Reviewed by:

• Dakotah: The Return of the Future by Charles Bowden
• Maria O'Connell

Charles Bowden's Dakotah is difficult to review, for all the usual reasons. This posthumously published memoir/history makes no attempt at coherence or a straightforward narrative. As Terry Tempest Williams notes in her introduction, it is "the conversation [she] wanted to have with Chuck Bowden but never did" (v). The book explores Bowden's attachment to the land and to nature, while also revealing some of his personal history, the history of the Great Plains, the history of American music, all slipping in and out of time. The book reads like one side of a conversation where memories and stories come unbidden, wander off, and return somewhere else.

Bowden's first chapter, "My Piece of Ground," describes "a piece [End Page 402] of ground on the side" of an imagined bend in a river. He says, "I have never belonged to a place or movement or belief. But still I look" (3). As was his wont in all his books, Bowden looks not only on his own behalf but on ours as well, stitching together a story of migration, warfare, agriculture, and music in the middle of the country. He makes few judgments on the characters, either in his own past or in the country's. As he notes, "American lives are supposed to have straight narratives ending in redemption. … A life can have meaning without having a lesson. My life is about dirt" (8). He then transitions into a discussion about race from multiple perspectives, his own and others, including a runaway slave notice from Andrew Jackson. He uses this moment to remind us that there is no separation between himself and others, not even the separation of time.

Many observations concern his father, Jude, and the difficulties of a life in the heartland of America, the dream of a farm, and the reality of Chicago and all the difficulties of achieving an American dream. Interspersed are vignettes about Lewis and Clark, Indian captivity, Peggy Lee, and Daniel Boone, among others. The movement back and forth is both confusing and effective in stitching together a personal memoir that recognizes the history and the people that brought Bowden's life in the direction it has gone. His heartland is not simply a place in the middle of a country but a place of the heart that inspired interest, compassion, and creativity as he struggled to belong to and understand the ground around him. The ground can be in the middle or at the borders, but it must be internalized to be home ground.

In between the personal history of Charles Bowden and the histories of notable Americans and famous musicians there are several vignettes of elderly people living in dying towns, where the interstate never came and the railroads died out and where farming is very difficult. He makes the connections between these immigrants to the area and the others who have lived in the area, both human and animal. Toward the end of the book he tells the story of Melvin Wisdahl in Corinth, North Dakota. Melvin and his wife are among the "fewer than ten souls" who still occupy the town on the Bone Trail (152). Bowden links this abandonment with others: [End Page 403]

The empty is always there to fill some hole in those who come. The tribes find buffalo, get the horse and build both a life and a belief in the eternal trueness of this life. And then in less than two centuries they are broken and the buffalo is bones.

(153)

Ranching dreams last less than a decade for most. The weather is too harsh, and in 1886–87 "the breath of the place kills the beasts in place" (153). Each of Bowden's vignettes situates the present on a continuum of time. The humans and their animals occupy the ground for a time, but the ground, the earth, still continues. This posthumous work continues Bowden's uniquely ecocritical writing—starting from human common ground...

审核人：

• 达科他：未来的回归作者：查尔斯·鲍登（Charles Bowden）
• 玛丽亚·奥康奈尔

出于所有通常的原因，查尔斯·鲍登（Charles Bowden）的《达科他》（Dakotah）很难复习。这份死后出版的回忆录/历史并未试图保持连贯性或直截了当的叙述。正如特里·坦佩斯特·威廉姆斯（Terry Tempest Williams）在她的简介中所指出的，这是“ [她]希望与查克·鲍登（Chuck Bowden）进行的对话，但从未如此。这本书探讨了鲍登对土地和自然的依恋，同时也揭示了鲍登的一些个人历史，大平原的历史，美国音乐的历史，所有这些都在时间上流逝。这本书的读法就像是谈话的一面，在那儿，记忆和故事无处不在，流连忘返，回到其他地方。

鲍登的第一章“我的一块土地”描述了“一块[End Page 402]想象中的一条河弯道的一侧。”他说：“我从未属于某个地方，任何运动或信仰。但是我还是看。”（3）。正如鲍登在他所有著作中所言，鲍登不仅代表他自己，而且代表我们自己，在世界中间编织了一个关于移民，战争，农业和音乐的故事。无论是在过去还是在过去，他对人物的判断都很少。正如他指出的那样：“美国人的生活本应具有直截了当的叙事，以救赎为结局。……生活无需上课就可以有意义。我的生活是关于污垢的”（8）。随后他进入了关于种族的讨论，从多种角度，包括他自己和他人的角度出发，包括安德鲁·杰克逊（Andrew Jackson）失控的奴隶公告。

许多观察涉及他的父亲裘德（Jude），以及在美国腹地的生活困难，农场的梦想，芝加哥的现实以及实现美国梦想的所有困难。散布着关于刘易斯和克拉克，印度人被囚禁，佩吉·李和丹尼尔·布恩等人的短篇小说。来回运动既令人困惑又有效地将个人回忆录编成一本，该回忆录承认了鲍登的历史和人民，使鲍登的生活朝着前进的方向前进。他的心脏地带不仅是一个国家中部的地方，而且是一个心灵之地，在他努力归属并了解他周围的地面时激发了兴趣，同情心和创造力。地面可以在中间或边界，但必须将其内部化以作为本国地面。

在查尔斯·鲍登（Charles Bowden）的个人历史与著名的美国人和著名音乐家的历史之间，有数个生活在垂死城镇中的老年人的短篇小说，那里的州际公路从未来过，铁路也因此消失了，耕种非常困难。他使这些移民与该地区以及其他居住在该地区的人和动物之间建立了联系。在书的结尾，他讲述了北达科他州科林斯的梅尔文·维斯达尔的故事。梅尔文和他的妻子属于“少于十个灵魂”，他们仍然在骨头步道（152）上占领该镇。Bowden将此遗弃与他人联系起来：[完第403页]

空虚总是存在，以填补那些来者的空缺。部落找到水牛，骑上马，并建立起一种生活，并相信这种生活的永恒真实性。然后在不到两个世纪的时间里，它们被打碎，水牛成为骨头。

（153）

牧场梦想大多数情况下持续不到十年。天气太恶劣了，在1886-87年“地方的呼吸杀死了原地的野兽”（153）。每个鲍登的小插曲都将礼物呈现在一个连续的时间上。人类及其动物占据了地面一段时间，但地面（地球）仍在继续。这项死后的工作延续了鲍登独特的生态批判性写作-从人类共同点开始...