Scan barcode
A review by eve_prime
The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman's Walk In The Wild To Find Her Way Home by Katherine May
3.75
I had greatly enjoyed the author’s Enchantment, so I got her two earlier books from the library; this one was the first. It’s a memoir of the year she realized and made peace with the likelihood that she has autism, even though she’s been able to pass for neurotypical for most of her adult life – she’s just adapted very well to what people expected of her. Her thoughts about this were interspersed with her accounts of hiking in southern England – lots and lots of hiking. Her husband would drive her to the location, spend the day entertaining their toddler, then meet her wherever she said she’d be, which was not really his idea of a good time, nor did she often enjoy the hiking so much, either.
I understood that the hiking itself was not the point of the book, even though most of the book was about the hikes, but I did find it mildly frustrating that there were no maps to remind us where she was going. The complicating part was that part of the time she was on the South West Coast trail, and at other times she was on a trail in her native Kent, and although (unlike many American readers, I am sure) I actually know where places like Kent, Devon, Exmoor, etc., are in relation to each other, I do not know which of those places towns like Appledore, Chilham, and Clovelly belong to, although eventually I could figure it out from the context. I’d have appreciated one map for Kent and another for the southwestern corner of England/Cornwall with the various towns marked on them.
Anyway, aside from that – the author has great insights and an engaging writing style, and the book is worth reading.
I understood that the hiking itself was not the point of the book, even though most of the book was about the hikes, but I did find it mildly frustrating that there were no maps to remind us where she was going. The complicating part was that part of the time she was on the South West Coast trail, and at other times she was on a trail in her native Kent, and although (unlike many American readers, I am sure) I actually know where places like Kent, Devon, Exmoor, etc., are in relation to each other, I do not know which of those places towns like Appledore, Chilham, and Clovelly belong to, although eventually I could figure it out from the context. I’d have appreciated one map for Kent and another for the southwestern corner of England/Cornwall with the various towns marked on them.
Anyway, aside from that – the author has great insights and an engaging writing style, and the book is worth reading.