| Title | : | Weeds: A Farm Daughters Lament |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0803244967 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780803244962 |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2013 |
| Awards | : | Evans Handcart Award (2013) |
The story of Funda’s family unfolds within the larger context of our country’s rich immigrant history, western culture, and farming as a science and an art. Situated at the crossroads of American farming, Weeds: A Farm Daughter’s Lament offers a clear view of the nature, the cost, and the transformation of the American West. Part cultural history, part memoir, and part elegy, the book reminds us that in losing our attachment to the land we also lose some of our humanity and something at the very heart of our identity as a nation.
Weeds: A Farm Daughters Lament Reviews
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One person in the Funda family has a youth filled with heroism, lovers, adventures, and narrow escapes, but Toni never tells her story. One person in the Funda family is merely a poor dirt farmer, but in his stories, Frank is a ground-breaking entrepreneur and homesteader--a mythic figure in the unsettled West. One person in the Funda family takes her own very common family as a subject--a topic that usually interests only the principals--and tells a story that digs deeply and ranges widely in geography, agriculture, history, and psychology.
My friend, Jean, said she was reading Evelyn Funda's "autobiography." The book's subtitle led me to think it is a "memoir." It is published in the U of Nebraska's American Lives series, which sounds like "biography." To call it "creative nonfiction" is too broad. The book's relationship to these genres is as oblique as my relationship to its author.
I have lived for 57 years on my family's farm just a mile and a half west of the Fundas. I knew the Garmons, the Carrolls, the Skoros, and the Stanleys, but not the Fundas. My grandparents came to Idaho in 1910, also, then lived a few years in Boise before buying 40 acres on West Central Road in Emmett from a land speculator.
I taught in the English department alongside Miss Nutile while Evelyn was in high school (mostly drama then). I knew "Mike" and "Kristin," and knew about the pot. Yet, if I had Evelyn in class, I regret I don't remember.
My dad started the Roe Ann (half named it after me), and worked at the sawmill from 1953 to 1971, while farming. Maybe he knew the Funda men.
At BSU I studied Cather and cited Evelyn's scholarly articles, then told Jean N. where Evelyn teaches. I took classes from Jim Maguire who later served on my thesis committee. I met Kim Barnes while doing my thesis on Bob Wrigley's poetry and attended a workshop where Mary Clearman Blew presented. I took my creative writing students to the Western Literature Association conference at BSU to see our mentor, Tony Doerr. And somehow I just know there's a connection between Richard Etulain, my first American Lit prof, and Evelyn.
Vaclav II Premyslid is my 23rd great grandfather.
Our lives are not exactly parallel, nor have they ever quite intersected. Perhaps if Evelyn's family had been religious, or if mine had not; perhaps if I, she, or one of her relatives had been either ten years older or ten years younger; perhaps if my mother had not been so shy or my father so busy, we would have met. That we haven't is my loss.
Evelyn's book, though, is brilliant and dense--and that is the reader's gain. -
Very well written and enjoyable!
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I just finished reading Weeds, and it is amazing. The organization and theme are tightly and creatively woven together, the personal information and commentary, the historical research, and the philosophical comments are perfectly balanced, and Funda's prose is so beautifully polished I had to wear sunglasses. The only problem with this book is that it makes it very intimidating for me as I continue my family history project! I have read a lot of memoirs and family histories, believe me, and I have never been this impressed with a memoir before . . . honestly!
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I found this book to be a mixture between an autobiographical search for her roots, to find out about her ancestors emigrating to American and their struggle to eke out a living as farmers, and an academic analysis of how farming, as a career, has treated farmers and significantly, their daughters. That tie to the land isn't just an Irish phenomenon.
I enjoyed it. I'd have loved even more analysis, found it intriguing, thought to myself that I'd love to have a cup of coffee and a chat with this writer. -
I had to read this for one of my classes and went into it not intending to read the whole thing. It's a pretty good memoir, but nothing spectacular. The weed theme was really intriguing but it didn't really hold my interest. It was well written and I'm sure it would be great for someone who has similar experiences or who are interested in Idaho farming. Just not my cup of tea.
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Fascinating book. Read some and skimmed the rest. Excellent book for learning more about the mid-west and the struggles of immigrants.
297 pp.
