauntingly, Hole in the Sky is an honest reckoning of the American myth that drove generations of Americans westward -- and what became of their dream after they reached the edge.

Customer Reviews:

A worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold.......2005-10-16

William Kittredge is a worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold. "Hole in the Sky" is both a personal memoir and a portrait of a vanished way of life in the remote Warner Valley in eastern Oregon. The author witnessed the end of farming with horse teams when diesel tractors came to the valley after WW II and changed the rural economy forever. Thomas Hardy's novels ("Far from the Madding Crowd" and others) tell a comparable story of the English countryside in the 19th Century, when the agrarian society that had existed for 400 years was disappearing. Mr. Kittredge also tells how the tractors meant the end of wild birds and mammals that had been part of his life in Warner Valley. He writes with an ecologist's eye for the land, reminiscent of Aldo Leopold in his "Sand County Almanac," a book that introduced so many of us to ecology and the concept of saving wild places.

Readers may be inspired to visit Warner Valley for themselves, and it is a worthwhile trip for lovers of the wild. I first went there 50 years ago, when it was still 36 miles from the nearest paved road. Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge protects the high fault-block mountain looming above Mr. Kittredge's valley. Its marshy lakes harbor many species of ducks and waterbirds. My brother-in-law just returned from a visit in September 2005, and he reports: "pronghorn antelope on the hillsides all 'round, glorious views in all directions, grand sweeping vistas." That's where William Kittredge comes from.

Lost on the range.......2003-06-14

Kittredge's excellent, thoughtful, and well-written book is a memoir of growing up on a ranch in southeastern Oregon. This is arid country where spring runoff from the mountains gathers in lakes and swamps used for millennia as a stopover by migrating waterbirds. Enter the enterprising Kittredge family, and during the 20th century thousands of acres here were transformed into a vast irrigated ranch, its chief output evolving from cattle to grain to hay to feed milling and feedlots. More to the point, they built an agricultural empire and became wealthy.

The author, born into this world in the 1930s, looks back from the vantage point of 1992, long after leaving the ranch behind and settling in Montana. What he sees is the wreckage of three generations blighted by ambition, greed, arrogance, and no small amount of alcohol. Kittredge talks often about how personal stories illuminate and ground people's lives, yet he and so many of the people around him are directionless and unmoored. His book is a story in which words like "reckless," "hapless," and "heedless" are often used to describe actions.

It is a painful book because there is so much heartache in it, so much confusion, shame, isolation, and fear. There are betrayals, infidelities, friendships and marriages ended, deaths from accidents and mishaps. In all of it, from earliest memories to those of a man on the verge of middle-age, the author describes a deep uncertainty about his own worth and his purpose in life. For many years, it seems to be only the grueling hard work of the ranch, which he only half understands, that keeps him distracted from a sense that nothing is real. (Steady consumption of alcohol and extramarital sex also figure into the mix.)

The book is something of a coming-of-age story about a young man whose manhood continually seems to elude him, well into his thirties. He can go through the motions in the hardworking environment of seasoned cowboys and field hands (an episode in which he takes the place of an injured hay stacker is an example), but he remains unsure of himself, wanting the security of the family ranch, while hating himself for not pursuing the writing career he believes is his real vocation. It's a wonderfully (and frustratingly) complex picture of a young man self-destructing. And in his seeming indifference to his own children, you sense a repetition of the same indifferent parenting that has led him into this emotional cul-de-sac. Significantly, he remarks often about the lack of a guiding hand to show him the way to be a man.

As a kind of confessional, it is a compelling book, and the impact of the story is underscored by the vast Western landscape against which it plays out. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the West and ranch life, cowboys, family sagas, and coming-of-age memoirs. As a companion volume, I'd also suggest Judy Blunt's ranch memoir "Breaking Clean" for its similar themes of emotional dislocation.

The frontier we all can imagine.......2001-10-02

William Kittridge's autobiography, A HOLE IN THE SKY begins in the wilderness around the foothills of southeastern Oregon and retells, in lucid detail, the events of his childhood leading up to his time in the Air Force, to his many marriages, to his emergence as a writer who writes in a prophetic voice with a great sense of prose.
Looking back to his childhood years, Kittridge aims to return to that innocent age and allow the reader to engage in his coming of age...to the point where your feet are engulfed in the wet grass of early morning dew, and you imagine the grandeur of taking care of 8,000 acres of open territory.

