No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life (review)

Linda Hasselstrom is a rancher and an environmentally aware writer. Her most recent collection of essays, No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life, brings together essays that span various periods and locations of Hasselstrom’s life, linking them with the theme of community. The twenty-six essays, with witty titles such as “A Rocket Launcher in the Closet” and “Making Pottery out of Sewage,” cover topics from waste disposal to child neglect and remind us that we are all members of some type of community. Hasselstrom shows readers that whether it be an urban neighborhood in Cheyenne, an island off the coast of Alaska, a group of buckskinners at an annual rendezvous, or ranching neighbors on the plains of southwestern South Dakota, the sustainability of a community can be measured by the strength and vigor of the relationships between the place and the people who live in it. Hasselstrom notes that “only individuals can make a difference, no matter what the task. Each of us makes a stand where we can, and when we meet someone else who’s doing the same thing, we’ve got a community” (97).

In typical new western fashion, Hasselstrom challenges assumptions that one must be either an environmentalist or a rancher as she reveals the many ways in which ranching ties families and communities to the land. With rye humor Hasselstrom explores paradoxes of the West. The prime paradox she explores is the meeting of stubborn western independence with the reality that decisions made by individuals tend to impact the entire community, whether those neighbors are shipping you their sewage from Minnesota or their poorly planned subdivision floats to a stop in your prime grazing pasture after a flood. Sewage, crime, garbage all end up in someone’s backyard. Awareness makes for a better community while ignorance tends to make Hasselstrom quite cranky.

Hasselstrom’s evocative ranching-infused nature writing is an excellent read for current fans and for newcomers as well. The essays can be read straight through or in random order. They can also be used as standalone works in a classroom setting. They would work well in classes which include traditional “western” topics and in classes which challenge what it means to be a westerner, a woman, an environmentalist, or a community member. For example, Hasselstrom’s essay “Tomato Cages Are Metaphors” asks the question, “what does it mean to be a neighbor in a city?” (55). Her answers involve many lessons she learned growing up on a ranch and include fine-tuning for an urban environment. Her work adds an important, and not often represented, voice to the conversation.