Drinking the Rain: A Memoir by Alix Kates Shulman

From the Publisher

At fifty, Alix Kates Shulman left a city life dense with political activism, family, and literary community, and went to stay alone in a small cabin on an island off the Maine coast. Living without plumbing, electricity, or a telephone, she discovered in herself a new independence and a growing sense of oneness with the world that redefined her notions of waste, time, necessity, and pleasure. With wit, lyricism, and fearless honesty, Shulman describes a quest that speaks to us all: to build a new life of creativity and spirituality, self-reliance and self-fulfillment.

Publishers Weekly

In an elegant text, Shulman (Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen) describes the results of her abrupt decision, at the age of 50, to spend summers in a crude cabin on an island off the Maine coast. Her aim was to leave behind a hectic life in New York City-``waste; consumption; conflict; politics''-and a crumbling marriage: ``Though we were yoked together for decades, I feel as threatened as if he were the hacker.'' In their place she seeks to discover ``who I am when the tide runs out.'' She means this quite literally; during 10 years spent living in an isolated house with no plumbing or electricity, Shulman let the rough beach beyond her door become her physical and intellectual sustenance. The potential for sentimentality is undercut by Shulman's evocative, witty and subtle prose and by her rueful awareness of civilization's assault on the fragile environment. 25,000 first printing (Apr.)

Library Journal

Novelist Shulman (In Every Woman's Life..., LJ 6/1/87) here tries her hand at feminist autobiography, detailing, in graceful and readable prose, the story of her midlife transformation. She leaves her writer and political activist's life in New York City for solitary habitation on an island off the coast of Maine, discovering there an abundance of life at its most elemental. Living in a cabin without indoor plumbing or heating, she spends her days writing and foraging for meals among tidal pools and sandy beaches. Through her solitary experience, she discovers the interconnectedness of all life, even the ties between her city life, with all its bustle and waste, and her life on this island. At age 50, Shulman experiences new love (replacing years of a troubled marriage) as well as renewed threats to her sense of self. Highly recommended, especially for libraries serving middle-aged readers in search of renewal.-Marie L. Lally, Alabama Sch. of Mathematics & Science, Mobile

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