Solace: Rituals of Loss and Desire

By Mary Sojourner

Book Overview

NPR commentator Mary Sojourner, "a pithy yet sensuous, spiritual yet ferocious writer" (Booklist), delivers a powerful memoir about the joys of rejecting the pace, addictions, and false values of society...and learning to live without compromise.
Twenty years ago, Mary Sojourner was a mental health consultant and counselor in Rochester, New York, a divorced mother of three, longing for her real work, her real home. She found it in Flagstaff, Arizona, in a remote two-room cabin that had no running water and only a wood stove for heat, but offered Sojourner everything she needed in terms of light, beauty, joy, and the perfect setting for writing and reconnecting.
Solace is a book about obsession and release, and the lifelong search for balance in a world revolving around appetite and acceleration. Written in short, beautifully crafted pieces, the book carries the reader through Sojourner's life, from a restrained Catholic childhood to the excesses of her generation, through motherhood and divorce to her quiet, solitary existence in the Southwest, where she has learned the importance of living at the right pace.
Sojourner's voice is as compelling on the page as it is on the radio -- lively, funny, moving, combining the outspoken out-of-stepness of Anne Lamott with the environmental activism and poetic prose of Terry Tempest Williams. In chapters with titles such as "God Is Coming and She Is Pissed" and "How to Leave: Leave," her vivid personality, passion, and sense of humor come through. This is a book for women everywhere -- those who recognize their own truths in Mary's life and younger readers who will find inspiration in her hard-won wisdom.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074322969X
• ISBN13: 9780743229692
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Scribner
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Light shades

Keep in mind, this review is not being generated by a erudite, literary scholar ... having barely passed college english. Thus, this is the simple opinion of a complex personality. I encountered Mary Sojourner on a Yoga web site where her chapter on "Occupying Less" was presented. So enticed by her ability to articulate her thoughts on simplicity and nature that I ordered the book, clueless as to its future impact on my life. Initially, I was struck by her spiritual movement from dull, flat grays to brilliant, primary neons which interplayed with the shadows and lights. The grey world of childhood nuturing is juxtaposed against her eight year old ability to disconnect from the pain by focusing on Christmas lights... and hence forth, always seeking those luminous, transcendental moments of escape from the gray, monotonous ache. Sojourner's ability to express the concept of disconnection as both a survival skill and as a destructive force resonate with those seeking that fine thread of balance upon which many of us try to walk. Her absorption into a new homeland, the desert, and her desire to rally the cry for protection is inspiring. Yet, through her struggles as an environmental activist, she cogently identifies her own personal obstacles and emotional pitfalls. If for no other reason than cronehood, I believe this book should be a must read for all women who are seeking their path.

soulful, gutsy and daring

I bought this book while hiking out in the SW. I found within its covers a beautifully written map of a life lived full on. What amazing healing it provided. I yearn for those who can express and feel even one third of what Mary Sojourner has shared. If you want exquisite writing, uncut stories of raw life and insights into the human soul--read this. You will be changed.

intense and heart felt

I have read everything of Mary Sojourner's work that I can lay my hands on. Her work is intense, gritty, and deeply moving. This book is no exception. Keep it up, Mary.