Tom Kizzia

I grew up in the rural West, I love it, and I'm glad that other people find inspiration in it, too. But sometimes these places attract quite freaky and dangerous people, and this book is the story of one of the most infamous. Raised among the Dallas elite, the man who came to be known as Papa Pilgrim lived on the road for a long time before meeting his wife and having 15 (!) children. The story starts as the large family shows up in a rural corner of Alaska, near the massive Wrangell-St. Elias National Park known for its glaciers, looking for land.

We learn through Kizzia's story that the family had outstayed their welcome in Mora County, New Mexico--one county north of where I grew up--because they habitually stole from neighbors, broke their fences, and generally disrespected any sense of community or law. This story details the Pilgrim clan arriving and committing the same offenses, and worse, in their new community, as their neighbors get wrapped up in the battles and have to figure out how to defeat a headstrong man that has clear mental health problems.

It's in a lot of ways a tragic story. The book demonstrates, through a years-long narrative, why everyone needs to understand how to live cooperatively within our society, even if they spend most of their time on their own. But I thought the storytelling was clear, and the author included the perspectives of many people to round it out, including the Pilgrim children.… (meer)