In the end, he claims that: "We are a part of what is sacred. That is our main defense against craziness, our solace, the source of our best policies, and our only chance at paradise." Thus, we are open to the realities that life, growing up on the western plains, was not an American historical fairy tale, but rather a true test of ones self-worth and distinction.
A wonderful read...I highly recommend!

Dispelling the romantic myth of the American West.......2000-09-17

I read this book to gain a better understanding of my cowboy neighbors in Eastern Oregon, but I gained so much more. Anyone with a passion for southeastern Oregon will love this book. At times, Kittredge's descriptions of the land are poetic. I found myself driving through Kittredge's Oregon recently, and so much of what he wrote kept leaping to the forefront of my consciousness, stimulating my own fresh perspective of this open country and those who call it home.

Read once and then again.......2000-08-13

I'm going to read this book again. The first time was to find out what it's about and who Kittredge is and what happens. The second time will be for the pleasure of reading his writing and the enjoyment of how his mind works. The conclusions he is making about life are true and gracious, out of a chaotic and sometimes miserable past. (But he doesn't moan about that--don't worry.) I'm so glad he recognized himself as a writer.

Average customer rating:

Great American literature
An excellent read!!!
Strongly recommended
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind
Enjoyable

This House of Sky

Manufacturer: Highbridge Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1565113802

Customer Reviews:

Great American literature.......2007-01-09

This is my all time favorite book. Period. Beautifully written, thought-provoking. It will make you want to move to Montana. It will make you love open sky and a horizon that goes on forever and the importance of family.

An excellent read!!!.......2006-12-31

This was my first Ivan Doig book, and I loved it! As a result, I've read most of the rest of what Doig has written and thoroughly enjoy reading about (and remembering) the areas of Montana where I used to live.

Strongly recommended.......2006-11-27

As soon as I started reading This House of Sky, I fell into Ivan Doig's world. By the end I was so mesmerized by his wonderful language and vivid characters that I was wandering around the house with the book up to my nose, bumping into things, trying to do chores one-handed while reading. I would never have believed that a book that starts out with the gasping, hideous suffocating death of one of the author's parents and ends with the gasping, hideous suffocating death of the other one could contain such boundless love of family, such joy, and such beauty. Doig's vivid writing shades perilously close to poetry, and he has an eye for the perfect anecdote to illustrate his point. Doig evokes in the endless drudgery of Montana ranch life a heroic struggle, and turns his hardworking, mercurial father into one of the great figures of modern literature. As a chronicle of Doig's childhood and its end and of the Montana sheepherding life in the early parts of this century, This House of Sky is a spectacular success; but as a tribute to his beloved family and especially his father, the book is a powerfully moving classic.

This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind.......2005-08-27

The author "Ivan Doig" introduces Montana through his youthful eye and shares his rememberances of growing up in Montana. If you have yet to read any of Mr. Doig's excellent books or are already a fan; this book is not to be missed.

Enjoyable.......2005-01-20

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The clincher was the realism and affection written into the characters. The work shares a time and place long since gone in this country. It makes one wonder if their own generation can live up to the character and accomplishments of the ones in the book.

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couldn't get past the glaring mysogyny
Close, But Takes An Unneeded Turn
Very good
"Great Scott! The heat trap has failed!"
Typical Heinlein, a good one to start with.

Farmer in the Sky
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0345324382
Release Date: 1985-02-12

Book Description

Bill knew his destiny lay in the stars, but how was he to get there?
George Lerner was shipping out for Ganymede to join the fledgling colony, and Bill wanted to go along. But his father would not hear of it -- far too dangerous a mission!
Bill finally talked his way aboard the colony ship Mayflower -- and discovered his father was right!

Customer Reviews:

couldn't get past the glaring mysogyny.......2007-09-11

Are any of the other reviewers here women?

I love Heinlein, and am usually willing to look past his "dirty old man" attitude to enjoy the spirit of whatever book he wrote. But this book was the exception for me.

In this book specifically I was willing to look past the "aw shucks--girls have cooties" attitude the protagonist has towards girls--though it seemed a little dated for young men of the future too feel that girls had no useful place in their world (other than being moms.)

