North Enough: AIDS and Other Clear-Cuts

by Jan Zita Grover

Overwhelmed after her intense years as an AIDS worker in San Francisco, Jan Zita Grover moved cross-country to Minnesota, hoping to find a place north enough to feel an escape. What she didn't expect to find is the reality of the devastated landscape that makes up the north woods--massive cut-overs, land that has been logged and used beyond any easily recognizable loveliness.

However, Grover's extraordinary imagination sees similarities between this ravished landscape and the ravished bodies of her dying friends. Refusing to sentimentalize, she nevertheless finds surprising consolation in loss. From landfills that have become prime wildlife feeding areas, to the unexpected joys of fly-fishing without a hook, Grover again bears witness to something she first began to articulate in San Francisco: the "difficult beauties of deformity."

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Tate Geiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unique writing - it felt unfinished in some places, but in an intimate way

[miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is one of my favorite books of all time, and has been since long before i finished it. got a chapter assigned in the best class i've ever taken last year, been reading it since. slowly slowly rereading almost every section at least 2 or 3 times, a few of them closer to 15 or 20. this book has totally shaped the way i see the world—ideas about the earth, identity, death and grieving and loss are all handled so brilliantly in this book. i've never found in one place so many ideas that were totally new to me and all totally mind-blowing. grover holds an extremely long contemplative moment, turning the reader around insider her space of mourning, moving, making a determined effort to find - if not beauty, if not meaning, if not a reason, then SOMETHING in the destruction and death surrounding. few conclusions are drawn, few perspectives prescribed, but so much is offered. grover's writing is some of the most beautiful i have ever encountered, and this book was one of the first that i found myself slowing down to read like poetry, letting each word sound out in my head before absorbing the meaning and moving on. i lived with this book on my nightstand, in my backpack, housing my favorite bookmark for almost half a year, and finally finishing it feels less like giving it up than i thought, because it feels so completely taken into me. i don't know if a book has ever changed my life this much - i can't recommend it enough to enough people, everyone should read it. slowly, with a notebook and a pen on hand.

[Gunnar Lundberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really unique and poignant framing of destruction— and the creation embedded within destruction. Grover’s essays span various modes of caretaking, but the constant is a need to orientate oneself in relation to what’s being given. An overlooked ecological treasure with huge ripples into the queer community. This should be on everyone’s reading list.

[Lina Žigelytė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had this on the shelf for years next to titles in which queerness meets nature writing. This book is written with so much love and genuine care for people who live/d with AIDS and for the woods of Minnesota. Highly recommend.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s such a fine line in natural histories and memoir between making too much meaning and not enough. In many ways Grover’s largely observational style is a respite from the trite and easy platitudes of so much non fiction. And that isn’t to say this book doesn’t reflect or make meaning at all—it’s deeply reflective, with diligently hard won significance and knowledge. I guess what I was missing was a more explicit connection between AIDS and environmental degradation. I could feel the invisible undercurrents but felt like the book didn’t ultimately achieved what it promised. Grover was the one actually there on the frontlines of these historical moments! I’m just looking at them in the larger context of my own experience, and it feels unsatisfying to draw my own conclusions to the extent that this book asks.

That said, the writing is so fresh and the voice so singular—the best way I can describe it is an unflorid poetry of jargons that invites us again and again into intimacy with the different realms of our universe with which Grover is in communion—and I did FEEL the intertwined devastations this book set out to convey. I have deep love for this book and think anyone interested in queer history or natural history should read it. I will probably give it to a few friends. But I wanted more guidance in seeing and understanding the bigger picture as much as I was guided through its microcosms.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the more specific ecological language lost me, but the book's argument/project is original and convincing. Despite her two very heated subjects, AIDS and environmentalism, the author never resorts to sentimentality. A short, dense, but spirited read.