Overview
Janisse Ray grew up in the country along U.S. Highway 1. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem.Ray describes her world: a childhood spent in a junkyard; a religious background steeped in the fundamentalist tradition; and relatives as colorful as any from fiction. She also catalogs the Edenic beauty of longleaf pine forests, where orchids grow at the foot of widely spaced, lofty trees.
Synopsis
Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound vacationers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars and stacks of blown-out tires. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South. In language at once colloquial, elegiac, and informative, Ray redeems two Souths. "Suffused with the same history-haunted sense of loss that imprints so much of the South and its literature. What sets Ecology of a Cracker Childhood apart is the ambitious and arresting mission implied in its title. . . . Heartfelt and refreshing." - The New York Times Book Review.
Library Journal
If this book is social history, why does it also read like natural history? Seemingly, that's the point Ray, a naturalist and environmental activist, hopes to make: that she is a product of her environment and therefore tied to it. Through alternating chapters, the author presents a biography of herself and her family and discussion of the longleaf pine tree community of the South (mainly Florida and Georgia). The family stories reveal poverty, strict parental and religious prohibitions, tough discipline, and a family history of mental illness. Writing these stories seems to have been cathartic for Ray, helping her understand why family members acted and believed as they did. Her natural history chapters describe the decline of the longleaf pine forest ecosystem, detailing the damage that fire suppression and relentless logging cause, the fate of endangered species, and the connection that Ray feels with the land. Readers from the region, from a similarly impoverished background, or who are interested in the Southern pine forests will appreciate this book. Recommended for large public libraries.--Nancy J. Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.