By Terry Tempest Williams Find This Book"Williams, the sensitive author of Refuge, is shocked to discover her deceased motheras unwritten memoirsa shelves worth of blank pages. Under such unpromising circumstances commences a kaleidoscopic celebration and palimpsesta all metaphorical cliches but apta on finding a voice and womanas identity beyond the silenced, selfless existence informed by children and a husbanda even a family brimming with love. The empty pages of a journal manifest a hermeneutics of suspicion: the white upon which to project a lifelong journey of self-discovery. In 54 meditations (one for each year of her motheras life, and of Williamsas life to date), we learn about an unusual (patriarchal) Mormon background and an upbringing that included a season of homeschooling in Hawaii, encounters with a husband-and-wife team of John Birchers while teaching high school biology, a job at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, and the meeting of her future mate over a discussion of books and birds. Among deep influences are Nobel Peace Prizea winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai; Helene Cixous; Clarice Lispector; the secret-womenas language of China, Nushu; and the soaring operas of Richard Strauss. aIf a man knew what a woman never forgets, he would love her differently, a Williams declares in her bighearted, deliberative hymn: old themes newly warbled" (Publishers Weekly)
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