Heavy, breathy, beautiful.

The first 30% is worth reading. And maybe the last 15-20%. The rest is woo science, blaming issues of capitalism on patriarchal influence on women, and under-researched obesity apologia. Her take on eating disorders is entirely rooted in Jungian philophosy from the 80s by a single analyst.

I'm sure this was a passion project for Loehnen, but all of her "research" speaks of someone who was fishing for evidence to make her point not someone wanting to make a point from evidence. 

I picked this up on a review comparing it to the feeling/scope of David Mitchell. It is absolutely beyond reckoning, not that.

It is a nice enough book though, and it makes you feel a like an archeologist as you unearth each story. The idea for the book is great - using the land as a grounding while each vignette comes as goes as a transient piece until it's (spiritually, in a very literal way) tied together once more. I wanted the house and land to be part of the focus and a character itself, but it felt more like that anchor/grounding/stage, which was disappointing to me.

In general, I suspect this book just isn't for me, given how baffled I am by the Pulitzer talk around it? Normally I love chewing on scenery and place, but this doesn't transport me to the land and the characters and their stories ultimately function more like a collection of loosely related short stories, some of which and more strongly than others and others which fail to land at all. 

As always YMMV. The prose is beautiful and if it sounds interesting enough to give a go, I would give it that chance. I have no regrets of the time I spent with this book, and it's clear Mason is a very talented writer. I just wish I had enjoyed it more. 

And I thought I had Daddy Issues (TM)

Part-memoir and part-self help. The memoir/personal stories provided by the author didn't work for me, and I found myself unable to relate to her. So I found those parts distracting at best.  YMMV.

The self help is a pared down version of Kristen Neff's Radical Self-Acceptance work (I attended several presentations by Neff and got far more in one hour with her than 200+ pages here) and ACT. That said, it's presented in a very simple and actionable way and could see this information being useful if you're not already very familiar with those modalities.