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Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness

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Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness Cover

ISBN13: 9780870715914
ISBN10: 0870715917
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In Potluck, Ana Maria Spagna explores the enduring human connection to place, journeying from Tijuana to a California beach to Utah's canyon country — and, always, back to the sparsely populated valley in the North Cascades she calls home.

Potluck homes in on the everyday gatherings that, over time, define a community: a makeshift wedding, an art gallery opening, a farewell potluck, a work party, a campfire, a political caucus, a funeral. "What connects us?" Spagna asks, and she reveals, again and again, the gift of community — easy and uneasy, deep and enduring and essential.

Review:

"Ana Maria Spagna brings something new and important to the American tradition of writing about life at the edge of wilderness. Her stories are shaped by chainsaws and courage, but also by potlucks, unexpected love, hand-held radio calls, and the crazy sustaining friendships that create a community from everybody who washes up at the place where the river meets the trail. John Muir (alone at the top of a mountain) might be puzzled by her book, but Henry David Thoreau (planting beans by the pond) would love it. It's rueful, funny, suspenseful, insightful, and altogether true." Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Wild Comfort

Review:

"So many writers romanticize rural life, and so few address its true difficulties and rewards. Ana Maria Spagna never flinches: In this wry, wise, and beautifully written collection of essays, she takes a deep, honest look at her life in a small community, and teaches all of us something about ourselves and our neighbors." Michelle Nijhuis, contributing editor, High Country News

Review:

"From one of the country's most-remote hamlets comes one of the West's most perceptive and lyrical literary voices. Ana Maria Spagna's powerful prose seamlessly integrates the Big Three of quality writing: education, edification and entertainment. Few place-based writers can pull that off. Ana Maria pulls it off brilliantly. Her work belongs on the same shelf as Mary Sojourner and Ellen Meloy. It's that good." M. John Fayhee, Editor, the Mountain Gazette and author of Bottoms Up
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
esanedee, August 13, 2011 (view all comments by esanedee)
I just finished reading Potluck, and I must say I found it absolutely phenomenal. It mesmerized me from the beginning
to the end. The easy and delicious way Spagna describes Stehekin, and the hills and valleys in and around it, is so
enticingly captivating. Her love for the place and her community reveals itself in enchanting details page after page
without a pause. It's to her credit that I can almost picture the place and the community that inhabits it. Stehekin
is a character in Potluck, and Spagna's intense love for it is felt throughout the book. Potluck seems more like a colorful
painting than a collection of essays. It kept me turning the pages not only because of the richness of the language
and the metaphors Spagna uses, but also because of the humor that almost seems to smirk behind many of her
sentences. The essays in the beginning of the book loop back to Spagna's paradise in an interesting way.
At the end of the book, I felt a real urge to go see Stehekin and meet its unique community.

The Fall Line, the essay in which Spagna describes her relationship with Laurie, is so powerful and touching ...
especially the limning of the relationship as it begins to take shape so naturally, so gently and so compellingly. This essay
left me almost breathless as I followed Spagna and Laurie's deep feelings for each other and expression of those feelings
in weighted silence. Reading this essay was like reading a long beautiful poem.

I have read "Now Go Home" and "Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus," Spagna's other two books, and I have read many of her
essays. I have never felt disappointed with her work. She is definitely one to watch for among the present day promising writers.
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duff, July 10, 2011 (view all comments by duff)
I loved this book. And of all the things to love about it, I loved Spagna's voice the most. She writes in an everyday voice of everyday things, but the voice is supple and strong and its rhythm carries you, effortlessly it seems, until you realize that you have been warmed through and through by its charity and wisdom.
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Iris Graville, June 17, 2011 (view all comments by Iris Graville)
One time through this feast isn't enough. I look forward to lots more re-readings so I can get all of the juicy bits this "potluck" offers about community, place, and home. Spagna braids the rich threads of her life as well as LIFE into masterful, moving, thought-provoking essays. Potluck is a treasure.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780870715914
Subtitle:
Community on the Edge of Wilderness
Author:
Spagna, Ana Maria
Publisher:
Oregon State University Press
Subject:
Autobiography-Memoir-Personal
Subject:
NATURE / Essays
Subject:
Creative nonfiction
Subject:
Community
Subject:
Lesbians-United States-memoir
Subject:
Nature-essays-Pacific Northwest
Publication Date:
20110401
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Pages:
176
Dimensions:
8.5 x 5.5 in
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Related Subjects

Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$12.95 In Stock
Product details 176 pages Oregon State University Press - English 9780870715914 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Ana Maria Spagna brings something new and important to the American tradition of writing about life at the edge of wilderness. Her stories are shaped by chainsaws and courage, but also by potlucks, unexpected love, hand-held radio calls, and the crazy sustaining friendships that create a community from everybody who washes up at the place where the river meets the trail. John Muir (alone at the top of a mountain) might be puzzled by her book, but Henry David Thoreau (planting beans by the pond) would love it. It's rueful, funny, suspenseful, insightful, and altogether true."
"Review" by , "So many writers romanticize rural life, and so few address its true difficulties and rewards. Ana Maria Spagna never flinches: In this wry, wise, and beautifully written collection of essays, she takes a deep, honest look at her life in a small community, and teaches all of us something about ourselves and our neighbors."
"Review" by , "From one of the country's most-remote hamlets comes one of the West's most perceptive and lyrical literary voices. Ana Maria Spagna's powerful prose seamlessly integrates the Big Three of quality writing: education, edification and entertainment. Few place-based writers can pull that off. Ana Maria pulls it off brilliantly. Her work belongs on the same shelf as Mary Sojourner and Ellen Meloy. It's that good."
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