What I couldn't get past was that a woman would, in her right mind, put the very life of her child in danger to stay with a man to whom she'd been married for less than a year. There is actually a line in this book where the mom declines taking her daughter off the planet (to save the daughter's life) because she knows that her place in life is to stay with her husband.

!!!!!!!!!

The sad thing is that I feel that there are things in this book (like integrity, and the scouting program) that are undervalued in today's society, and that this book shows how they can continue to be relevant well into the future. I wish that message could have been brought forth without the mysogyny.

Sorry--but I think I'll stick to Starship Troopers or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress--or even Have Space Suit, Will Travel.

Close, But Takes An Unneeded Turn.......2007-01-15

When it comes to early Heinlein, I am much more familiar with his short stories than I am his novels from that period. His classic "Future History" short fiction, collected in books such as "The Green Hills of Earth" and "The Man Who Sold the Moon" are some of the best short fiction from the late 30's and 40's. He also has numerous other stories, published under the name Anson MacDonald, Lyle Monroe, or Caleb Saunders which are equally great. On the other hand, his novel "Beyond This Horizon" (1942) was very disappointing for me, so I was not sure what to expect from "Farmer in the Sky", a novel which received the Retro Hugo in 2001 for books published in 1950.

The main character is Bill Lerner, a teenage boy who is an Eagle Scout. He is excited when he learns that his father (George) is looking to help colonize Ganymede and leave a crowded planet Earth, but his father's plans are to leave Bill behind to finish his education before he can come and join him. Bill manages to talk his way into going, but then he has to deal with his Father's decision to get remarried (without giving Bill much notice) and so he has to deal with a new mother (Molly), and a new sister (Peggy). The story continues, covering their trip to Ganymede, including Bill's heroics when a small meteorite crashes through his compartment, which puts his life and the rest of the boys in the compartment in danger. It then goes on to outline the troubles they face on Ganymede where they are supposed to start a farm.

The story is strong all the way up to the second to last chapter. For some reason, Heinlein introduces a big surprise at that point, one which by itself could easily fill a novel of its own. This is very reminiscent of the problems that I had with "Beyond This Horizon", and it was completely unnecessary to the story. By no means does this story collapse the way "Beyond This Horizon" did, but this unneeded plot line did subtract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Very good.......2007-01-09

I read this book ~20 years ago when I was ~15y/o.
It was the hebrew translation of this title, and my first ever sci-fi book. This had really influenced me on keep reading other books, and for the rest of my life, I was seeking for such books that had the same quality and impact as this book had put on me.

I would recommend this book for any teenager first and foremost. It is really enjoyable, full of real science facts mixed with some fiction facts, has an adventure flavor in it all and in my view, a main character which the reader can relates to (a teenage boy).

I already read many reviews saying this is not R.A.H's best book, and maybe they're right, I'm no literature expert, but it's an amazing book for teenagers who are interested in science, astronomy, technology, physics, and exploring things in general.

"Great Scott! The heat trap has failed!".......2006-09-14

And I thought global warming was a bad thing. Bill Lerner is a California boy living the American dream and at first glance that dream looks pretty sweet. Only 14 years old, Bill gets to fly helicopters with his Boy Scout troop. But we soon realize that Bill's life leaves much to be desired. The food he eats is strictly rationed and his rations are to be cut even further. Why? The Chinese are making too many babies! This razes some interesting questions. Is the world governed by a communist super-state? Why should the number of babies in China have any impact on what people eat in California?

These question are never answered because the story is narrated by Bill who is so squeaky clean innocent that it's almost creepy. It seems as if Bill was razed by the Stepford wives. He is shocked, almost beyond words, to hear of something called "Political Influence" where by well connected individuals are given preferential treatment. The worst swear word he has even heard starts not with an "F" but with a "D". Next to Bill Lerner Beaver Cleaver looks like Bart Simpson.

But even so Bill manages to fly to the moons of Jupiter where he builds a barn, milks his pet cow Mabel and establishes the first Boy Scout troop on Ganymede. Along the way he survives meteor impacts, earthquakes, explosive decompressions, planetary ecological disasters and a burst appendix to discover the alien version of the Radio Flyer little red wagon. The girls in Bill's life are all silly little pests who hold no attraction for him and, with the exception of one extremely butch shuttle pilot, the women are all house wives.

