A New Kind of Country

by Dorothy Gilman

Paper Book, 1978

Status

Available

Call number

Fic Gen Gilman

Genres

Biography & Memoir

Biography

Collections

Your library, Read, High rated read

Publication

New York : Ballantine, 1989, c1978.

Description

Novelist Dorothy Gilman, author of the bestselling Mrs. Pollifax series, had reached a point of no return in her life. With her sons in college, Ms. Gilman was searching for something unknowable, unnameable . . . until she bought a small house in a little lobstering village in Nova Scotia, Canada. And so she began her life again, discovering talents and interests she never realized were hers, accepting the inner peace she had always fought, and most of all, understanding the untapped part of herself, almost as if it were a new kind of country, to challenge, explore, and love.

User reviews

LibraryThing member picardyrose

I wanted to be her, go to Nova Scotia, find my courage and make a new life for myself.

3 more

LibraryThing member tjsjohanna

This was an interesting glimpse into the world view of the author Dorothy Gilman. I enjoyed her musings on slowing down, scaling back, and enjoying a more simple life. Some of this book seems dated - ideas of male and female roles in society have been turned on their head in 2009. Still, there is

an appreciation for a woman who dares to explore life outside the traditional confines of women in the 60's and 70's.

Show Less

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Good book. When I started it, I was afraid it would be content-free philosophy like A Gift from the Sea, but while there's a lot of philosophical musings here they're nicely anchored in a real-world story of her first year living on ten acres near a small fishing village in Nova Scotia. Quite a few

musings on women's place in society, the difference between aloneness and loneliness, and the way modern city/suburb living keeps you disconnected from both nature and your neighbors. Just as much discussion of picking wild berries, hauling seaweed to enrich the ground for her garden, the way the people included her in their friendly nosiness - fun. I love the Mrs. Pollifax stories, and here I see the same kind of vivid description and evocation of emotions and events. I suspect I'll reread this a time or two.

Show Less

LibraryThing member mmparker

Gilman states some important things very plainly and cleanly - she's a great advocate for simplicity and autonomy. The book could be more tightly focused, and I was repulsed by one chapter of total New Age gibberish, but the book makes a short and sweet antidote to consumerism.

Fewer