Gift from the Sea

Gift from the Sea
By Anne Morrow Lindbergh (132 pages)
Published by Pantheon
Bookish rating: 4


I admit, I stalled on reading this one because it looked cheesy. Oh, and some versions on Amazon came with a seashell necklace or charm or something, which totally turned me off.

However, a well-read, smart friend of mine insisted to me that Gift from the Sea was surprising good and that I should give it a read. So, I did.

I was almost embarrassed, checking it out from the library. I really couldn't shake that necklace charm thing.

I read it. And lo and behold, I actually DID like it. A lot. I expected a fluffy memoir full of platitudes and with a super high cheesiness factor. Also, I doubted Lindbergh's ability to really write effectively about modern (at the time) womanhood. Lindbergh had quite a life, and I feared her celebrity would have some how watered down the quality of her writing, but no. This woman can write. Funny how you come to books with such ready-made biases.

And now I want to read her fiction. Don't you love it when you discover a writer like that?

Although written about 60 years ago, much of what she writes about women and motherhood and modern wife-dom is very relevant. The daily churn of the mundane that having young children requires, the desire to just FREAKING BE ALONE for a minute, the very flexible and fluid existence that motherhood requires---something quite challenging for those of us who are introverted and regimented and utterly inflexible.

I truly enjoyed this little tome and wished I had saved it to read during our beach vacation. Of course, her time at the ocean was spent entirely alone, writing and walking and experiencing, so I probably would've just been jealous. (Vacations with small children? Let's just say you have to adjust your expectations and redefine that elusive term vacation.)

Definitely recommended.