The world of cults, especially in North America, may take different forms. Some of them do tend to reach to a larger follower, some are just created around some family figure. Many families may have such iconic figure in their midst, especially an old grandfather, but they are not necessarily turning into a cult.
Journalist Michelle Dowd spent her formative years in a family cult created around her grandfather, roaming through the fields and hills, learning to trust animals and nature, but being taught to despise the outsiders. The apocalyptic religious cult founded in the 1930s by her grandfather, with assigned prophetic qualities.
Life is limited by various rules and especially restrictions, denying everything that has to do with civilization - including hospitals and medical services in general. Her life is marked by lack of attention, proper food - most of it is provided by own foraging - and clothing. She knows everything around the mountain in California she grew up but hardly about normal healthy human relationships and family attachment.
Each chapter is initiated by a reference to a specific plant and is built around an experience in the mountain reflected into her own life and relationship. Despite the hardships and the estranged family relationship, the tone of the memoir is empathic and simple, without any over emotional confessions and outbursts against her traumatic childhood. Such an approach is usually the sign of a noble spirit that makes peace with life as it is, a rare quality, particularly among people who left behind cults or strict religious groups.
I had access to the book in audiobook format, read by the author herself, and her warm curious voice also confirms this impression.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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