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Down from the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging
A lyrical coming-of-age memoir, Down from the Mountaintop chronicles a quest for belonging. Raised in northwestern Montana by Pentecostal homesteaders whose twenty-year experiment in subsistence living was closely tied to their faith, Joshua Doležal experienced a childhood marked equally by his parents’ quest for spiritual transcendence and the surrounding Rocky Mountain landscape. Unable to fully embrace the fundamentalism of his parents, he began to search for religious experience in baseball, books, and weightlifting, then later in migrations to Tennessee, Nebraska, and Uruguay. Yet even as he sought to understand his place in the world, he continued to yearn for his mountain home.
For more than a decade, Doležal taught in the Midwest throughout the school year but returned to Montana and Idaho in the summers to work as a firefighter and wilderness ranger. He reveled in the life of the body and the purifying effects of isolation and nature, believing he had found transcendence. Yet his summers tied him even more to the mountain landscape, fueling his sense of exile on the plains.
It took falling in love, marrying, and starting a family in Iowa to allow Doležal to fully examine his desire for a spiritual mountaintop from which to view the world. In doing so, he undergoes a fundamental redefinition of the nature of home and belonging. He learns to accept the plains on their own terms, moving from condemnation to acceptance and from isolation to community. Coming down from the mountaintop means opening himself to relationships, grounding himself as a husband, father, and gardener who learns that where things grow, the grower also takes root.
For more than a decade, Doležal taught in the Midwest throughout the school year but returned to Montana and Idaho in the summers to work as a firefighter and wilderness ranger. He reveled in the life of the body and the purifying effects of isolation and nature, believing he had found transcendence. Yet his summers tied him even more to the mountain landscape, fueling his sense of exile on the plains.
It took falling in love, marrying, and starting a family in Iowa to allow Doležal to fully examine his desire for a spiritual mountaintop from which to view the world. In doing so, he undergoes a fundamental redefinition of the nature of home and belonging. He learns to accept the plains on their own terms, moving from condemnation to acceptance and from isolation to community. Coming down from the mountaintop means opening himself to relationships, grounding himself as a husband, father, and gardener who learns that where things grow, the grower also takes root.
- GenresMemoir
190 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2014
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2020
Now I understand that the same road was to bring us together again. Whatever we had missed, we possessed together in the precious incommunicable past.”
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Around 2005, I was pursing a Ph.d on a part-time basis. In a seminar on Environmental Literature, I sat next to Joshua Dolezal. Many years younger, he was considering his 10 year high school reunion, and I was planning to attend my 30th.
Josh was a serious and gifted student, and he loved Willa Cather. A couple of weeks ago, I read a eulogy a friend had written for his father, and he included the above Cather quote. It made me recall reading My Antonia in that seminar and Josh’s love for Cather. I wondered what had happened to Josh. I couldn’t recall his last name but knew his dissertation topic was on Willa Cather of course. With some investigative googling, I found his book Down from the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging.
Josh’s memoir is a story of growth and finding your place in the world. More interesting than most people’s journeys but weaving that common thread of where do I fit in, Josh’s tale begins with his attempt to adhere to his parents’ deep fundamentalist religious beliefs while concealing his doubts. His love for his parents is deep and abiding but over time he finds a way to reject their religion without alienating them.
Like many intelligent young men Josh was headed toward a career in the law, but love of writing and literature changed his goals. He falls for a beautiful but troubled woman from South America. Following her to her small hometown in Uruguay where he planned to teach, he learns that she is more than just troubled. He is also shaped by his sister’s marriage and divorce of a violent and controlling man.
His life is balanced from the emotional pain of his failed relationship and attempts to care for his sister and nephew with his love of nature. For years, his summers are spent fighting forest fires or working for the National Parks Service in some capacity. The beauty of nature and the mountains in Montana are a balm for his soul.
Ultimately, things turn out well for him and the ending made me happy to learn that Josh had found comfort and happiness. Well written and a well worth reading.
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Around 2005, I was pursing a Ph.d on a part-time basis. In a seminar on Environmental Literature, I sat next to Joshua Dolezal. Many years younger, he was considering his 10 year high school reunion, and I was planning to attend my 30th.
Josh was a serious and gifted student, and he loved Willa Cather. A couple of weeks ago, I read a eulogy a friend had written for his father, and he included the above Cather quote. It made me recall reading My Antonia in that seminar and Josh’s love for Cather. I wondered what had happened to Josh. I couldn’t recall his last name but knew his dissertation topic was on Willa Cather of course. With some investigative googling, I found his book Down from the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging.
Josh’s memoir is a story of growth and finding your place in the world. More interesting than most people’s journeys but weaving that common thread of where do I fit in, Josh’s tale begins with his attempt to adhere to his parents’ deep fundamentalist religious beliefs while concealing his doubts. His love for his parents is deep and abiding but over time he finds a way to reject their religion without alienating them.
Like many intelligent young men Josh was headed toward a career in the law, but love of writing and literature changed his goals. He falls for a beautiful but troubled woman from South America. Following her to her small hometown in Uruguay where he planned to teach, he learns that she is more than just troubled. He is also shaped by his sister’s marriage and divorce of a violent and controlling man.
His life is balanced from the emotional pain of his failed relationship and attempts to care for his sister and nephew with his love of nature. For years, his summers are spent fighting forest fires or working for the National Parks Service in some capacity. The beauty of nature and the mountains in Montana are a balm for his soul.
Ultimately, things turn out well for him and the ending made me happy to learn that Josh had found comfort and happiness. Well written and a well worth reading.
September 13, 2016
I don't know why I wanted to read this. I put it on my Amazon wishlist when Rachel Dolezal was in the news and the gory family details about Joshua Dolezal allegedly molesting their foster brothers, and her family "revenge-outing" her as a white woman. I guess I thought I might get some insight into a messy and abusive-looking family. I kept reading it because I love memoirs about growing up in weird, fundamentalist families, and I kept reading a few pages here, a few pages there for the past year. I've finally given up on it because it's just not a very interesting book. Beyond highly-publicized family drama and media speculation, Josh Dolezal is just not a great writer. His prose is amateurish and his narrative lacks any of the insight and reflection that make my favorite weirdo cult survival books worth it. A year on, the Dolezal family is out of the zeitgeist and this book doesn't give me any good reason to finish it on its own merits.
July 4, 2014
Review soon to come on www.englewoodreview.org
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews