Response after reading: One Hundred Years of Dirt By Rick Morton
I am not born in Australia.
I am not gay.
I am not male.
I am not a journo.
I did not grow up on a property in western Queensland, Australia.
I have mild anxiety attacks but usually keep going.
When depressed, I get into bed and cry.
I am trying to renew my extended family through writing a novel about my father.
I am trying to be a steadfast supportive mother.
My reaction to this book?
No words.
This book is so courageous.
How can anyone write about his inner self with such honesty and power?
I heard something about One Hundred Years of Dirt on ABC Radio National. I don’t remember what. I picked up a copy at my public library. I put it on my stack of to-be-read books on the floor in a corner of my bedroom.
Whoops. An email reminder from the public library. I had only four days to read One Hundred Years of Dirt. I read it in three. The power of this book with all its exposed pain, lifted me out of a depression and back into writing. Thanks Rick.
Spoiler alert:
This book is NOT about living on a property in Western Queensland.
Dear Reader,
What books have had a powerful emotional impact on you?
Have you ever been amazed that someone could write with brutal honesty?