My Father's Cabin

I read this book and followed every word through out the book..I then loaned it to a son-in-law of patient (where I work) and he and I had a great discussion of the themes that run through out the book. The end of the book had us both talking for days about it. The patient's son-in-law really liked it because he was raised in area very near where the author's father's cabin is.

I am writing this review three years after hearing Mark Phillips speak at a workshop for local school librarians. As soon as his workshop ended, I bought a copy of this book, read it non-stop, and promptly ordered 15 copies so I could have them on hand to give as gifts to favorite friends. (The only other book like this I can say I love as much is Deborah Tall's "From Where We Stand"). I must read it again, now that I've recommended it to a group of colleagues who lead the local Teaching American History grant project. What I remember best about this book is that not only is it a personal meditation on the "American Dream" or nightmare, depending on your POV, but Phillips's talent for blending personal history with local history. In doing so he depicts the painful de-industrialization of Western New York, from the perspective of his family's life in the industrial north of WNY. Yet, there is hope in his father's determination to "go back to the land." Of course, the earliest people to live on this land were the Seneca of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy, who lost it as post-Revolutionary financiers quickly sold the land away from underneath them). In his father's struggles, there are echoes of the hopes of WNY's earliest settlers, who were likewise displaced from New England, moving west of the Genesse where land (not all of it tillable) was plentiful and cheap; and echoes too of the hopes of later immigrants/migrants who found employment in the region's chemical and steel plants, powered by cheap electricity. WNY remains very much a place where people like Phillips's dad both stuggle and dream.

He worked hard, Mark Phillips' dad did. He had a tough job. He worked a lot of overtime...he wanted a place of solitude for the rare time off work. His dream finally put him to action. He found the land, he worked out the cabin plans...his dream was coming to light. This had to be perhaps the happiest times for his dad, fulfilling a dream, creating a place for solitude, getting away from the smoky factory--a place for fun occasions to share with his family. Well, it should have been a happy time. Not knowing whether he would ever enjoy it, he unselfishly continued to finish his dream. It seems that his only fuel was the love of his family. Knowing his long-sought-after reward may not materialize, the emotional pain had to be as bad as the physical pain as his goal was laboriously concluding. His reward was ultimately redefined. His purpose to financially provide for his family could not escape him, even through his last project. This story of this working class man can teach the rest of us so much, in a time when we can find so much to complain about. Read this and you will find we have nothing, absolutely nothing, to complain about. Act upon your dreams as soon as you can. Life gives you less time as each day passes. Don't wait too long. The concept we take for granted, "tomorrow", is not promised to anyone, no matter how hard you try. Thanks, Mark, for sharing this story, no, legacy, with the rest of us. [email protected].

I really enjoyed this book, and found myself returning to it whenever I could sneak some time in over the weekend. The message is simple, and poignant in light of the life of Mark Phillips. I have already passed it on to a male friend that I think would really appreciate this book in relation to his father and his son, and I have several others I will continue to pass it on to. It is good enough to recommend, and is a great gift for men who enjoy hunting and the outdoors.

I just finished this book last night and enjoyed every word. I am glad I did not read the above review first, though, since it gives away most of the drama. The book shows, in essence, that there is drama in all of our lives, and this one was very well written. In the search for "heroes" you hear about these days, there is surely one in Mr. Phillips' father, just a good American that did his blue-collar job despite mind-numbing conditions and, later, enormous pain. If you like this book, and the memoir genre, try also Rick Bragg, All Over But The Shoutin'.