Burning Fence: A Western Memoir of Fatherhood

by Craig Lesley

Book Overview

A memoir of startling emotion and grace, Burning Fence is the story of the men in Craig Lesley's family: absent father, Rudell, tough stepfather, Vern, adopted son, Wade, and Craig Lesley himself.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312318464
• ISBN13: 9780312318468
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Another grand work by Craig Lesley.

This is a very honest look at his life. Sometimes a look like this can be very hard but the reader gains an appreciation of such introspection.

Riveting Tale of Two Fatherhoods

When Rudell Lesley told his wife Hazel he had to go out for a while to look for a lost flashlight, he never returned, leaving her to raise their eight-month old son alone. The baby, christened Martin Craig Lesley, emerged with remarkable academic ability that came with a talent for remembering and processing every experience on an unusually deep level. As I read, I marveled that the child didn't suffer a nervous breakdown or withdraw completely into fantasy. Relatives made vague, brief, derogatory comments about his father. Hazel said, "He just didn't give the slightest damn about anything." Rudell was shell-shocked from his fighting in the war. He was a backslider who poached. Trying to three-dimensionalize his father using this information began the stirrings of rage. Also Craig needed a target for his anger because his stepfather Vern was too terrifying to defy openly. Badly injured in an accident at fifteen, Craig finally drew his father's attention. Rudell appeared with his young wife and four half-siblings. From that time until his father's death, Craig takes a spellbinding journey into the lives of his father's family and associates. Rudell, with all his entertaining stories ("stretchers"), fails to say what would have meaning for Craig: why Rudell left, and whether he thought he made the right decision. With all of his hard physical labor as a fence builder, Rudell keeps himself and his family in squalor. Mixed into all this is Craig's adopted handicapped son Wade who burns Rudell's stack of freshly cut fence posts, believing that he's scaring off Big Foot. If you would like to live inside the mind of a man who overcame a harrowing childhood to become a successful writer and university professor, this memoir is for you.

Compelling in a tragic and real sense.

I had read four of Craig's fictional books, before reading his biography, so was familiar with his real-life characters. Like one of the reviews, I was "compelled" to finish this poignant and gut-wrenching story; bringing the book along on a Mexican cruise and visits to the doctor. The one issue I have with this book comes I guess from being a retired Episcopal Priest. I was bothered by Craig's seeming lack of motivation to forgive his father. It seemed at times like he couldn't live without resentment. In the end, though, it's not mine to judge. I know Craig, having taken a three week, five day a week summer course under her excellent tutelege. I must say he is a wonderful, gentle and loving man, in spite of all he has been through. Perhaps he has forgiven his father more than he yet realizes!