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zmull's review
4.0
Note: I won this book in a First Reads drawing. Thanks so much!
Gone Feral is a lovely memoir about a woman attempting to make a lasting human connection with a father who has little use for human connections. Novella Carpenter's father remains mysterious, both to her and to the reader, through this look into his life. Fortunately, what Carpenter learns in trying to know him speaks to things beyond his biography, including childhood, marriage, responsibility to others and to your own dreams, and finally parenthood, when Carpenter makes a point that will stick with me. She learns that her parents will always love her more than she is able to love them back, however much she loves them back, because parenthood is all-consuming. An interesting thought. A wonderful book.
Gone Feral is a lovely memoir about a woman attempting to make a lasting human connection with a father who has little use for human connections. Novella Carpenter's father remains mysterious, both to her and to the reader, through this look into his life. Fortunately, what Carpenter learns in trying to know him speaks to things beyond his biography, including childhood, marriage, responsibility to others and to your own dreams, and finally parenthood, when Carpenter makes a point that will stick with me. She learns that her parents will always love her more than she is able to love them back, however much she loves them back, because parenthood is all-consuming. An interesting thought. A wonderful book.
arielamandah's review
4.0
So, it's hard for me to know how to feel about this book. I wouldn't call it amazing, the writing was more mediocre than anything. I would venture to guess that, for most people, the story would also feel a little "meh." Yet, though this paints a MUCH more extreme version than I certainly ever knew, so many of the themes in this book reflect my own life and childhood back at me. How many of us were raised this way - free-range children of idealists trying to make it work? The parallels are very broad, but there is something SO familiar about this. I felt like despite it's flaws, this book comes from a place of someone who "gets" it. For that, I really connected with this book.
jennybeastie's review
4.0
This was not the book I expected to read as a followup to Farm City, but I really enjoyed it. Farm City is a book about scratching an urban farm out of an abandoned lot and Novella's journey as a farmer and a food activist.
This book is an even more personal history, an exploration of how family shapes each person in it, and what happens when the quest for fertility becomes an internal, rather than external focus. I found it moving, and deeply interesting as a chronicle of the generation after back-to-the-land. Also, as a blog reader, it was really good to know what happened with the goats.
My copy provided by Edelweiss.
This book is an even more personal history, an exploration of how family shapes each person in it, and what happens when the quest for fertility becomes an internal, rather than external focus. I found it moving, and deeply interesting as a chronicle of the generation after back-to-the-land. Also, as a blog reader, it was really good to know what happened with the goats.
My copy provided by Edelweiss.
cmspin's review
3.0
Wouldn't recommend this to someone who hasn't read Novella Carpenter before. I was only interested because I read Farm City.
thejanewayprotocol's review
4.0
*** I recieved this as an ARC from Penguin Canada. ***
Wow. I am just completely blown away from this book.
This is the true story of Novella Carpenter, and her struggle to understand and love her wayward father. Novella, having a pretty rough upbringing, and a confusing early adult life, strives to come to terms with her dad, try and make sense of his life and his actions, before fully committing into having a child with her partner, Billy. There were many times during her childhood when her father had disappeared for long moments of time, even being reported missing. Why does her father insist on shunning most of society, and why doesn't he want to spend time with his own daughter?
She takes us through key moments in her childhood, her teenage years, and her early college life. We are there with her during her struggle to get pregnant, and her constant frustrations when it seems like building a decent relationship with her hermit father seems to be completely one-sided at times.
I'm so glad that this book was sent to me. Personally, having a few people in my life who fall into the "hermit" status, I could relate to what she was going through, and how lonely and sad it can make you. I admire that she never gave up on him either, which takes more strength and will power than anyone could imagine. She is very lyrical with her words, even when she is being brutally honest. This is a very real book, and a very real struggle that many people go through, and even if you don't have a friend or family member that disappears for months at a time, everyone can learn something about themselves in this book.
Wow. I am just completely blown away from this book.
This is the true story of Novella Carpenter, and her struggle to understand and love her wayward father. Novella, having a pretty rough upbringing, and a confusing early adult life, strives to come to terms with her dad, try and make sense of his life and his actions, before fully committing into having a child with her partner, Billy. There were many times during her childhood when her father had disappeared for long moments of time, even being reported missing. Why does her father insist on shunning most of society, and why doesn't he want to spend time with his own daughter?
She takes us through key moments in her childhood, her teenage years, and her early college life. We are there with her during her struggle to get pregnant, and her constant frustrations when it seems like building a decent relationship with her hermit father seems to be completely one-sided at times.
I'm so glad that this book was sent to me. Personally, having a few people in my life who fall into the "hermit" status, I could relate to what she was going through, and how lonely and sad it can make you. I admire that she never gave up on him either, which takes more strength and will power than anyone could imagine. She is very lyrical with her words, even when she is being brutally honest. This is a very real book, and a very real struggle that many people go through, and even if you don't have a friend or family member that disappears for months at a time, everyone can learn something about themselves in this book.
jessferg's review
2.0
My Amazon Vine review: Novella Carpenter and I should really be friends - we seem to believe in the same things and have the same hobbies. But I don't like her. At all. And I didn't really care for her book either. I have no idea why this got published. It's not particularly insightful or well-written. There's no story, per se. The attitude is quite self-centered.
I am hesitant (a little) to tell you how uninteresting and mundane this book is because obviously the author feels she has experienced something no one else has and she deserves all that she has learned/gained from those experiences. Yet I'm here to tell you - you have had every experience in this book, and, most likely, more so. Whether this is a fault of the conveyance of the story, or the fact that the author really does think her stereotypical hippie upbringing was somehow different is unclear.
I really wanted to enjoy this (much like I wanted to enjoy her first book,Farm City) but the end result is that I'm just not a Novella Carpenter fan.
I am hesitant (a little) to tell you how uninteresting and mundane this book is because obviously the author feels she has experienced something no one else has and she deserves all that she has learned/gained from those experiences. Yet I'm here to tell you - you have had every experience in this book, and, most likely, more so. Whether this is a fault of the conveyance of the story, or the fact that the author really does think her stereotypical hippie upbringing was somehow different is unclear.
I really wanted to enjoy this (much like I wanted to enjoy her first book,Farm City) but the end result is that I'm just not a Novella Carpenter fan.
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