Several people recommended this book to me but before checking it out from the library I knew very little about it.
Synopsis:
Manhattan freelance writer Ward and his wife, Heather, faced a steep learning curve when they abandoned harried, technology-driven lives for a year not just in the country but in the country as it was a century ago. Their mantra was, If it didn’t exist in 1900, we will do without, and they did—no electricity, no telephone, no computer. This breezy account of their stubbornly quixotic odyssey begins in June 2000, with Logan exhausted pumping water from a well, ineptly milking cantankerous goats and confronting his fear of a 2,000-pound Percheron, while Heather coped with the cooking stove’s suffocating heat, her fear of snakes and hand-scrubbing two-year-old Luther’s cloth diapers. Their garden, planted late, was soon parched by drought and plagued by pests, the most severe of several crises, since it was their winter food. Ward writes candidly about how tempers flared and sexual intimacy vanished in the early months of their adventure, but the stress of a daunting new experience soon settled into the comfort of routine, as the couple canned dozens of quarts of produce once the rains returned and forged friendships with curious, ultimately supportive country neighbors. This lyrical account of keeping the 21st century at bay is more real, and more rewarding, than any survival TV show.
Review:
The premise for this project intrigued me. Although I know there are less fortunate people in this country who currently live without electricity or other modern conveniences, for me, this would be a pretty dramatic change. You see, I grew up in what people would categorize as typical suburban America and I now live in an urban neighborhood in Charlotte so the thought of letting it all go would be challenging. In as much that I found the concept interesting, what I found more interesting was the authors descriptions and challenges with growing his own food {a topic I’m extremely interested in} and building community {something I fear is somewhat lost today}. Another reason this memoir interested me is because it’s set in Swoope, Virginia, a town 20 miles away from my in-laws house so the imagery of the town and people seemed so familiar. Overall, it’s a light, simple read with some thought provoking points.
*** of 5 stars
