Not by Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life

By Samantha Dunn

Book Overview

A nearly fatal riding accident forces a young woman to examine just what it is inside herself-and other people-that invites carelessness and injury. "God touches us with a feather to get our attention. Then, if we don't listen, he starts throwing bricks." While leading her horse across a narrow creek in the canyons of California, Samantha Dunn suffered a life-threatening accident as her horse inadvertently jumped on her leg, splitting it open and severing vital muscles and veins. Had a stranger not happened upon the scene, it's doubtful she would have survived. This wasn't the first such incident-although it was the most serious-in a life filled with carelessness, risk-taking, and injuries. In this reflective yet humorous memoir, Dunn takes the reader through the stages of her long and painful recovery, the most important of which involved serious self-examination. A pattern of accidents, she learned, indicates other deeper issues bubbling below the surface. This last, near-fatal episode was a subconscious wake-up call to pay attention to everything she had been looking away from: her horse, who had shown clear signs of panic, and especially her complicated past and home life-including her seriously troubled marriage. Dunn got back on the horse-literally and figuratively. How she did it makes for an entertaining, touching, and insightful book, memoir at its best.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805065857
• ISBN13: 9780805065855
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.7" x 0.9" x 5.6"

Customer Reviews

Couldn't Put it Down...

I happened upon Not By Accident, at a yard sale of all things. This was a very lucky find. Samantha Dunn is an incredibly talented writer. Her story is courageous, honest, and intelligent. Her stoic and quirky humor propelled me on with an odd curiosity, only to watch her become vulnerable and naked in her healing process as well as her writing. I loved her internal musings and mental wanderings, it made me feel less alone, as though I were a part of a greater whole. I have recommended this book to many people and plan to read Failing Paris, if this is any example of what Samantha Dunn is capable of, I'm there.

Assaying the soul

Dunn's work is exemplary for its brave and steady gaze. She looks at her life, this "accident" and through shockingly beautiful and precise prose as fine as any literary novel, Dunn's work takes up the project of assaying her soul--something memoirs, when they were first conceived in the 3rd century did, but now rarely do. This is not mere nostalgia: this is a good hard look at her life come undone, and the journey of putting her back together again. The book never succombs to the easy road of sentimentality and ennervated prose. Her look at herself is cool accurate as a surgeon's scalpel. There's no room for sissies, sad-sacks, or glorification. This work is as trued and pure as Augustine's Confessions. Read it now.

fantastic

What a refreshing take on the overpublished memoir form. Dunn is a terrific writer, witty and deft and, most important of all, un-self-pitying. This book is as entertaining as a good novel, with a great heroine!

Uncommon grace

Much has been made of catastrophic events which change a person's life, and this memoir is certainly all of that. But it is also far more. In a voice as honest as the unsentimental New Mexico sky of her childhood and adolescence, Dunn shares with us her matrix of relationships with family, friends, mentors, and perhaps most of all with her horse, Harley, who emerges as all of these.Following on the heels of her novel, Failing Paris, this account of a woman discovering her courage in the wake of grave injury hints at a thread of richly personal narrative well begun, and with important promise for the future.

Inspiring first hand account of recovering from an accident

In an isolated part of California, Samantha Dunn was leading her horse Harley across a creek when her steed accidentally stomped on her leg. The injury was severe enough to threaten her life as she suffered splintered bones, ripped muscles and torn veins. Samantha's luck changed when a passerby happened to find her. While physically recuperating and going through various mental stages of recovery, Samantha reflected back on her three-decade plus life. She concludes that her long string of accidents are not really bad luck misfortunes, but something with much deeper underlying causes that make her ignore signs of potential trouble like her panic stricken horse that stepped on her. Eventually Samantha not only gets back on Harley, but she picks herself up personally as she now knows she is a good person with much too offer. NOT BY ACCIDENT: RECONSTRUCTING A CARELESS LIFE is a great first hand account of recovering from a near-fatal accident that inspires the audience. Samantha Dunn learns that riding horses for pleasure is a lot different than riding to escape life. She concludes that life is too precious to carelessly destroy it. As Lou Costello once said "97% of all accidents occur to 3% of the people". Ms. Dunn encourages those 3% frequent accident victims to reflect on why this happens and how to live life fully, but not negligently. Besides animal lovers and repeat accident victims, readers who enjoy an uplifting didactic account will want to peruse this introspective nonfiction.Harriet Klausner