Alice Koller (1925–2020)

I have had this book on a list or sitting on a shelf waiting to be read since the 90s. [b:An Unknown Woman|1480835|An Unknown Woman|Alice Koller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387705542s/1480835.jpg|1471926] is one of my favorite books ever and one that had a true impact on my life...but timing is everything and that book arrived in my hands at the perfect time, this one came a bit too late. I did enjoy knowing what happened to Koller after she left Nantucket, I find her writing simple and direct and oddly moving. She writes with emotion, and you can feel what she feels. I think I would have carried away something entirely different had I read it when I was younger.

"You break a bone in your leg. You go to a doctor to have her reduce the fracture, to give you something for the pain. In time the bone will heal, the pain will go away. To whom can you go when your life breaks? You mourn because you love: there is no other reason. So there is nothing to be healed of. Would you be healed of your loving. Better still: do not love at all this way. Or, if you love, arrange to die before he dies, before she dies. These are the only ways to avoid mourning."

I have mourned, I do mourn. I think she got it right. You cannot be cured of it, it goes on forever, it is only the intensity that sometimes diminishes, and it can rear its head full and complete at any unexpected moment for the rest of your life.

I am glad I finally got around to reading this. It does not rise to An Unknown Woman for me, but it is worthwhile glimpse into a life lived outside the norm and without compromise. I imagine Alice Koller as a woman I would very much have liked to have known.… (meer)

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.… (meer)