Review 509: Too Poor to Move but Always Rich

Too Poor to Move but Always Rich: A Century on Montana Land by Jim Sargent
My rating: 2 of 5 stars


One may say this is an obscure book, and appears to be self-published. I ended up getting a copy of this book for free, back when the library I was working for closed it’s bookstore. I got several other books, many of which I ended up donating elsewhere, but this one stayed in my collection. Thought it looked interesting. But it wasn’t very much.

The book has a feel of writing for the author’s family, and maybe friends as well. There is an attempt to place his family’s homestead and living in the larger context of the world, but for the most part is it a focus on his parents and family. They were both from immigrant families, Dad from England and Mom from Norway. They met out on the farming plains and became homesteaders in Montana in the early twentieth century.

There are details for most aspects of life, written in a straightforward way. Perhaps if one wants to know what it’s like living on a ranch before electricity and most modern conveniences this book will give you the details. Along with other family details. One of the later chapters is written by his sister, the only female sibling, all the rest of them were males. Another chapter is written by the author’s niece mostly discussing the final days of the author’s mother.

It wasn’t a bad book, but it would be way more interesting if I knew these people to begin with. Don’t think this book is geared for the wider world outside of that sphere.

Review 486: In the Country of Women

In the Country of Women by Susan Straight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This autobiography is a different sort than I’ve read before. It is a chronicling of family history, focused on the author’s own personal history for the majority of the book. The book is written for her three daughters, sometimes addressing them directly, even recounting what they did when young. This premise is so personal that it sounds like it wouldn’t be very interesting to read about another person’s family. Yet the author is a skilled writer it was an absorbing read.

Susan Straight grew up in Riverside California and still lives in the same neighborhood. She married her high school boyfriend and members of his extended family lives in the area as well. They are a mixed-race couple, so their backgrounds are quite divergent. Her mother immigrated from Switzerland, while his family were slaves back in the mid-1800s.

The author’s story is mostly from her younger days towards the present, but when it came to the parents, grandparents, and other ancestors is not necessarily linear. There is an abundance of characters in this book, and found it at times difficult to keep track of everyone and how they were related. I ended up giving up in that task, and just went along with the narrative flow.

I enjoyed the book, wished my family had more detailed information like this, so perhaps it made me a bit envious. I listened to the audio book which was well done by the narrator, but had a copy of the print book. This was handy as there are family photographs throughout the book.