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steveno's review
5.0
Really nice thoughts about writing and humanity. There's a Zen beauty to it in that it's transitory thoughts that have somehow been captured. It's a special book but tough to describe.
erinreads88's review against another edition
5.0
Read slowly throughout the first month of isolation during the pandemic of 2020. I cried, I felt understood, I reveled in the beautiful prose.
A favorite line: “...there is nothing we do that is without meaning and nothing that we suffer that does not hold the seed of creation in it.”
A favorite line: “...there is nothing we do that is without meaning and nothing that we suffer that does not hold the seed of creation in it.”
annegreen's review
4.0
A year of contemplation and reflection on the creative process and the day to day life of a woman coming to terms with being alone. There are so many passages in here that resonate with wisdom and the joys of small comforts like flowers, the countryside in its changing seasons, animals and most of all the challenges and rewards of grappling with the self to better understand her own inner changing seasons. I'd read this some years ago but it was just as enriching, if not more, the second time around.
ursulamonarch's review
4.0
This book was completely lovely. My favorite parts were Sarton’s meditations on solitude, nature, and the ranges in her moods. I’m glad I savored it over the course of a few months. I would recommend the book both to those experiencing solitude and those completely deprived of it (by young children, for example!).
laurasanblor's review against another edition
He adorado acompañar a May Sarton en un año de su vida. Esto es un diario de octubre a octubre en el que narra su día a día cuidando de su casa, su jardín, interactuando con sus vecinos y amigos... y de como la soledad la acompaña en todo ello.
Su forma de escribir me ha capturado y tengo ganas de leer más de ella, pero me siento incapaz de puntuar este libro y hacer una reseña más completa porque creo que este NO es el libro por el que hay que empezar a leerla. Al ser un diario personal, creo que sería más oportuno haber leído antes otros libros para entrar en su mundo ideal y así, con este, poder comprender su "yo" más sucio y honesto. Hace referencias varias a Anhelo de Raíces y creo que va a ser el próximo libro suyo que lea. Cuando llegue el momento volveré aquí para ver si conecto mejor con ella.
Su forma de escribir me ha capturado y tengo ganas de leer más de ella, pero me siento incapaz de puntuar este libro y hacer una reseña más completa porque creo que este NO es el libro por el que hay que empezar a leerla. Al ser un diario personal, creo que sería más oportuno haber leído antes otros libros para entrar en su mundo ideal y así, con este, poder comprender su "yo" más sucio y honesto. Hace referencias varias a Anhelo de Raíces y creo que va a ser el próximo libro suyo que lea. Cuando llegue el momento volveré aquí para ver si conecto mejor con ella.
lisadc's review
5.0
I came to this book with no context, not knowing any of May Sarton’s writing or poetry, but in a space of my own life similar to hers at this writing. Even though the world of 50 years ago is different, gardens and nature and love and grappling with aging and solitude, and especially coming to grips with understanding oneself, is timeless. She weaves her life and work and relationships together with the nature that surrounds her and the natural ebbs and flows of a year. It was hard to put down.
julieabaci's review
4.0
Refreshingly insightful and warm, but sometimes vaguely off-putting, but perhaps not in a … bad way? I don’t know. Between 3-4 stars.
robingustafson's review
5.0
This was the second time I've read May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude. With this reading I was reminded of two other books I've read this year: Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety and Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers. A portion of one of Robert Frost's poems is quoted in Sarton's Journal (p.191) and Crossing to Safety:
I could give all to Time except-except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There.
And what I would part with I have kept.
Beautiful.
Rereading Sarton's Journal also reminded me of Shapland's book in that the lives and relationships of lesbians were typically hidden and not fully acknowledged or celebrated in literature and biography until fairly recently. While Sarton came out as a lesbian in 1965, in the Journal she did not openly name her lovers as she didn't want them to lose their jobs (something she talks about in later interviews). I'd like to read Sarton's letters next as I really enjoyed her diarist style of writing in the Journal and I imagine her letters are just as interesting and satisfying.
There are so many great quotes in her Journal. Here are just a couple that stood out to me for reflection:
"We fear disturbance, change, fear to bring to light and to talk about what is painful. Suffering often feels like failure, but it is actually the door into growth. And growth does not cease to be painful at any age." p.147
"I feel cluttered when there is no time to analyze experience. That is the silt - unexplored experience that literally chokes the mind." p.160
I could give all to Time except-except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There.
And what I would part with I have kept.
Beautiful.
Rereading Sarton's Journal also reminded me of Shapland's book in that the lives and relationships of lesbians were typically hidden and not fully acknowledged or celebrated in literature and biography until fairly recently. While Sarton came out as a lesbian in 1965, in the Journal she did not openly name her lovers as she didn't want them to lose their jobs (something she talks about in later interviews). I'd like to read Sarton's letters next as I really enjoyed her diarist style of writing in the Journal and I imagine her letters are just as interesting and satisfying.
There are so many great quotes in her Journal. Here are just a couple that stood out to me for reflection:
"We fear disturbance, change, fear to bring to light and to talk about what is painful. Suffering often feels like failure, but it is actually the door into growth. And growth does not cease to be painful at any age." p.147
"I feel cluttered when there is no time to analyze experience. That is the silt - unexplored experience that literally chokes the mind." p.160