Winter Pasture

“To sing is to expand your presence, to occupy the vast silence with your voice.”

This book is one woman's first-hand account of her time amongst the Kazakh herders in China. These herder nomads live at the behest of mother nature, following the spring thaws north and then slowly working their way back south again for winter. The winters especially are quite harsh in this region of China, with temperatures plummeting and regular snowstorms that cause basically their entire existence without power or plumbing to freeze. Still, these people remain cheerful, with family and neighbors being at the center of their existence.

With a unique, interesting topic like this, I somehow expected more from the book. The author has periods where she seems very philosophical and lyrical in how she describes the environment, the people, and her surroundings, and then long periods of same-y passages about sheep, cows, tea, and manure. The people she lived with for this period of time were also kind of a mixed bag. Being honest, I'm not sure how she managed to put quite a positive spin on Cuma, because he sounds insufferable, brash, and annoying at the best of times.

So, unfortunately, this book is hard for me to recommend, as it's just too long and too dull in places. I'm hoping to find another book on this topic for maybe a better perspective, to give this another chance.