lumbia. That’s 1,100 miles. Alone. This was 1994, only a
year after the PCT had offi cially been completed and long
before it became a well-maintained jaunt for even the most
casual of hikers. Her courage in the face of bears and unsa-
vory strangers is admirable, but her repeated disregard for
learning from her mistakes (not carrying enough water, fl im-
sy footwear, a back-breakingly heavy pack) can make you
want to yell at the page. Most of impressive of all, however,
is her willingness to explore the wilderness of her own heart
and mind. — Alex Notman
k The Story Of PCUN and the
Farmworker Movement In Oregon
By Lynn Stephen. UO Center for Latino/a and
Latin American Studies, $9.95.
This freshly revised
book by Lynn Stephen,
Ph.D., a UO anthro-
pologist, broadens our
understanding of im-
migrants in Oregon. It
relates the history of
immigrant farmwork-
ers in Oregon, mostly
workers with family
origins in Mexico, and
their long struggle to
achieve
representa-
tion in a union, PCUN,
Pineros y Campesinos
Unidos del Noroeste — the Northwest Treeplanters and
Farmworkers United.
Immigrant farmworkers became essential to Oregon
agriculture in the 1940s with the U.S. government’s
adoption of the Bracero Program, which invited Mexican
laborers to replace U.S. workers who joined the military
or industry in WWII. They were considered “heroes”
for securing our food supply during the war. Since then,
Mexican-American migratory and resident farmworkers
have become commonplace in Oregon, harvesting our
food and planting our trees, while suffering discrimination,
unhealthy working conditions, marginalization and a
complex legal status. They contribute to our economy and
prosperity without receiving the basics of a living wage,
health care or minimal labor rights. PCUN was founded
in 1985 on the groundwork laid by Oregon immigrant
workers, inspired by Cesar Chavez and the United
Farmworkers, to address these injustices.
Stephen describes PCUN as being “a crucial part of La-
tino history in Oregon over the past three decades. From a
small offi ce providing legal services for immigrant workers
to being a national leader in defending the rights of farm-
workers and immigrants, PCUN has become a role model
for the positive integration of Latino immigrants in the U.S.”
The book is based on collaboration between the UO and
PCUN, with interviews, visits to the fi elds and the PCUN
archives. It can be downloaded free online at the UO’s
Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies website at
wkly.ws/1ed and is now available in hardcopy at the UO
Duck Store. — Stephanie Larsen
Why Your Five-Year-Old
Could Not Have Done That:
Modern Art Explained
By Susie Hoge. Prestel, $17.95.
For a book titled Why
Your Five-Year-Old Could
Not Have Done That, author
and art historian Susie Hoge,
often has to tell a reader
that, well, technically a
child could have done that.
Her part-guidebook, part-
CliffsNotes for modern art
features over 100 works
from Henri Matisse to Louis
Bourgeois to Ai Weiwei, and
it breaks down each oeuvre
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by technique, historic and artistic context and location.
Take Franz Kline’s 1950 “Chief,” for example; to the
“untrained” mind, the painting is a unwieldy mess of thick,
black paint strokes with no eye toward representation, or
even meaning, of any kind. Hoge explains that the tableau
does “resemble something that a child might create,” but “a
child could not compress the multitudes of subtle illusions,
the suggestions of images, and the feel of determination
and speed that Kline succeeds in bringing.” This reasoning
feels a bit like a cop out, not because I disagree with Hoge
or dislike modern art — quite the opposite — but because
she alludes to these “subtle illusions” that distinguish a
masterpiece from child’s play but never delves into them,
never explains them, asking the reader just to trust that
meaning lies within the layers of paint or clay or human
fl uids (see Paul McCarthy’s “Class Fool”).
That being said, this book is an incredibly digestible
romp into the world of modern art, especially for those who
would never dream of venturing into a gallery for fun, and
boasts enough historical trivia about the artists, artwork and
art movements to keep each spread interesting and teach you
just enough so you can impress your friends. Did you know
that before Jasper Johns ever made his iconic American fl ag
collages, he decorated store windows at Tiffany’s in New
York City? I, for one, did not. — Alex Notman
Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety
By Daniel Smith. Simon & Schuster, $25.
An estimated 40 million people in the U.S. live with
anxiety. I am one of them. So when Daniel Smith’s book
came out this year, Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety, I
was incredibly excited, and dare I say anxious, to see what
a mainstream memoir would say about this silent epidemic.
For people who struggle with anxiety, reassurance can
become an addictive quest, and thus just to see Monkey
Mind proudly displayed in every bookstore was the
ultimate reassurance.
My reactions to the book’s content, however, are mixed.
Smith, a journalist who has written for The Atlantic and The