Early praise for Song of the Plains by Linda Joy Myers, PhD (published by She Writes Press):
Song of the Plains is an emotional and captivating read. From the very first page, Linda Myers leads the reader on a journey into the inner landscape of a complex family dynamic that invites curiosity and empathy. Myers is a brilliant storyteller… This story touches readers in a way that stirs compassion for the complexity of people and their role in a larger framework known as ‘family.’
The descriptions in Song of the Plains are downright elegiac. I felt I was standing on the red earth in Oklahoma, feeling the wind in my face. This next volume of Myers’ quest for understanding and forgiveness of her foremothers and family will inspire anyone seeking to understand their roots.
For years, as I considered the mystery of my childhood I wondered ‘Who were these people who molded me?’ Linda Joy Myers’ memoir Song of the Plains asks that question and explores the decades-long saga of her search for answers. Like an ancestral detective, she peers into the evidence and follows historical bread crumbs, attempting to make sense of her family’s earlier lives.
Myers, a skillful and poetic storyteller, recalls scenes from a childhood spent in the long shadows of her mother and grandmother. We follow her shero’s journey as she attempts to disentangle her spirit from the legacies of the past and finds the lost stories that are the key to freedom.
Linda Joy Myers, an established thought leader in the memoir genre, solidifies her legacy with this meditation on ancestry, place, generational pain, healing and redemption… The writing is cohesive and evocative, the research impeccable and the ultimate triumph over both nature and nurture compelling.
Linda Joy Myers’ search for continuity in her family history brings to mind E. M. Forster’s quote, ‘Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted….’ Myers’ search for connection deeply resonates in a time when social media makes connections that are broad, but shallow… Myers’ writing plumbs the depths of real experience. This important narrative is
crafted to last.
crafted to last.
Beautiful and lyrical, this memoir is achingly honest. We see the narrator, a strong woman who not only survived her early life—abandonment, rageful attacks, and betrayals–offering us the story of her struggle and ultimate redemption. Through writing her story she shows us a way to find our own, modeling the kind of bravery and grit it takes for us to embark on our own
journey.
journey.
Song of the Plains is a poetic work of art that deftly weaves an intergenerational tapestry of the author’s ultimate healing and self-redemption… Linda Joy Myers’ elegantly crafted memoir gives hope to readers yearning to break the legacy of childhood trauma and it inspires us to undertake necessary work to accept ourselves, own our worthiness, and take our rightful place in the
world.
world.