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Alberta
Robert Kroetsch captures the beauty of this province in this endearing documentation of his Alberta experience—from the dinosaur digs in the Badlands to the Calgary Stampede to the site of Big Bear’s prophetic vision of kd lang’s hometown, Stettler.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
312 pages, Paperback
First published October 16, 1993
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About the author
Robert Kroetsch
55 books24 followersRobert Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet, and non-fiction writer. He taught for many years at the University of Manitoba. Kroetsch spent multiple years in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Winnipeg where he continued to write. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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November 30, 2020Phenomenal.
I'm an Albertan with indistinct European origins. I think four generations ago we got as far as Saskatchewan. The next brought us here, Alberta, Tilley, Brooks, Medicine Hat.
Fifty years since Kroetsch's "Alberta," yet still a book I needed to read today. Where am I from? Well, here. Alberta. I'm a prairie boy living in the parklands with the tomorrow-seekers of Edmonton. It seems Calgary won out on the battle for prosperity long ago.
"Alberta," 1968: "The process of naming is hardly begun in Alberta. We who live here so often cannot name the flowers, the stones, the places, the events, the emotions of our landscape; they await the kind of naming that is the poetic act." (p. 83).
To a large extent that is still true, but I'm comfortable saying this on a personal level and not a cultural one. I could not have named anything Kroetsch has named. I take this as a pretty big failure on my part. And that's why reading Alberta was an emotional process for me. Kroetsch lived in the world he wrote and wrote in the world he lived. He wrote the world he lived.
For the (un)naturalist, this book's language will absolutely stun you, as it did me. Those things out there that have distinct names are beautiful and are named beautifully. They lend a wholesome sort of understanding.
A picture of an age long passed, probably. Even the jacket's blurb reads as a prophecy never fulfilled. Still, what an incredibly diverse province in people and land.
I feel a sense of home and a sadness at not having it named. I'm here, though. Whether I'll catch up and get my bearings or continue to live in the looking-glass wood, who knows.
I'm an Albertan with indistinct European origins. I think four generations ago we got as far as Saskatchewan. The next brought us here, Alberta, Tilley, Brooks, Medicine Hat.
Fifty years since Kroetsch's "Alberta," yet still a book I needed to read today. Where am I from? Well, here. Alberta. I'm a prairie boy living in the parklands with the tomorrow-seekers of Edmonton. It seems Calgary won out on the battle for prosperity long ago.
"Alberta," 1968: "The process of naming is hardly begun in Alberta. We who live here so often cannot name the flowers, the stones, the places, the events, the emotions of our landscape; they await the kind of naming that is the poetic act." (p. 83).
To a large extent that is still true, but I'm comfortable saying this on a personal level and not a cultural one. I could not have named anything Kroetsch has named. I take this as a pretty big failure on my part. And that's why reading Alberta was an emotional process for me. Kroetsch lived in the world he wrote and wrote in the world he lived. He wrote the world he lived.
For the (un)naturalist, this book's language will absolutely stun you, as it did me. Those things out there that have distinct names are beautiful and are named beautifully. They lend a wholesome sort of understanding.
A picture of an age long passed, probably. Even the jacket's blurb reads as a prophecy never fulfilled. Still, what an incredibly diverse province in people and land.
I feel a sense of home and a sadness at not having it named. I'm here, though. Whether I'll catch up and get my bearings or continue to live in the looking-glass wood, who knows.
October 5, 2016
I read this for the geocaching challenge and I never really thought much about Alberta, if at all. But this book conveys very clearly the writer's abiding love for his homeland and I would now love to see that place that I have had shown to me in such beautifully crafted word pictures. Robert Kroetsch is worthy of the praise his writing receives.
June 6, 2013
A sacred text of the prairies.
Thank you Robert Kroetsch.
Thank you Robert Kroetsch.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews