Dirt is a story about the places where we start. From a single-wide trailer in the mountains of rural West Virginia to the halls of Yale Law School, Mary Marantz’s story is one of remembering our roots while turning our faces to the sky. From growing up in that trailer, where it rained just as hard inside as out and the smell of mildew hung thick in the air, Mary has known what it is to feel … broken and disqualified because of the muddy scars leaving smudged fingerprints across our lives. Generations of her family lived and logged in those hauntingly treacherous woods, risking life and limb just to barely scrape by. And yet that very struggle became the redemption song God used to write a life she never dreamed of.Mixed with warmth, wit, and the bittersweet, sometimes achingly heartbreaking places we go when we dig in instead of give up, Dirt is a story of healing. With gut-wrenching honesty and hard-won wisdom, Mary shares her story for anyone who has ever walked into the world and felt like their scars were still on display, showing that you are braver, better, and more empathetic for what you have survived. Because God does his best work in the muddy, messy, and broken–if we’ll only learn to dig in.
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I don’t often read memoirs. But when I saw this was the story of a girl who grew up a few hours south of where I did in West Virginia no way could I resist. Sometimes I felt like I was reading my own story. Sometimes it was very different. But every word of it rang true to the experience of growing up rough in the mountain state. And it made me desperately homesick for my own grandmother. West Virginia can be the kind of place a kid is anxious to leave. Mary Marantz was at one point–as was I. But what often looks like nothing but dirt is exactly what we need to grow deep roots. So from one West Virginia girl to another–well done.
Being from near Richwood, the book brought many forgotten memories to mind. Emotional for me. We WV women are strong
Grace has the power to transform. It has the power to heal wounds so deep you thought they would never close over again. But it only works, you’ll see the proof, if you are willing to let it take root.” Dirt: growing strong roots in what makes the beautiful broken and that is what Mary Marantz did. Mary grew up in the mountains of rural West Virginia, her ancestors were loggers and coal miners, she eventually is accepted into Yale’s Law school.
I am trying to put into words what I just read. Although I do not know the author, it felt like I had known her for years, the kind of friend that you would sit on the porch and start a conversation like it was just yesterday. We all get comfortable hiding the messy spots of our lives, we think that other’s will not like us because of our upbringing. Redemption, grace, strength, feeling broken is what I felt while reading Dirt. The story also encouraged me to dig deeper into my relationships, to accept my story that God laid out for me, to be molded into something beautiful.
Dirt takes us through Mary’s life growing up in the mountains of rural West Virginia in a trailer. “I used to think freedom looked a lot like being around people who aren’t muddy. Now I realize we’re all pretty muddy and maybe just a little bit broken too, no matter what kind of place we call home. And when it comes right down to it, getting each other’s mud on our hands—this serving one another in love-that’s what true freedom has always been about anyway. Because love, like integrity, is also about what we do when no one else is looking. And how we do anything is how we do everything.”
I highly recommend the book. This story deserves 10 stars.
I received an advance copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest opinion. All opinions are my own.
I absolutely loved the heart wrenchingly beautiful debut memoir Dirt by Mary Marantz. Her lyrical prose, visual descriptions, and profoundly inspirational messages captured my senses and held on tight until the very last page. I was enthralled by it. I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t want it to end! The author writes with emotional depth and clarity as she pours her heart and soul onto the pages of Dirt in genuine, authentic, and live giving ways. And she sprinkles the pages of Dirt with humor which I found delightful.
Dirt is about forgiveness, redemption, honesty, sacrifice, healing, acceptance, and the roots of deep-abiding love. It’s about letting go and hanging on, hardening and softening, and the power of love. Mary Marantz shares her relationships and struggles growing up, especially about her dad, and the untraditional life lessons he taught her in the simplest, but most profound ways. I love that she loved well even when it may have hurt to do so. I related with her feelings of unworthiness and not being enough. I’m glad she came to the realization of her true worth and value and the grit and grace that flows through her veins.
I recently lost my dad and I’m still grappling with the tremendous loss of his absence. Mary Marantz’s love and pride for her father touched me deeply and the last few chapters and epilogue of the book were my undoing, in the most beautiful of ways. They grabbed my heart strings and wouldn’t let go until long after I finished reading it.
