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Narrow River, Wide Sky
Narrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir | Jenny Forrester
5 posts | 5 read | 5 to read
In the vein ofThe Liar's Club andThe Glass Castle, Jenny Forrester's memoir perfectly captures both place and a community situated on the Colorado Plateau between slot canyons and rattlesnakes, where she grew up with her mother and brother in a single-wide trailer proudly displaying an American flag. Forresters powerfully eloquent story reveals a rural small town comprising God-fearing Republicans, ranchers, Mormons, and Native Americans. With sensitivity and resilience, Forrester navigates feelings of isolation, an abusive boyfriend, sexual assault, and a failed college attempt to forge a separate identity. As young adults, after their mothers accidental death, Forrester and her brother are left with an increasingly strained relationship that becomes a microcosm of Americas political landscape.Narrow River, Wide Sky is a breathtaking, determinedly truthful story about one womans search for identity within the mythology of family and America itself.
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Suet624
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This book was sobering. I'm very familiar with Boulder, Colorado and assumed the rest of Colorado was similar in their liberal attitudes. My mistake. Mancos, Colorado was a town I never would have survived in. The memoir covers much ground-corporal punishment, the treatment of women, being "sensitive", religion's dominating nature, nature's beauty & danger. The author deserves a lot of credit for making a better life for herself and her child.

tricours Boulder is a place that shows up absolutely everywhere for me. Isn't it a relatively small town? 7y
Cortg Interesting! 7y
Suet624 @tricours 108,000 people. Lots of college students. 7y
See All 12 Comments
Tamra The west is a conservative shade of red, except for pockets of college towns. And CA of course! 7y
Suet624 @Tamra I thought the southern states were rough. I just don't understand how people can behave and think the way they do as portrayed in this book. 7y
Tamra @Suet624 I haven't read the book. While I like to travel & camp summers in the west, I don't mistake that for living there. Not compatible with my liberal being. 7y
Suet624 @Tamra I understand. It sounds like a special and beautiful place to camp. 7y
Tamra @Suet624 it's gorgeous! 😍😍 We spend most of our time in the MT,WY, ID mountains, but NM is wonderful too. The foooooodddddd! 😋 We've only had positive experiences with people, but part of that is likely that campers are a happy lot in general. 😁 7y
ValerieAndBooks I lived in Colorado for a few years and Boulder is really the only liberal town there. Unfortunately we didn‘t live in Boulder ☹️. @tricours it‘s a college town and those tend to lean liberal. 7y
Suet624 @ValerieAndBooks I sure hope you didn't experience the variety of awfulness that the author did. 7y
ValerieAndBooks From the synopsis it seems like she lived in a very rural area? Where I lived was in the Colorado Springs area which was/is heavy on military personnel and families. So I saw a lot of conservative views, but not the lifestyle I gather the author experienced. 7y
Suet624 @ValerieAndBooks she lived in Mancos. 7y
57 likes4 stack adds12 comments
quote
Suet624
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A comment from a woman from the Netherlands: "Have you noticed how on their television shows they [Americans] will sleep with everyone, but they won't smoke cigarettes." ??? Yup.

Notafraidofwords Lmao 😂 7y
Richryan52 @Suet624 Thanks for adding The Vatican Cameos, I hope you enjoy it! 7y
saresmoore HA! Too true! 7y
See All 19 Comments
Suet624 @Richryan52 Looking forward to it! 😁 7y
batsy Ha! Also, something I've noticed more in contemporary TV shows: no one seems to eat. Coffee and wine seem to be all that fuels them 🤔 7y
merelybookish @batsy throw in some chocolate and you're good to go! 7y
kspenmoll 😂😂😂 7y
BarbaraBB @batsy @suet624 Sometimes they are actually having dinner but without eating one bit 😂 (edited) 7y
batsy @merelybookish Or a tiny handful of popcorn! @BarbaraBB Yes, exactly! 😁 7y
BarbaraBB Love the picture though. I would kill for a cigarette but unfortunately quit ten years ago...! 7y
Izai.Amorim @BarbaraBB @batsy And after they make love the woman is always shown covered with a sheet up to her neck. No breasts, please, we're puritans. Then they show gun shots smashing heads, blood all over, pieces of brain coming out. But no breasts. A funny concept of "pornography". 7y
BarbaraBB @Izai.Amorim And the man somehow always wears underwear after having sex 😂😂 7y
Izai.Amorim @BarbaraBB Right! Here in Europe if a movie is rated 18 it means crude violence (rape, torture, etc.) In the US normally it means you can see genitalia and graphic sex. 7y
Suet624 @batsy @merelybookish, I'm sitting here trying to remember if I've ever seen people eating on TV. The only thing that comes to mind is Julia and Julia but that was a movie first. 7y
Suet624 @BarbaraBB Same here. I've always said that if I knew I had a terminal illness I'd start smoking and drinking - tequila, please - immediately. 7y
Suet624 @Izai.Amorim Ugh. You are SO right about the graphic violence. It's unbelievable and disgusting. 7y
BarbaraBB I have always promised myself that can start smoking again when I'll be 65. We'll see 😉 7y
Suet624 @BarbaraBB That's so funny! Not a bad idea. 7y
Landagail Except being a nurse smoking is a proven killer more than violence . I despise the habit with every ounce of my being as it killed my mom and dad 7y
50 likes19 comments
blurb
valeriegeary
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Charlie Waffles and I have retreated to the dark and scary basement where my husband tinkers. We had to do something to escape this heatwave! 😰

#litsypartyofone @Ambrosnazzy

mjdowens But it says it only feels like 100😂😂 7y
valeriegeary @mjdowens Well in that case.... 🙆 7y
Yournewfriendsams Days like this I'm so frustrated no houses in PDX have airco! We're hiding at a bar 😬 7y
valeriegeary @Yournewfriendsams You found a bar with air? That's rare too. 😥 7y
63 likes4 comments
blurb
valeriegeary
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Dinner includes bean and cheese quesadillas, a strange rum/coconut milk/lime concoction my husband put together, and a little non-fiction. #litsypartyofone

BooksForEmpathy I love the drink description! 😂😂😂! 7y
valeriegeary It was.....strange. 😶😄😂 7y
Jinjer Food and drink sounds delicious! 7y
62 likes3 comments
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Alicia
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Weekend trip took me to Durango, Colorado. Their bookstore there, Maria's - is one of my favorites. Picked up this awesome western memoir and a local author's work. Yay for indie bookstores!

BibliophileMomma 👍🏼 8y
57 likes1 comment