The sound of a happier person reading.

For whatever reasons I have been more tranquil this week. I think it is because I have either a) decided not to think about world events (the fact that states are working to cut worker rights and salaries when we're fighting two pointless and expensive wars--or maybe three--who the fuck knows what the Pentagon is planning for Libya) and culture (books are dead and everybody clearly loves gadgets more than I do, if they can stomach the thought of buying Kindles and iPads and smart phones, oh my), or b) I have just been finding good nonfiction that is helping me keep my mind off all of the above. It might also be because the weather's a bit warmer. Hard telling what goes into the daily soup that is one's state of mind.

One of the books helping to keep me tranquil was Elisabeth Tova Bailey's The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. When I read the review of it at MadREADS, I was intrigued, so I checked it out, although I am not normally one for nature books of any kind. (I make an exception for Rachel Carson. I love her.) The story of this tiny little book is simple: Bailey has been suffering from a neurological malady for many years, and once, when she is completely debilitated and bedridden by her disease, a friend visits her and brings along a snail she found on a walk, thinking simply that Bailey might like it. They fill a pot with violets and dirt and set the snail in it, and soon Bailey is watching the snail navigate its slow and steady way around her home.

Bailey does not share many details about her illness, but it of course colors every page: "Each morning there was a moment, before I had fully awakened, when my mind still groped its clumsy way back to consciousness, my body not yet remembered, reality not yet acknowledged. That moment was always full of pure, sweet, uncontrollable hope. I did not ask for this hope to come; I did not even want it, for it trailed disappointment in its wake. Yet there it was, hovering within me--hope that my illness had vanished with the night and my health had returned magically with daybreak." (p. 21.)

I find her writing both simple and very beautiful, and she brings that sensibility to her descriptions of her snail, as well as to the information she shares about snails that she learns from wide and historical reading. As she moves the snail from her violet pot to a terrarrium and eventually back out into the wild, you get the sense she just felt privileged to interact so closely with another little life. It's not really a happy book, but it's a very hopeful little one. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Comments

[Laura]

This sounds like a good read - especially so if you need some tranquility during troubled times. Thanks for this review, I'll have to pick this one up!

[Citizen Reader]

Laura:
It was very calming, I must say. It made me feel like a bit of a jerk for ever complaining about my life, as I'm still walking about (which Bailey would have loved to have been able to do) but still, quite interesting.

[Nan]

Books aren't dead! Trust me, from the front lines of a public library circ desk. Better yet, trust Eminent Literary Authority Marjorie Garber! http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/03/the-future-of-reading-hint-its-not-all-bad/73106/ I'm actually working up an essay on this subject, of those of us in the vast area between cyberutopians and neo-Luddites. Although maybe contributing to the noise isn't such a great idea, given what's mostly annoying about it is each side proclaiming its views.

[Venta]

Yeah to back to reading regardless of what it is! I'm still reading lots of YA about high school popularity, but I'm trying to stay in there with a good attitude.

[Citizen Reader]

Thanks for the article, Nan--I can't wait to read it. I'd also like to read your essay when you finish it, if possible.
Well, books aren't dead yet. But mainly I keep being confused about why people love shopping for and using gadgets SO MUCH. I think it's a nightmare, personally. Best Buy is my idea of hell.

Venta,
Keep plugging away, doll! I just re-read "Bad Kitty" by Michelle Jaffe and got a real kick out of it. Definitely some of your lighter YA fare, which you might need right about now. Have you read it?

[Molly]

Word.

[Nan]

I'm not so much pro-gadget as anti-nostalgia -- hate laments for the good old days, you know when access was more limited and gates were better kept. And I do love the interwebs for exactly what I'm doing now -- having a conversation about books and reading with smart people whom I never would have encountered, pre-digitally. And for me, personally, it's something of a shout-out for Generation X -- I realized a couple years ago that it's finally something to celebrate; we (I'm 43) are exactly the right age to bridge the digital divide -- I started college using a typewriter, did my senior thesis on a computer (OK, a Mac Lisa, but still a computer). I started journalism pre-Internet so I know how to look things up in actual files and talk to actual people. But I also realize the huge advantages of being able to access stuff remotely. Anyway that's a preview. I'll try to send you a link when I finally get around to writing it.

[Jo]

I'm glad you enjoyed Wild Snail -- I really liked this book and bought a copy for myself and a friend (after checking it out from the library the first time). Really made me think about slowing down and appreciating the small things around me. :)

[Citizen Reader]

Molly,
Does Best Buy make you hyperventilate too? Mr. CR hates that, means we can only be there for 10 minutes before I start in with the full-blown panic attacks. Just looking at techie ads in the Sunday paper sets my blood pressure off.

I hear you Nan--no laments for the good old days here; after all, I like indoor plumbing and antibiotics, so I'm in no hurry to live during any other era. Good luck with the essay!

Jo,
I did like it! I even felt kind of warmly toward the snail by the time I was done, and I am not an outdoorsy/in love with nature type of gal. Glad you liked it too.

[Beth]

I really liked this little gem when I read it. It's beautifully written, and simple, and was a very relaxing and as you say hopeful read. I'm glad you found it and liked it yourself :)