Landscape and self…

… A Review of Matthew Ferrence’s Appalachia North: A Memoir | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog.

In addition to exploring the topographical, environmental, and sociological meanings of northern Appalachia, Ferrence explores the meaning and substance of his own body, via his experience with a brain tumor. The two narratives—the attempt to reconceive of Appalachia and to make sense of his experience in his own body—might seem at first to be disconnected, but they’re related in the sense that they’re both studies in materiality and physicality. They’re also both about destruction and erosion, and about the possibility and impossibility of reclamation and renewal.