Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

In her memoir Reliance Road, Kate Winn describes growing up on a dairy farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin, where daily life revolves around livestock, crops, school, and the constant work required to keep the farm operating. Her mother, Margaret Rasmussen Winn, a trained chemist who later teaches home economics, directs much of the household world that shapes Kate’s childhood. As Kate reaches adulthood, she leaves the farm to study journalism at the University of Wisconsin, then moves into reporting in Milwaukee before entering political work in Washington during years marked by national debate over war and energy policies. Even as her career expands beyond Wisconsin, she remains closely tied to her mother. When dementia begins altering Margaret’s memory and behavior, Kate repeatedly returns home, watching her mother slowly become someone she must learn to care for.

Kate Winn's Reliance Road is a sweeping family story, and Winn does a great job of painting a picture of her parents' lives even before they met, married, and she was born. As much as I enjoyed reading their extensive backstories, the best parts for me are when we are firmly situated in Winn's adult life. Winn is brilliant and ambitious, championing stories about the disenfranchised with a zeal that is rare for the time. The juxtaposition between Winn reporting for the Black-owned Milwaukee Courier, riding city buses into unfamiliar neighborhoods to cover riots and Vietnam-related deaths, and balancing White House gaggles and congressional staff with flights back to Wisconsin is beautifully executed. Her raw and honest accounts of abuse are never chalked up to being part of the era, and the conversational style makes it feel so much more deeply personal. While readers who like transitional memoirs on the circle of life will enjoy it, the real boon here will be for the Winn family, who will undoubtedly cherish this slice of family history for generations to come. Recommended.