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Breaking Clean
Blunt has turned the memories of her childhood and young adulthood in rural Montana into a beautifully written memoir that is a meditation on how land and her life will always be intertwined. A must read.
Born into a third generation of Montana homesteaders, Judy Blunt learned early how to "rope and ride and jockey a John Deere," but also to "bake bread and can vegetables and reserve my opinion when the men were talking." The lessons carried her through thirty-six-hour blizzards, devastating prairie fires and a period of extreme isolation that once threatened the life of her infant daughter. But though she strengthened her survival skills in what was--and is--essentially a man's world, Blunt's story is ultimately that of a woman who must redefine herself in order to stay in the place she loves.
Breaking Clean is at once informed by the myths of the West and powerful enough to break them down. Against formidable odds, Blunt has found a voice original enough to be called classic.
Born into a third generation of Montana homesteaders, Judy Blunt learned early how to "rope and ride and jockey a John Deere," but also to "bake bread and can vegetables and reserve my opinion when the men were talking." The lessons carried her through thirty-six-hour blizzards, devastating prairie fires and a period of extreme isolation that once threatened the life of her infant daughter. But though she strengthened her survival skills in what was--and is--essentially a man's world, Blunt's story is ultimately that of a woman who must redefine herself in order to stay in the place she loves.
Breaking Clean is at once informed by the myths of the West and powerful enough to break them down. Against formidable odds, Blunt has found a voice original enough to be called classic.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 10, 2002
About the author
Judy Blunt
9 books15 followersJudy Blunt was raised on a cattle ranch in a remote area of Phillips County, Montana, USA near Regina, Montana, south of Malta, Montana. In 1986 she moved with her three small children to Missoula, Montana to attend the University of Montana.
She later turned the tales of her ranch life into an award-winning memoir, titled Breaking Clean (Knopf 2002), which won Whiting Writers' Award, the PEN/Jerard Fund Award, Mountains and Plains Nonfiction Book Award, Willa Cather Literary Award, and was one of The New York Times' Notable Books. She received a Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship and a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Her essays and poems have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Big Sky Journal and Oprah Magazine.
Blunt received her M.F.A. from the University of Montana in 1994. Blunt currently resides in Missoula, Montana where she is an associate professor at the University of Montana.
She later turned the tales of her ranch life into an award-winning memoir, titled Breaking Clean (Knopf 2002), which won Whiting Writers' Award, the PEN/Jerard Fund Award, Mountains and Plains Nonfiction Book Award, Willa Cather Literary Award, and was one of The New York Times' Notable Books. She received a Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship and a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Her essays and poems have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Big Sky Journal and Oprah Magazine.
Blunt received her M.F.A. from the University of Montana in 1994. Blunt currently resides in Missoula, Montana where she is an associate professor at the University of Montana.
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