An Unknown Woman

Subtitled: "A Journey to Self-Discovery"

Alice is 37 in 1962. Unmarried, unemployed & suicidal, she spends what little money she has for the future on a rental house on Nantucket Island during the desolate winter months. Not a good idea for she just drives herself crazy with her thoughts. She has her PhD in Philosophy but not a lot of prospects (or common sense) and every opportunity that comes her way, idea or good suggestion someone tries to give her, every encouragement she refuses to take. I am at a loss on how this is inspiring or compared to Thoreau's Walden. (Thoreau did not go to Walden Pond and want to throw himself in.) This woman needed a psychologist but she thinks she's too smart for that. She could have worked teaching in show more an Anglican community but refused to tolerate the views of others. This was a tragic story of a woman who throws her life in the gutter but who was not above living off the charity of others so she could focus on her "self discovery." Apparently it never occurred to her to use her gifts to serve others. She is a trained philosopher but is abusing this mode of thinking --even being rebuked by her mentors does not stop her. She is becoming her own worse enemy through her own creation of a downward spiral of over-thinking. Her thoughts lead her into a pit of despair.

Page 199:"He punches the pillow between us. 'What's so damned important about knowing? Why can't you just be? Look at you. You have a PhD from Harvard; you're an attractive woman; you look ten years younger than you are; you're charming and interesting; you could do anything you wanted to. Instead you stare at your navel and talk about suicide."

If only this bull-headed woman would have LISTENED to one person! It could be that she suffered from Narcissism before it was fully understood.

Her devotion to "solitude" and "self discovery" are nothing but retreating from the challenges of life, a path of insanity and delusion. It's a tragedy, and not inspiring at all. Just sad. show less

In ways this is the kind of book that I don't like - one in which the author is self-absorbed and makes everything about herself so that the reading of it is tedious and boring. But even though there were some such passages, the book led to a woman who views life as a personal, reflective adventure, with interest in exploring from solitary moments to a solitary life. The German Shepherd pup provided balance to the navel contemplations, and was actually why I started reading the book. I gave the book to my mother to read, although I don't know if she ever did; she hasn't mentioned it and I forget to ask. I am just starting Koller's 2nd book (Stations of Solitude), after a nearly 8-year hiatus from this author's work.

Perhaps my timing on this book was just perfect. I was the right age, suffering from some of the same doubts, and facing some of the same demons. I found it enlightening and brilliantly presented. It stuck with me, which is all that you can ask a great book to do.

Interesting account of a woman who's been running from life, finding herself at a real crossroads regarding how (or whether!) to go on. The Nantucket angle was a bit overplayed for me as she only spent 90 days there, and her nickname of "Timmie" is introduced so abruptly I thought for the next couple of pages someone else had joined the conversation. One of those books with a payoff at the end, after a lot of "where's this heading?" details.