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Shulman, a 50-year-old, newly divorced, feminist New Yorker, decides to get her head together in solitude by spending long stretches of time in a family-owned cabin on an island off the coast of Maine. Previously, the cabin had only been used for brief excursions, as it has no electricity, plumbing, or telephone.
Schulman lives almost entirely by foraging mussels and plants and berries, writes, and observes nature. Periodically, she comes back to the city and finds that she doesn't enjoy it as much as she used to. Environmental catastrophes keep escalating, threatening both the entire world and her corner of it, but by the end of the book, the ecosystem of the island is changed but survives.
I would estimate that a minimum of 60% of this book consists of foraging narration. If you have ever dreamed of living alone on an island and foraging for mussels and herbs, then enjoying the resulting chowder, this book will be a pleasant way to vicariously experience that. I did enjoy it on that level, but for me it was missing that certain spark that makes a book truly immersive.
Drinking the Rain: A Memoir
Schulman lives almost entirely by foraging mussels and plants and berries, writes, and observes nature. Periodically, she comes back to the city and finds that she doesn't enjoy it as much as she used to. Environmental catastrophes keep escalating, threatening both the entire world and her corner of it, but by the end of the book, the ecosystem of the island is changed but survives.
I would estimate that a minimum of 60% of this book consists of foraging narration. If you have ever dreamed of living alone on an island and foraging for mussels and herbs, then enjoying the resulting chowder, this book will be a pleasant way to vicariously experience that. I did enjoy it on that level, but for me it was missing that certain spark that makes a book truly immersive.
Drinking the Rain: A Memoir