It may sound dated but I enjoyed reading "Farmer in the Sky". You have to admit, they just don't write science fiction like this anymore.

Typical Heinlein, a good one to start with........2005-12-09

Farmer In The Sky is one of 14 "juvenile" science fiction novels written by Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger In A Strange Land, The Puppet Masters, etc.) between 1947 (Rocket Ship Galileo) and 1962 (Podkayne Of Mars). It is not one of the author's best works, but probably the most typical - that is, the best single example of his work, fitting, in more ways than one, right in the middle. Heinlein's juvenile novels are all exceptionally well-written, as entertaining and enlightening for adults as for teenagers, but appropriate for kids to read. Each novel (with a couple exceptions) deals with space exploration in settings that expand on the previous novels - first, the moon, and later on, the stars.

Farmer In The Sky, written in 1950 (and first published as "Satellite Scout" in Boys' Life magazine), was one of Heinlein's last limited to our Solar System, after his characters had explored the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but before moving on to the stars, a step barely hinted at in this novel and the next (Between Planets). It's the story of young Bill Lermer and his widowed father, George, who decides to emigrate to Ganymede, one of the four larger moons of Jupiter. Bill feels abandoned when George remarries apparently because it's a requirement of emigration, but he's determined to stick with the newly restructured family and fly to Ganymede with them. There's plenty of suspense and adventure on the space journey and on the new world.

The author's writing style and depth of characterization is superior to typical juvenile novels like Tom Swift or The Hardy Boys. Heinlein works in appropriate ideas and lessons for young readers, like a character perceived as an irresponsible, inconsiderate jerk at the beginning, who turns out to be a reliable friend by the end, and a few examples of dealing with death and catastrophe, as well as his usual tidbits of philosophy, such as a discussion of population pressure inevitably leading to war (an event realized in the next novel in the series, Between Planets).

I believe this is the first novel ever to seriously explore the concept of terraforming a desolate alien world for human colonization. It is also unique in the skillful marrying of two diverse genres (or at least, settings), the futuristic space adventure and the pioneer farm family (Heinlein was raised on a farm), without changing pace or belying characters. Heinlein revisited that concept in later books like Tunnel In The Sky, but with less contrast.

If you've never read Heinlein, Farmer In The Sky would be a good one to start with, even if not the best. Overall, it's good enough to get 5 stars, for readers of all ages.

Four Frontiers (Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet, Farmer in the Sky)

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Four Frontiers (Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet, Farmer in the Sky)

Manufacturer: Science Fiction Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0739453459

Product Description

4 in one book. Includes Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet, Farmer in the Sky

Average customer rating:

Typical Heinlein; a good one to start with.

Farmer in the sky,
Robert A Heinlein
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Customer Reviews:

Typical Heinlein; a good one to start with........2005-12-09

Average customer rating:

Typical Heinlein; a good one to start with.

Farmer in the Sky
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0345275969
Release Date: 1978-03-12

Customer Reviews:

Typical Heinlein; a good one to start with........2005-12-09

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FARMER IN THE SKY

Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GQUPKS

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Farmer in the Sky
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000KITUXU

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Farmer In The Sky
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KD1EBG

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Farmer in the Sky
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Dell Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Disaster on the frontier colony of Ganymede. Great Paul Lehr cover art.

Book Description

To the Victorians, the Chinese were invariably "inscrutable." The meaning and provenance of this impression--and, most importantly, its workings in nineteenth-century Protestant missionary encounters with Chinese religion--are at the center of Eric Reinders's Borrowed Gods and Foreign Bodies, an enlightening look at how missionaries' religious identity, experience, and physical foreignness produced certain representations of China between 1807 and 1937.
Reinders first introduces the imaginative world of Victorian missionaries and outlines their application of mind-body dualism to the dualism of self and other. He then explores Western views of the Chinese language, especially ritual language, and Chinese ritual, particularly the kow-tow. His work offers surprising and valuable insight into the visceral nature of the Victorian response to the Chinese--and, more generally, into the nineteenth-century Western representation of China.

