Teow Lim Goh

These essays are short, calm, finely detailed snapshots of regions in the Western U.S. that reveal the assortment of people who passed through them over the years. Often starting with her own present-day treks around a mountain or a park, the author delves into the history of the workers, investors, and immigrants who shaped the current parks, towns, museums, and universities in each region.

In the first section, she mixes in pieces of poetry from American, Mexican, and Cantonese authors who captured the daily conflicts that each group experienced. Later sections connect to visual art that has been positioned in these western regions, including plans for a Cristo piece across the Arkansas River in Colorado, a multi-part project of Ai Weiwei’s on Alcatraz, and an exhibit of WWI gas masks that brings reverberations of disasters visited while the author was simultaneously tracking the news of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plan damage.

It's a personal and eclectic set of ruminations, which worked well to dip in and out of. I was pleased to learn so much about the history of the region from these thoughtful pieces.

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