The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams: Book Review

Title: The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks
Author: Terry Tempest Williams
Genre: Memoir, Essays, History, Politics, Science
Audience: Adult

My Review:

I’ve been mulling this review over since finishing this book six weeks ago. I should have loved it and I didn’t. Not exactly. And I’m having a hard time digging down to the why.

Ms. Williams writes about twelve national park units in this book, eight of which I’ve visited and loved.

And I think that’s maybe the crux of the matter. A “personal topography” implied to me that this would be a straightforward memoir of her time in the parks and the people and animals or histories she encountered there. And that’s pretty much what I found for the first couple of chapters. I loved those. But the personal is political for Ms. Williams and the book turned into more of an environmental call to action than I expected. I actually agree with her thoughts so I don’t know why this aspect threw me off so much; I only know that it did.

Maybe it’s that I view our parks as almost sacred, wild spaces. It’s disturbing to read that the only reason I didn’t see oil rigs on the horizon from inside Theodore Roosevelt National Park is because the park superintendent begs oil companies to find a way not to ruin the park’s sightlines. They’re still drilling, but they’re drilling behind hills and rises in the landscape. The essay about Gulf Islands National Seashore is really about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and it’s the stuff nightmares are made of. The book is littered with similar stories of environmental dangers and disasters and people being jailed for civil disobedience when they protest. Ms. Williams tries to end on a hopeful note but it was too late for me–I was thoroughly depressed. Maybe she lifted the veil from my eyes and my dislike of the message has affected my view of the messenger. I don’t know but this is my best theory.

This is the first book I’ve read by Terry Tempest Williams and she is a beautiful, thoughtful writer. My copy is littered with Post-It flags marking passages that spoke to me.

“This is what we can promise the future: a legacy of care. That we will be good stewards and not take too much or give back too little, that we will recognize wild nature for what it is, in all its magnificent and complex history–an unfathomable wealth that should be consciously saved, not ruthlessly spent.”

“I return to the wilderness to remember what I have forgotten, that the world can be wholesome and beautiful, that the harmony and integrity of ecosystems at peace is a mirror to what we have lost.”

“Perhaps this is what our national parks hold for us: stories, of who we have been and who we might become–a reminder that as human beings our histories harbor both darkness and light. To live in the United States of America and tell only one story, from one point of view, diminishes all of us.”

“At a low ebb of hope, I asked my friend Doug Peacock how he staves off despair…. ‘Insulate yourself with friends and seek out wild places,’ he said.”

This truly is a beautifully written book and it provides a lot of food for thought. I did enjoy it overall, just not as much as I expected.

Synopsis from GoodReads:

America’s national parks are breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why more than 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the environmental classic Refuge and the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks and an exploration of what they mean to us and what we mean to them.

From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America.

Similar Books:

If you liked The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, you might also like my reviews of

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Matt Patterson
• Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken

Reading Challenge:

Purchase:

Buy The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks from Malaprop’s Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC or

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