Pulling Down the Barn eloquently recalls author Anne-Marie Oomen's personal journey as she discovers herself an outsider on her family farm located in western Michigan's Oceana County, in the township of Elbridge-a couple hundred acres in the middle of rural America. Written as a series of heartfelt interlocking narratives, this collection of essays portrays the realities of farm life: haying, picking asparagus and cherries, the machinery of tractors and pickers; but each chapter also touches upon the more ethereal and rarely articulated: the stoic love that permeates a family, the farmer's...
Pulling Down the Barn eloquently recalls author Anne-Marie Oomen's personal journey as she discovers herself an outsider on her family farm located in...
Anne-Marie Oomen uses a wealth of vivid language and personal details to bring scenes from her childhood on a family farm to life in House of Fields. Yet the focus of this book shifts away from the daily activities of the farm, which Oomen presented in Pulling Down the Barn, to life outside its boundaries, as she explores the complex meaning of "education" in all of its rural forms. From reading lessons to shattered windows, from dynamite to first kisses, from lost underwear to confirmation names, these stories depict the spiritual and emotional journey of being educated by family, fields,...
Anne-Marie Oomen uses a wealth of vivid language and personal details to bring scenes from her childhood on a family farm to life in House of Field...
Coding and decoding are the themes of Anne-Marie Oomen's collection of poems, which together tell the story of a woman named Bead and her search for a safe harbor. The maritime International Code of Signals becomes a symbolic guide to Bead's journey, lending weightier meaning to boating phrases such as "You should proceed with caution" and "I am continuing to search." The beautiful terrain near Lake Michigan forms a powerful backdrop to the exploration of the life of a woman and her Native American lover, whose poverty and desperation are in stark contrast to the wealthy resort...
Coding and decoding are the themes of Anne-Marie Oomen's collection of poems, which together tell the story of a woman named Bead and her search for a...
