Staring at Lakes: A Memoir of Love, Melancholy and Magical Thinking

by Michael Harding

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Description

Throughout his life, Michael Harding has lived with a sense of emptiness - through faith, marriage, fatherhood and his career as a writer, a pervading sense of darkness and unease remained. When he was fifty-eight, he became physically ill and found himself in the grip of a deep melancholy. Here, in this beautifully written memoir, he talks with openness and honesty about his journey: leaving the priesthood when he was in his thirties, settling in Leitrim with his artist wife, the depression that eventually overwhelmed him, and how, ultimately, he found a way out of the dark, by accepting the fragility of love and the importance of now. Staring at Lakes started out as a book about depression. And then became a story about growing old, the essence of love and marriage - and sitting in cars, staring at lakes.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member martymojito
I'm surprised that this book has no reviews yet. Staring at Lakes won several awards in Ireland in 2013 and is a really good read. Very direct writing style Harding doesn't hold back and is brutally honest about many of the events in his life. Depression, love, marriage are big themes of the book.
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Some of the writing can be a bit disarming because it is so direct. He has an interesting relationship with his partner, they seem quite happy to spend time apart and do their own things. His visit to the Buddhist retreat is the most interesting and his description of the countryside and the people is very engaging. The final chapters deal with his love for this mother and are very emotional. Though Harding seems pretty emotional throughout his life, he seems to be in tears a lot of the time. But he deals with the difficulties of depression very adeptly and the story has a positive outlook at the end. All in all it is a very enjoyable read. The chapters fly by. I would recommend it.
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Awards

Irish Book Award (Winner — Non-Fiction — 2013)
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