One of the best books I have read. Excellent writing, interesting story of the ranching culture in Eastern Montana in the 50s-60s. ( )

I could experience nearly everything she described, vividly laid out with frank and clear prose. Even though I'm technically a city girl, this tugged at my country heart. ( )

Well, I actually live on a prairie ranch 50 miles from the closest town, so Judy Blunt’s memoir certainly resonates with me. Her insights are written with an almost poetic prose and her voice conveys great strength. I envy her ability to articulate with such clarity the complex web of human relations that are so hardly shaped by the prairie environment and history. The struggle – and pain - to conform to gender roles; the isolation of long winters and muddy spring roads; the distrust of anything new and urban are all still too real in the communities around me. I think I will suggest this book to my bookclub, as an outsider – anyone with a foreign accent will forever be an outsider around here – I am curious to hear what the “locals” will say about this memoir. ( )

Breaking clean with your past is never easy. Memoirist and poet Judy Blunt described leaving home this way: "I left Phillips County with a new divorce and an old car, with three scared kids and some clothes piled in back. We followed the sun west for hours. Climbing mountain passes, crossing river after river, until we spanned the final bridge into Missoula." —Breaking Clean, P. 295.

She grew up on a homestead settled by her grandparents at the turn of the century. Ranch life was all she knew. Blunt arrived in Missoula, enrolled in UM and got on with her life. Years later, after graduation and a MFA, she wrote this memoir. The book is a well remembered look at ranch life in western Montana from a woman's point-of-view. Fascinating reading.

Reviewed on Carto's Library Blog. http://wp.me/p14mpp-pK

Carto ( )

Judy Blunt's memoir describes growing up in a very rural area of Montana on a cattle ranch. Major themes include how women are treated as subordinate and subservient to men, and the importance of a close-knit community.
Blunt left her husband after 12 years of marriage, moved to the city, went to college and wrote a book, but there's not very much about that in this volume. She focuses mainly on her childhood and adolescence, which is fascinating to read about, but after that build-up, I would have liked to know more about how she went about escaping this life. One hopes she will write another volume. ( )