Kim Barnes, In The Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country, Anchor, (1996).
Elsewhere I offered a approximately 30 word review of this book, this is what I said:
A personal memoir of being raised in rural Idaho, being caught up in fundamentalist religion, leaving, missing it and rejoining, being told she was demon possessed, leaving again and then trying to kill a deer.
In truth, in terms of the narrative that is the sum of the text. The story as it is told is well written and even though the pentecostalism with which Barnes was raised was atypical because of its level of ethical rigorism those who have memories of pentecostal religion as a child will resonate with Barnes' account. In the Wilderness is not really a religious memoir, however. Instead, it tells the story of a logging family that as over the years slipped into poverty as work was harder to come by and yet simultaneously paint a simple although ambiguous picture of rural life. Barnes in a period of teenage rebellion wanted out but regretted the decision and subsequently longed for the (patriarchal?) security the rural Idaho offered her but, interestingly, this could not for her be excised from religion so the return to one led seamlessly to a return to the other.
This book won its share of literary prizes on publication and there is no doubt it is a well written memoir, that Barnes is a poet is not a surprise. If you like autobiographies then this may be of interest to you but in my view this was a little disappointing.
