Built Around the Fire

By Nathan Lipps

Built Around the Fire delves into notions of place, the enveloping wonder and plight of our environment, and the complexities of rural culture: an examination of hierarchies, conservatism, generational religion, and the perpetuation of patriarchal norms. Such concepts are juxtaposed with a personal narrative: the rise and failure of a relationship, the deafening silence that arrives within any new vacancy, and the eventual need to learn to adapt in order to grow. These two themes--the notion of a midwestern place and its ideologies, and the notion of a failed relationship-- work in tandem to speak for a shared struggle. The small family farm is dying out and the personal relationship dies right alongside it. What remains is a chance at rebirth, change, a looking outward, finally, as much as a looking inward. Though there is brokenness, and pain, there is also hope.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1622882555
• ISBN13: 9781622882557
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.8" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up