Customer Reviews:

A Review of Eric Reinders' "Borrowed Gods and Foreign Bodies".......2005-10-21

In "Borrowed Gods and Foreign Bodies Eric Reinders," a professor of Religion at Emory University, explores 19th century British Protestant missionary misrepresentation and subsequent dismissal of Chinese religion and culture as mindless, uncivilized, and empty. By analyzing literature published by British Protestant missionaries, Reinders highlights how the Chinese were characterized as mentally deficient, childlike, drugged, feminine, and lazy. Reinders explains that all of these metaphors directed at the Chinese "share the common thread of weakness or lack of consciousness and a `higher reason' " (41). There was a general consensus on the part of British Protestant missionaries that Chinese culture was flawed, as evidenced in its backward language, disregard of literature, and meatless diets. Reinders analyzes how missionaries perpetuated the idea that the Chinese "had concocted a language so excessively complex that it stumped not only foreigners but the Chinese themselves" (Reinders, 73). Since the Chinese language was a barrier for many missionaries, this led to the accusation by many missionaries that the Chinese did not even know their own language. Just as the missionaries portrayed the mind and culture as meaningless and uncivilized, the Chinese religion was charged with emptiness. While Catholics at times saw Chinese religion as proto-Christian, Protestants did not even consider it a religion. Reinders notes how most missionaries "expressed a view of popular [Chinese] religion as...materialistic or self-interested". Reinders quotes John MacGowan who portrayed the Chinese as having a religion that has "absolutely no religion in it" (Reinders, 136). What counted as religion, as far as the anti-Catholic British Protestant missionaries were concerned, was not ritual but words and text. The belief held by missionaries that obeisance is idolatry and not an act of worship, as well as the absence of a Sabbath in the Chinese religion, led to the conclusion that Chinese religion was fundamentally wrong. Further, Reinders argues that much of the Protestant polemic regarding Chinese religions was reliant upon anti-Catholicism because the missionaries saw similarities in what they called empty rituals of Catholicism and Chinese religion. Therefore, just as there was the assumption that Christianity should replace Chinese religion, there was the belief that Protestantism should replace Catholicism.
Although Reinders indirectly offers a thorough exploration of British Protestant orientalism and its impact on religions missions in the 19th century, he excludes potentially relevant research such as writings of female missionaries and includes seemingly irrelevant information such as the Chinese response to the smell of missionaries. Reinders should have formally stated that he would be primarily looking at the male British Protestant missionaries and their interpretation of the Chinese. The exclusion of female missionary writings is a limitation and could have potentially challenged his argument if the female British Protestant missionary representations do not coincide with male missionary writings or supported his arguments if they did coincide. Although Reinders did support and prove his argument, his examination of how Chinese viewed the missionaries (including smell) was not a central aspect of his argument. This weakness could have been strengthened had Reinders thoroughly explored the depictions of the British Protestant missionaries in addition to how the British Protestant missionaries portrayed the Chinese. While there is possibly a lack of information available considering how the Chinese viewed Protestant missionaries, the inclusion of this view only weakened Reinders' argument and therefore seems extraneous. However, I did find Reinders redefinition of who is "foreign" in the context of British missionaries in China intriguing. Reinders comments on how the Chinese were obsessed with the bodies of the missionaries "and this focus on the body presented an obstacle to mission work" (Reinders, 181). Thus, it is not the Chinese who are foreign; it is the British missionaries in China.
Like Philip Jenkins' Dream Catchers, Reinders addresses the complexities surrounding the definition of religion and impact of orientalism on the study of religion. Similar to the Foucaultian idea that power constructs as knowledge, both scholars address how power also constructs what constitutes religion. For Jenkins', mainstream America is the power that constructs what counts as religion (Native American Spirituality was often denied as a religion) and for Reinders the British missionaries are the power who decide that Chinese religion is inferior to that of Christianity although many denied the Chinese as even having a religion. As seen through Reinders' and Jenkins' analyses, it is the colonial power that decides what constitutes religion. In addition, Reinders' and Jenkins' accounts both address a theme of essentialization, meaning that Native Americans are all like that and the Chinese are all like that, which strengthen how orientalism negatively impacts religious studies.

Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800-1860.(Book review): An article from: Christianity and Literature

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Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800-1860.(Book review): An article from: Christianity and Literature
Benjamin L. Fischer
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Christianity and Literature, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 2000 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800-1860.(Book review)
Author: Benjamin L. Fischer
Publication: Christianity and Literature (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 56 Issue: 2 Page: 349(5)

Article Type: Book review

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