Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills - Hardcover

Norton, Lisa Dale

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312145918 ISBN 13: 9780312145910

Publisher: Picador USA, 1996

Synopsis

A memoir of the author's life ranges from her childhood in Nebraska to her parent's separation, and a life of drinking and living on the streets

About this title

Reviews

Growing up in a small Nebraska town, Norton had a magical childhood until her mother abruptly abandoned her family. Because of this and another traumatic event (shortly after college, she was raped and beaten by a stranger who left her for dead), life seemed meaningless, and for years she wandered aimlessly around the country, drinking, smoking pot, overeating and trying to run away from herself. In 1984, Norton returned for six months to the cabin on Lake Ericson in the Nebraska Sandhills, where she and her family had spent their summers, ostensibly to complete graduate school by writing about the place but actually to come to grips with her troubled past. Six years later, she went again to the Sandhills, this time to discover that the land she considered idyllic was suffering from its own problems?soil depletion, lakes fouled by farm chemicals, limited water resources. In this memoir, Norton recounts with disarming simplicity her attempts to find a purpose in life by returning to her childhood home, weaving her story together with sensitive descriptions of the windswept dunes, the vegetation, the wildlife and the people of the endangered Sandhills. Norton teaches writing at the Neahkahnie Institute in Oregon. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Part memoir, part nature essay, a roundabout search for a place of one's own--in this case, on the high plains of Nebraska. In this debut book, Norton writes of returning home from years of wandering to ``an aging reservoir on the Cedar River, part marsh, part bass lake, wellspring of my childhood memories.'' Her travels from coast to coast, she writes, had given her a close-up look at the blue highways and backroads of America, an education in the art of rootlessness. They also delivered an apprenticeship ``in the field of emotion, learning the nuances of sadness, depression, joy, and loss. I was a tabula rasa, allowing the world to etch its patterns into me.'' Sadness outweighed joy, and her apprenticeship led to a sickness of the soul, especially after she was raped and then, for years, tried to bury the horrible memory in drink. ``For long years I felt afloat without mooring, without anchor,'' she writes, until she finally returned to that place of childhood pleasures, a lean place ``not quite desert, yet no oasis either.'' Her account of finding a restorative haven on familiar ground, among kin and friends, moves her slender book from the nature shelf to that devoted to recovery, and it is a very worthy addition to that library. As nature essay, though, Norton's book also succeeds; she writes affectingly of the plants and animals that inhabit the place--cedars, cranes, curlews, cottonwoods, sand roses, and other manifestations of ``simple beauty''--and of the cowboys and farmers who work the land. These are all matters that can be written of well only after long study and close observation, and it is clear that Norton has done her homework and paid attention. This book merits a place alongside the work of Terry Tempest Williams (who encouraged her) and Annie Dillard. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Journalist and writing teacher Norton has returned to her native state of Nebraska several times in the past 15 years. In the process, she discovered that her personal growth is inextricably entwined with the geography of Lake Ericson, found in the part of Nebraska known as the Sandhills, where she spent summers as a child. She rediscovered this arid prairie region in 1984, while spending the summer at her family's lakeside cabin. Struggles with her own personal problems take place in this wide-open landscape. Norton creates a memorable picture of the Sandhills, a complex ecosystem of grasses and cacti, marshes and deserts, dotted with tiny farm towns. Her evocative descriptions of the landscape blend beautifully with her journey of self-discovery. Recommended for popular collections of literary memoirs and nature writing.?Gwen Gregory, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruces
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This autobiographical nature/recovery book chronicles the life of Norton and the Nebraska Sandhills. Lake Ericson in the Big Six Country Club (the name of the cabin her family purchased in 1960) became a necessary haven for Norton as she struggled to put her life together in 1984. Norton traces her stress to her parents' sudden divorce when she was a teenager, after spending years of carefree summers predictably ensconced at the lake. When she lost her sense of self as an adult, the cabin epitomized the concept of home and kinship, as she fortified her soul with its calming influence. During her respite, she found the strength to overcome the trauma of rape as the Sandhills provided a sense of meaning, also allowing her to overcome the debilitating effects of drinking and lack of purposeful activity. This book will be an inspiration to anyone desiring to read or write about life experiences. Liz Rifken

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador USA
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312145918
• ISBN 13: 9780312145910
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 219