Child of the Land is an intriguing book. The author, Douglas Warren Greenfield, grew up not far from where I did. I was raised on the B.C. side of the Peace River Valley; Greenfield's home was in northern Alberta.
The strength of this book lies in its accuracy in depicting the hardships of homestead life and the ingenuity of the pioneers who settled the land. When Greenfield described the bitter cold of a winter day, I swear I got goose bumps. And his vivid word pictures of the dancing Northern Lights reminded me of the beauty that accompanied the life-sapping cold. His description of the cursed gumbo mud that is the bane of the Peace Country is so dead on I could vividly recall losing my new shoe in Grade 8 on the way home for lunch. Talk about an injury to a 13-year-old's pride.
Greenfield's autobiography is a story of an unusual life. His interests and occupations over the years are interesting, too. His narrow escapes while skydiving and some of his harrowing experiences on the farm as a youngster give one the creeps. One of the charms of this book is its aura of innocence. The times described are often of an age long gone, before people had to be artificially entertained every waking moment of their life. He talks of sitting for an hour in a driving snowstorm just contemplating the raging beauty of a winter landscape. It's hard to imagine anyone doing that now. And some of the scrapes he gets himself into as a young person are hilarious. One incident that touched my funny bone was his naming of a pig after a little girl he fancied. The young Greenfield could not understand why the little girl never spoke to him again.
Some of the things I found less than stellar about the book were the reproduction of the pictures, some of the unnecessary abbreviations and the way the book is laid out. The pictures are in some cases impossible to make out. It would probably have been better to leave them out entirely. I never like to see abbreviations for common words such as feet in formal writing; I find it jarring. And my personal preference for an autobiography is chronological order. Greenfield tells his story by chapter headings. Thus several things get repeated and important things get left out. He repeatedly tells us about his parents and his upbringing, yet there is nothing at all about his children or first marriage except for a few passing comments including a mention about one his daughter's driving habits. And although it's not mentioned anywhere in the description of the book, Greenfield is a born-again evangelical Christian. One full chapter is dedicated to his conversion, and several times his writing is judgmental in tone. Because of the importance of his beliefs to him, Greenfield might do well to market his books to folks who are looking for a faith-based story.
Greenfield makes his characters come alive. I think parts of this book could easily be used for a geography or social studies class to learn about a part of Canada that's frequently overlooked. The writing is engaging and easy to understand. It is appropriate for early teens and older.
To order the book, contact Greenfield at [email protected]. The cost is $19.95 plus $3 shipping in Canada.
