Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding - Hardcover

Darling, Lynn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061710245 ISBN 13: 9780061710247

Publisher: Harper, 2014

Synopsis

Title: Out of the Woods( A Memoir of Wayfinding) <>Binding: Hardcover <>Author: LynnDarling <>Publisher: HarperTorch

About this title

Review:

“A thought-provoking, poignant and often refreshingly funny book....It is a pleasure to spend time with Darling’s fine writing, thoughtful reflection and perhaps a more trustworthy sense of direction than she is willing to claim.” (Reeve Lindbergh, Washington Post)

“There have been many accounts of conquering nature and disease. But Darling melds her extreme adventures in the woods and in the doctor’s treatment room with brilliance and poetry....Wonderful.” (Judy Bolton-Fasman, Boston Globe)

“Darling is a dazzling writer, able to capture the image of ‘an apple blushing on the scraggly tree’ or the lingering grief of her husband’s death with a beautiful, sometimes tender, immediacy....The heft of this story is in her intelligent questioning of her past and future....Fascinating.” (Leigh Newman, New York Times Book Review)

“Like Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but by a writer who has had a lot more tread scorched off her tires than the young and idealistic Dillard; both a compass and a manifesto for navigating the often-treacherous switchbacks of the second half of life. A marvelous book.” (Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and Caleb's Crossing)

“What do we do when life unfolds in unexpected ways--which is to say, when life unfolds, full stop? We cave, or we persevere. We grow rigid and numb, or, like the inimitable Lynn Darling, we come to know ourselves, with courage and a beautiful, stumbling grace.” (Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion)

“Lynn Darling is a compelling character, smart and irreverent and earnest in her effort to find her way into the future. In beautiful and surprising prose, Darling invites us to wander with her as she circles and roams and ultimately claims her own destiny.” (Meredith Hall, author of Without a Map: A Memoir)

“Striking in its intelligence and imagery...Darling’s personal version of Dante’s dark night of the soul will resonate with many empty nesters, especially women....A compelling story of internal exploration, as well as outward-bound adventure that owes something to Henry David Thoreau and Virginia Woolf.” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air)

“A graceful, intensely personal coming-of-middle-age story....Like the megaselling memoirs by Cheryl Strayed and Elizabeth Gilbert, it lays out a concrete, mappable-albeit open-ended-plan for self-betterment through travel and discovery.” (Elle)

“Darling has written a fierce and forthright chronicle of one formidable woman’s courageous journey of healing and revelation, gratitude and resilience.” (Booklist)

“This wry, intimate, deeply courageous memoir will speak to any woman who has rounded the corner into the afternoon of life, only to find herself pausing to wonder, Which way now? Lynn Darling was lucky enough to get utterly lost, and then brave enough to chart her own course home.” (Katrina Kenison, author of Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment)

From the Back Cover:

A powerful, lyrical memoir of self-discovery full of warmth and wry humor—a book that combines the soul-baring insight of Wild, the profound wisdom of Shop Class as Soulcraft, and the ad venturous spirit of Eat, Pray, Love

When her college-bound daughter leaves home, Lynn Darling, widowed more than a decade earlier, finds herself alone and utterly lost. Freed of her parental responsibilities, she has no idea what she wants or even who she is. Searching for answers, she leaves her apartment in New York City and moves to a cranky little house in the middle of the Vermont woods, her only companions, a new dog and a compass. There she hopes to develop a sense of direction—both in the woods and in her life.

As she finds new ways to get lost in her own backyard, Darling meditates on her past and on the challenges that aging poses to love, work—not to mention fashion—and the way she sees herself. She has just begun to chart a new course for the future when an unexpected setback unsettles her newfound balance.

With rare insight and remarkable honesty, Out of the Woods reveals how honing the skills of navigation—literal and metaphorical—smoothed one woman's path through the uneven course of life. It is a story at once universal and deeply personal—in the words of writer Geraldine Brooks, "both a compass and a manifesto for navigating the often-treacherous switchbacks of the second half of life."

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0061710245
• ISBN 13: 9780061710247
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288