Mary Marantz weaves her stories of family and faith into the beautiful tapestry of Dirt as she unravels rich life lessons, realizations, and truths as she derives the goodness that surely comes. Her stories are delicately strung together with the analogy of dirt, stories of brokenness and hard times which blossom into love, beauty, and grit. Her descriptive words created a visual for me; dirt is hard and resistant, and as it’s tilled with rich nutrients and watered with God’s grace growth blooms forth into the soil of our lives.
I think this quote by Mary Marantz sums up her amazing book well; “This wild, wonderful, hard, gritty, broken-made-beautiful life. You may call it grace, you may call it sacrifice. But for me, the greatest of these is love. It is a song of redemption, a reconciliation with the roots that grew me, a melody born out of the muddiest parts of my life. And it always started with dirt.”
I am a voracious reader and Dirt is one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time. It combines the elements of a raw, fresh style written with heartbreaking beauty, powerful and profound truths and honesty laced with faith-filled messages woven into the author’s heartfelt stories of inspiration. I absolutely loved Dirt and I look forward to future books from the new author Mary Marantz.
Every person has a story. Every story may share similar features, but every story has a history, has meaning, and has a purpose. Every story will be the map that starts a journey and ends with the beginning of another story. The importance of stories and how stories can be so extraordinary is wonderfully described in Dirt: Growing Strong Roots in What Makes the Broken Beautiful, (Grand Rapids: Revell Publishing Co., 2020, 274 pgs, $22.99) by Mary Marantz. Dirt is one of the best and most truthful memoirs of growing up in Appalachia to appear in several years.
Dirt is Mary’s story of growing up near Richwood, West Virginia. Her dad is a hard-working logger who personifies what it means to be a true mountaineer. Her grandma Goldie is the rock that holds the family together and the inspiration behind Mary’s drive to succeed at everything she attempts. Mary’s mom fights the pull of a better life as long as she can before striking out to find that better life in hopes of helping her family realize what lies in the world down from the mountain. Dirt is the story of a family holding on to the past while trying to anticipate what the future holds.
Dirt could be a memoir not only of working hard to be successful, but also of trying to keep the ties of family strong. Countless strong, independent, honest, and decent Appalachian young people could write their own version of Dirt. Whether it be in Nicholas County, WV or Dickenson County, VA or Pike County, KY, there are success stories to be told. Stories of moving on and leaving fear behind. Stories of carrying on family traditions while establishing new traditions. Dirt is the autobiography of all of those stories. It is a wonderful book and a highly recommended dose of encouragement.
Matt
A very informative autobiography about the baggage we all gain growing up and how that forever is part of us. Really made me realize this while I was reading a very interesting story.
A true story of the life of Mary Marantz who grew up poor in a small mountain town in West Virginia and eventually went to Yale law school.. I guess I would say the book is about her finding herself, losing herself and eventually finding herself again. It’s a very inspirational story and I highly recommend it.
This book is a wakeup call, the anthem we’ve been waiting for.
One word. Riveting!
Mary’s story is one that will live deep in the corners of your heart forever, reminding you, through her own experiences and poignant, beautiful storytelling, that the good stuff of life is often found in the hardest circumstances.
Mary’s story matters because all of our stories matter. Her words reek of God’s grace, glory, and goodness, and of our ability to cling to them.
Get ready to have your heart shaken up and made better through the pages of this book. I could not put it down!
Mary, her father, and a trailer. Her father, who thought he didn’t like children, but fell in love with his infant daughter the first time he held her in his arms. And never quit. For whom, all the hard work in the world was not too much if it ensured his daughter a better life than what he had had.
And Mary, who grew up wrapped in that love, responding to it as a flower responds to sun and rain, and yet, was haunted by a trailer. And yet, as teenagers will, left her trailer home and father, not really intending to come back, but of course, she had to. I suppose that in his hour of need, she heard his heart calling, and even the trailer could not keep them apart.
This is an entirely lovely accolade to a father from his daughter which I have read in a long time. It also speaks of another Father-daughter relationship to which Mary returned. As others have mentioned, Mary writes with a rare beauty, at last seeing the lovely even in dirt. I cannot recommend it too much.