When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice 
 by Terry Tempest Williams
Sarah Crichton Books, 2012. 208 pages. Nonfiction.

When Diane Tempest was dying of breast cancer, she bequeathed her journals to her daughter Terry Tempest Williams. When Williams found the fifty-four volumes, she discovered that each and every one of them was blank. In fifty-four meditations on voice, Williams explores what it means to have a voice, especially for women. Is there more than just being a wife and a mother for women to write about? Why were her mother’s journals blank? What does that mean for Williams? In her lyrical style, made famous by her beloved classic Refuge, Williams comes to terms with her mother’s silence.

 I could not put this book down. I was drawn in by the shock of those blank journals and the discussion of voice. For Williams, self-expression is always tied to the land, and this volume is true to form. I was deeply moved by the first-person narrative of how the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was formed because a small group of writers decided to fight for the land that they love.

This book will touch those who are interested in mother-daughter relationships, those interested in the discussion of voice, and those who are interested in environmental writing. With such variation in subject, there will be something to please every reader.

AGP