This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I read this book because I'm interested in what the author claims to be doing: homesteading in a non-rural setting. She presents some very good information on growing your own produce, and the trials that are faced in doing so. She seems to do an admirable job in producing fruit and vegetables on her suburban flood-prone plot, but it's a little hard to pick out the good information from the surrounding confessions! These confessions give a memoir-like tone to the book. There's a bitter undercurrent to the narrative which becomes a drag to push through. It's an understandable bitterness, what with the personal hardships touched upon in the book. The through-line weaves and wanders, jumping from current thoughts to loosely related journal entries written years earlier. Like I said, though, there is some great information, and a good presentation of someone trying to make a difference through her own life for the future world.



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