Hole in the Sky A Memoir

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.

William Kittredge is the author, The Willow Field, The Nature of Generosity, among others, and, with Annick Smith, he edited The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology. He grew up in Oregon and now lives in Missoula, Montana, where for many years he taught at the University of Montana.