A review by krys_kilz
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.0

This book fell a little flat for me. The opening and closing chapters were the strongest, but the middle felt a bit scattered and redundant. It's also hard for me to read a middle class person emphasizing the importance of rest and retreat when that is not something that's truly available to the vast majority of people.

I did love May's emphasis on change being inevitable and her passages about how we try to hide and erase grief instead of tending to it. I also liked the exploration of how out of sync industrial society is with life - whether that's seasonal shifts, sleep patterns, or changes in daylight - and how connecting to folklore and creating new practices can offer a path towards making meaning.

There was an element of universalism that I did not like. I think it would be more accurate and appropriate for May to have spoken only from her own experience and cultural context rather than generalizing what life is like. Generalizations like that flatten and erase so many other experiences.

"...life is, by its very nature, uncontrollable...we should stop trying to finalize our comfort and security, and instead find a radical acceptance of the endless, unpredictable change that is the very essence of this life."
Expand filter menu Content Warnings