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Overview
"In this third installment of William Kloefkorn's projected four-part memoir, the poet focuses on earth in exploring in the most personal terms the perpetual human struggle between building foundations and abandoning them, digging in and moving on." Whether writing about a boyhood in the Great Depression, the bond between a young man and his family, digging storm cellars and ducking tornadoes, or the dropping of the atomic bomb as experienced by a paperboy in small-town Kansas, Kloefkorn brings a congenial mixture of seriousness and humor to his subjects. Here and there the commonplace lends itself to the not-so-common question: What is the odd relationship between power, terror, and beauty? Why are human beings torn between staying put and moving - in intellectual and spiritual as well as physical terms? And how much of who we are is composed of who we were?Synopsis
Whether writing about a boyhood in the Great Depression, the bond between a young man and his family, digging storm cellars and ducking tornadoes, or the dropping of the atomic bomb as experienced by a paperboy in small-town Kansas, Kloefkorn brings a congenial mixture of seriousness and humor to his subjects. Here and there the commonplace lends itself to the not-so-common question: What is the odd relationship between power, terror, and beauty? Why are human beings torn between staying put and moving-in intellectual and spiritual as well as physical terms? And how much of who we are is composed of who we were? Rife with insight, At Home on This Moveable Earth is as wonderfully readable as the first two volumes of Kloefkorn's memoirs, a thoughtful tour of a curious character's life so far and a model of retrospective introspection. William Kloefkorn is Nebraska's state poet and emeritus professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He is the author of many volumes of poetry and several memoirs: This Death by Drowning (1997), Restoring the Burnt Child (2003), At Home on this Moveable Earth (2006), and most recently, Breathing in the Fullness of Time (2009), all published by the University of Nebraska Press.Editorials
Great Plains Quarterly -
“Ultimately this book, like Kloefkorn’s previous memoirs This Death by Drowning (1995) and Restoring the Burnt Child (2003), is a textbook for writers. Its eleven exemplary monologues jumpcut delightfully through time while remaining grounded in place and theme: one good story after another. . . . Kloefkorn belongs in the company of Twain and Frost because he gets the authentic American tone of voice in his work. The joy of his poetry and of this memoir is his exploration of the familiar territory of our language and our personal and collective history.”—David R. Pichaske, Great Plains QuarterlyGreat Plains Quarterly
“Ultimately this book, like Kloefkorn’s previous memoirs This Death by Drowning (1995) and Restoring the Burnt Child (2003), is a textbook for writers. Its eleven exemplary monologues jumpcut delightfully through time while remaining grounded in place and theme: one good story after another. . . . Kloefkorn belongs in the company of Twain and Frost because he gets the authentic American tone of voice in his work. The joy of his poetry and of this memoir is his exploration of the familiar territory of our language and our personal and collective history.”—David R. Pichaske, Great Plains Quarterly
Nebraska Life
“[Kloefkorn] has a knack for gracefully interrupting one story to tell another, interrupting that story to tell yet another, then gradually working his way back, tying up loose ends.”—Nebraska LifeBloomsbury Review
“Kloefkorn has a marvelous prose style that manages to be both plainspoken and fluid, with frequent dollops of humor. . . . If you haven’t already read the first two installments of Klefkorn’s memoirs, This Death by Drowning and Restoring the Burnt Child, that’s okay, because each of the books stands alone as a collection of linked essays. But if you enjoy this one as much as I did, you’ll immediately look for the other two.”—Lori, D. Kranz, Bloomsbury ReviewBooklist
“[Kloefkorn] reveals his life one vignette at a time in this richly evocative third installment of his proposed four-part memoir. With deftly wrought imagery so powerful and yet so poetic, this son of the plains and prairie gentles the reader back to days that nostalgia dictates must be remembered as sweetly unadorned. And yet, as Kloefkorn so cogently illustrates, no time is truly simple, and the transition from innocence to knowledge can be both magical and frightening. It takes a rare and gifted writer to seamlessly transport the reader through the devastating fury of rumbling tornadoes and the delectable freshness of romantic awakenings. Kloefkorn is just such a writer, and the journey is a lyrical experience.”—BooklistBloomsbury Review
“Kloefkorn has a marvelous prose style that manages to be both plainspoken and fluid, with frequent dollops of humor. . . . If you haven’t already read the first two installments of Klefkorn’s memoirs, This Death by Drowning and Restoring the Burnt Child, that’s okay, because each of the books stands alone as a collection of linked essays. But if you enjoy this one as much as I did, you’ll immediately look for the other two.”—Lori, D. Kranz, Bloomsbury Review
— Lori D. Kranz
Linda Hasselstrom
“What a joy to swoop with Bill Kloefkorn through circles of memory. He leads us down into the soil of the cellar so that we might soar into the sublime tower of the tornado of his recollection.”
—Linda Hasselstrom, author of Between Grass and Sky
Kent Meyers
“Completely delightful and yet deeply thought-provoking. The voice of these essays is so personable, so easy, so intelligent, and at the same time so humble, that I felt at times as if I was listening to these essays rather than reading them.”
—Kent Meyers, the author of The Work of Wolves
Sewanee Review
“This author knows how to make the best of his experience, ordinary and plain and apparently dull or not. . . . The simple fact of the matter is that Kloefkorn is a writer who makes nearly anything, no matter how seemingly boring, lively and engaging. In the first place he has a wonderful eye for the scene, and he can turn any situation, such as digging and moving dirt, into a scene. He has some great scenes to report—a tornado that he and a friend get in the middle of; near collisions on a train track; a race between a powerful horse and a new Packard. But he can also vividly re-create such ordinary scenes as the first day of his matriculation at college or a French class at that college.”—G. C., Sewanee Review
— G. C.
Booklist
“[Kloefkorn] reveals his life one vignette at a time in this richly evocative third installment of his proposed four-part memoir. With deftly wrought imagery so powerful and yet so poetic, this son of the plains and prairie gentles the reader back to days that nostalgia dictates must be remembered as sweetly unadorned. And yet, as Kloefkorn so cogently illustrates, no time is truly simple, and the transition from innocence to knowledge can be both magical and frightening. It takes a rare and gifted writer to seamlessly transport the reader through the devastating fury of rumbling tornadoes and the delectable freshness of romantic awakenings. Kloefkorn is just such a writer, and the journey is a lyrical experience.”—Booklist
— Carol Haggas
Publishers Weekly Annex
“Kloefkorn's sonorous prose and poetic sensibilities heighten the reader’s perception of life . . . the book’s structure is carefully wrought; he uses counterpoint, flashbacks, shifting points of view and variations on themes to shape his memoir. Kloefkorn is a consummate storyteller with a keen eye and a gift for language that is beautiful in its simplicity.” —Publishers Weekly