In my continuing quest to read thirty books this year, I finished Lone Patriot by Jane Kramer. Kramer is the author of the "Letters from Europe" feature in The New Yorker.
I've been interested in the American Militia movement for a few years now and have read several related books including The Silent Brotherhood, The Gathering Storm, and some others that are escaping me. I'm not sure why I find the Patriot/Militia stuff so interesting, but I do, and I wrote several papers in college related to this sort of thing (including one in which I attempted to use mythological theory to explain the momentum the movements have).
So, it wasn't a shock when my mom got me Lone Patriot as a gift. It's very well-written, not at all clumsy or daft, and it sheds some insight into the people behind the movement. Alas, I found that in spite of these strengths, the book lacked momentum. There wasn't a clear narrative thread which left the book a little lacking for me. It didn't really grab me. Kramer is interested, I believe, in painting a psychological portrait of John Pitner, but for one reason or another, I just wasn't grabbed.
It was an interesting portrait of life in the rural northwest, and reminded me of Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart in illustrating a certain kind of rural desperation. Gilmore's book is fantastic, by the way.
Posted by waking slow at February 13, 2003 03:26 PM