A review by emilyinherhead
Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

I will admit that I went into this book thinking I was in for just another example of white guy nature writing, based on even older white guy nature writing. I was wrong.

Ben Shattuck is aware of his position and his privilege, and he acknowledges them up front. He’s genuine and observant and thoughtful, his writing almost poetic even in its simplicity. He seamlessly transitions from things he notices on his journeys, to quotations from Thoreau, to musings about friendship and existence, and back again.

It comforted me to think that technology hadn’t taken away the satisfaction of a warm house on a winter day. Fish can still be caught, fires lit. No matter how crowded our lives feel, the old ways haven’t entirely disappeared. You can still reach back for some of them. (23-24)

Also, I somehow was not aware that he is Jenny Slate’s partner?? About halfway through the book, he mentions something about meeting Jenny, and how she describes this moment in her book, Little Weirds, and my jaw physically dropped. I had no idea! And suddenly I liked him even more. I read Little Weirds maybe a year and a half ago, and seeing parts of it referenced (parts that I distinctly remembered) gave my experience of Six Walks even more dimension. It was fascinating to read Ben and Jenny’s story, which I had already been introduced to from Jenny’s perspective, from the opposite side, and see the whole thing come full circle. The way Ben writes about their relationship is just so tender and spacious. I definitely did not get teary at any point. Nope.

I once described sleep as the “necessary dark territory we enter alone”—without thinking about how irrelevant that is the moment you wake up with someone you love beside you. (249)

I highly recommend Six Walks to folks who enjoy reading about and spending time in nature, who have questioned the path their life is taking or longed to change direction without knowing how, who like a genuine and down-to-earth love story, who often ponder what it means to be human and to exist in community with others. This is a book I’ll definitely be revisiting in the future.