I had difficulty relating to (or appreciating) her references to big city life in the first part of the book. Reading someone else's slow awareness of nature made me appreciate my own instinctive need and connection to the natural world which has guided my entire life. She introduces us to a few friends who influence her to accept the joy she feels living on the island. Without central heating (or plumbing, electricity and phone), she leaves each fall to a crumbling marriage or to new work as creative writing teacher. Coming from a very active New York City life, she learns to slow down, to forage for mussels, seaweeds, and other wild foods, to live with the rhythms of the changing summer. Shulman's memoir looks back at her early involvement in the feminist movement and reflects on her marriage, but her primary focus is on the time she spends at a rough cabin on a Maine coastal island. Thoughtful and interesting memoir exploring her growing connection with the natural world beginning at age 50.
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