Hole in the Sky: A Memoir Paperback - 1993

First line

Maybe children wake to a love affair every other morning or so; if given any chance, they seem to like the sight and smell and fell of things so much.

From the jacket flap

William Kittredge's stunning memoir is at once autobiography, a family chronicle, and a Westerner's settling of accounts with the land he grew up in. This is the story of a grandfather whose single-minded hunger for property won him a ranch the size of Delaware but estranged him from his family; of a father who farmed with tractors and drainage ditches but consorted with movie stars; and of Kittredge himself, who was raised by cowboys and saw them become obsolete, who floundered through three marriages, hard drinking, and madness before becoming a writer. Host hauntingly, Hole in the Sky is an honest reckoning of the American myth that drove generations of Americans westward -- and what became of their dream after they reached the edge.

Media reviews

Autobiography/Memoir

"A pleasure to read ... [Kittredge] has written a remarkably frank account of his own life, and at every stage it was interesting.... You will not have read another Western like this."

-- Washington Post Book World

"A grand and true story by one of our finest writers."

-- Annie Dillard



"The story of the Kittredges ... intersects mightily with the myth of American expansion and 'improvement' of the 'wilderness.'... a valuable memoir that should be read with care ... [Kittredge's] voice should be a prophetic one."

Chicago Tribune