Booklist

2006

by Mike Tribby

Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rohm were lovers who wanted to create a refuge for counterculture, libertarian types, including gays, live music aficionados, and pot smokers. Their Burning Rainbow Farm quickly achieved fame among those constituencies in their little corner of southwest Michigan. But when crusading DA Scott Teter decided that the specter of peaceful people smoking ganja was a public affront, matters took a decidedly unmellow turn. Teter succeeded in placing Rohm’s adolescent son with social services, and confiscation proceedings were brought against Crosslin and Rohm’s land. Teter also charged the men with growing marijuana and sought their incarceration. Before that happened, Crosslin and Rohm torched the farm and somehow were shot dead by government agents. Was this really necessary? Kuipers, whose sympathies are as clear as his prose is objective, interviewed locals, g-men, and former farm habitues in pursuit of answers. A cautionary tale for social revolutionaries and a case history of a single-minded prosecutor’s aggressiveness, this is of special interest to pop-culture and gay studies.

By admin|2006-01-01T00:49:10-08:00January 1st, 2006|Press|Comments Off

My Latest Book

THE DEER CAMP: A Memoir of a Father, a Family, and the Land that Healed Them

Some families have to dig hard to find the love that holds them together. Some have to grow it out of the ground. THE DEER CAMP: A Memoir of a Father, a Family, and the Land that Healed Them is the true story of the author’s family and the power of nature.

Bruce Kuipers was good at hunting, fishing and working, but not at much else that makes a real father or husband. Conflicted, angry, and a serial cheater, he destroyed his relationship with his wife, Nancy, and alienated his three sons—journalist Dean, woodsman Brett, and troubled yet brilliant fisherman Joe. He distrusted people and clung to rural America as a place to hide.

So when Bruce purchased a 100-acre hunting property as a way to reconnect with his sons, they resisted. The land was the perfect bait, but none of them knew how to be together as a family. Conflicts arose over whether the land – an old farm that had been degraded and reduced to a few stands of pine and blowing sand – should be left alone or be actively restored. After a decade-long impasse, Bruce acquiesced, and his sons proceeded with their restoration plan. What happened next was a miracle of nature.

Dean Kuipers weaves a beautiful and surprising story about the restorative power of land and of his own family, which so desperately needed healing. Heartwarming and profound, THE DEER CAMP: A Memoir of a Father, a Family, and the Land that Healed Them is the perfect story of fathers, sons, and the beauty and magic of the natural world.

Share this:

Related

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!