[A] blazing debut…[Blackburn’s] sentence-level excellence and gift for subtle characterization help this take flight. It’s a formidable portrait of the thin line between faith and delusion.
Loose of Earth is a poignant memoir-at once a family story and a bold exposÉ of the lasting effects of ‘forever chemicals.’
“[A] captivating memoir…Loose of Earth is an important read on the precarious state of America, as the dangers of religious fanaticism and the damage humans have caused to the planet continue to creep forward.”
[A] gimlet-eyed debut...A thoughtful coming-of-age memoir from an American hinterland.
(Kirkus) In this moving memoir that weaves together seemingly disparate themes such as environmentalism and religion, the author details her relatives’ faith-driven slide into folly and the likely cause of their tragedy: government negligence.
(Texas Monthly) In this captivating memoir, Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn tells the story of ecological disaster and the boundaries of love and faith. . . . Loose of Earth is an important read on the precarious state of America, as the dangers of religious fanaticism and the damage humans have caused to the planet continue to creep forward.
(Chicago Review of Books) In her grief-stricken, gorgeously composed memoir, Lubbock native Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn writes about her father’s demise to a cancer likely caused by exposure to legacy chemicals while he was an Air Force pilot. There are two types of toxicity forming the bedrock of Loose of Earth: religious fanaticism and environmental contamination. With a scope that accommodates her personal traumas and wider environmental justice issues alike, Blackburn details her born-again family’s embrace of faith healers away from science alongside a larger investigation into PFAs, and in particular how they have impacted West Texas’ drinking water.
(Austin Chronicle) I felt Loose of Earth in every single fiber of my being. It had my guts tangled in knots, my emotions on edge, my brain boiling, and my limbs trembling. Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn created pain-drenched prose on these pages. Her words brought back painful, tearful memories from my childhood and adolescence – stuff that I thought was buried deep in my psyche. That is the power of a good story, especially when it’s a poignant memoir.
(Bearded Gentlemen Music) K.D. Blackburn’s father is a runner, a former Air Force pilot, and civilian captain for American Airlines. Her mother is a veterinarian. It is somewhat inexplicable, then, in a family headed by parents whose careers hinge so deeply on science, that when the father is diagnosed with colon cancer in 1997, they lean harder on their evangelical faith than medical treatment. In one harrowing moment, Blackburn’s paternal grandfather implores his son to seek care other than prayer and supplements; in another, a pre-teen Blackburn herself-the eldest of five children-believes it is her own lack of devotion that is getting in the way of God healing her father. Underpinning the narrative is Blackburn’s father’s military service, and the prevalence of the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, also known today as “forever chemicals.” Loose of Earth is a complicated and beautiful exploration of caring for family in the best ways we know how.
(Electric Literature) Like its windswept west Texas setting, Blackburn's narrative contains both harsh realities and seductively powerful illusions. She details the tightknit community and the impossible promises of the church her family belonged to; her struggles to care for her siblings and her resentment toward her parents for keeping them so isolated; and her grief at the death of her dad and the rock-solid certainty of her belief. Quiet but unsparing in its gaze, Loose of Earth is an unusual faith-deconstruction memoir that deals with the fault lines in a family and the unseen but real environmental hazards that threaten the health of human beings and the earth they walk.
(Shelf Awareness) And what a ride this is-vulnerable and raw, with moments that provoke anger and horror, yet told with compassion and a desire to understand the people who caused her such pain. And most importantly, with compassion for young Kate.
(Chicago Reader) Exquisite new memoir.
(Washington Independent Review of Books) Blackburn’s prose is impeccable, and her narrative utterly absorbing...[in this] evangelical West Texas bildungsroman...[This book is] an immense testament to the capacity of a daughter’s love-and an act of faith in our better human instincts.
(Commonweal Magazine)
