Terry Tempest Williams
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
5 Star Review - The book is well written in a literary nonfiction style
Terry Tempest Williams is devoted to the preservation of public lands. She mourns the recent undoing of their protection. In the final section tells us that the time for anger is past, it is time for healing. She sees healing as restoration. She reveals a few bright spots of healing the landscape near the end of the book.
Family plays a part of this book, as is true for most of her books. She mourns the death of her brother Dan. He relationship with her father and deceased mother and grandmothers are also significant factors in the narrative. She speaks of her Mormon upbringing and her response to the Church's views and policies toward women, as well as non-white, and non-binary persons.
Bears Ears National Monument appears periodically in the book, but is ever present in the subtext. She documents efforts to preserve the area going back to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (Served 1933 to 1946). Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall picked up the mission. President Obama finally preserved it as a National Monument in the final days of his administration. Donald Trump gutted the monument early in his administration. Williams mocks Trump's statement that he was giving the land back to the American people, stating that they are public lands and one cannot give us what is already ours.