All But the Waltz

by Mary Clearman Blew

In language reminiscent of the wild beauty of Big Sky Country, Mary Clearman Blew gives us a glimpse into the lives of her family as she traces their connection to Montana’s natural and human landscape. Beginning with her great-grandparents’ arrival in 1882 in Montana--still a territory then--Blew relates the stories that make up her life.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Biography Memoir, History, Autobiography

236 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1991

About the author

Mary Clearman Blew is the author of the acclaimed essay collection All but the Waltz and the memoir Balsamroot. She is the editor of When Montana and I Were Young: A Memoir of a Frontier Childhood, available in a Bison Books edition. Her most recent novel, Jackalope Dreams, is also available in a Bison Books edition. She is a professor of English at the University of Idaho and has twice won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, once in fiction and once in nonfiction. She is also the winner of a Western Heritage Award and the Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

Reviews

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

A memoir of the five generations of Mary Clearman Blew's family when they arrived in Montana in 1882 while Montana was still a territory.

The book is full of the characters in Mary's family. The Hogelands that wanted they surname to last forever; were marring their cousins. Mary's father driving away from the home place and never returning.

A wonderful book that takes the reader into the lives of Mary's relatives.

Mary writes with such poetic words, that take the edges off of the hard life of the 1920's and 1930's.

[Shelby Burrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interesting parts made up for the really boring parts… god damn them plains people are tough

[Donna Cheff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana sponsors 1-2 Book Chats every year. We choose one book having to do with early Montana history, NA History, nature, etc. We divide it into 4 parts and meet for 4 weeks to discuss the questions that go with each part of the book. It has been fun to read and share a book or two a year, without having to be committed to a full Book Club each month! If you would like a copy of our questions for your Book Club, let us know. Can you contact me through Good Reads? If not, please e-mail cheffdonna@gmail.com. Also put ATTN: Donna - Book Questions (or something similar).

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is true pioneer history where the men go crazy and the women pick up the pieces and move on as best they can. Hardly anyone escapes the frontier hardship. Made me grateful I didn't have to live through the homestead period because I fear I would have been one of those who moved west to a dry farm....

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poignant read.

[Quiltgranny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a nice balance of the nature and the people of 1880's Montana. At times, the writing made me feel as if I was actually floating along the Judith River and watching the fields being worked. At other times, I wanted more information, and frustrated that there wasn't any way to find it - just like the author working with her great-grandfather's notes written on scraps of paper, fading away after so many years.

I think the best part of the book dealt with her ancestors, but her own generation probably should have been omitted. The change in attitude and even the descriptive prose was jarring after the 1880's views. It didn't detract from the story overall, but it just didn't seem to fit.

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 2 out of 5]

As in my own family, "I hung on the back of my father's chair, listening. I preferred the men's stories; they were much more thrilling, more fully narrated and actionppacked, then the elliptical, encoded talk of the women. (One simple, elementary difficulty with the women's talk took me years to comprehend. What they wanted to talk about couldn't be discussed in front of children.)"

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review at my blog.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and quiet.

[Bruth George · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good follow-up to Laxalt's book

[Amy Brewster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book so captured the life of the author growing up in Montana on a sheep ranch. Excellent descriptions of people and places. A little hard to keep track of different generations.

[Genie McFate]

A fantastic memoir about life in Montana and the family it shaped.