I'm not sure why I wanted to read this book, I think I must have read a review somewhere... it seems an unlikely choice for me as it's a memoir by a religious feminist! But when I came up on Green Met I decided to buy it - a bargin as I got the hard back edition.
The other weird thing about this book is the feeling I have that somewhere, sometime I've met the author - or maybe I just think I have... very strange.
Sara Maitland is a novelist who over the last few years seem to have been slowly withdrawing from society in search of silence - silence in which to immerse herself for prayer amongst other things. This books tells of her journey, including trips to places associated with silence (deserts, woods, hermitages, hillsides and mountains), her reading of books and poetry which discuss silence, and her gradual realisation that she needs to withdraw from the noise and pace of modern life.
There are many different silences, and ways of being silenced. Some enforced (solitary confinement, exile, etc), but many others chosen (retreats, withdrawal, etc).
She describes her different experiments with silence; sitting in the desert, walking in the mountains, living in a remote cottage on Skye for 40 days. She explores other people who have written about and experienced silence - mainly nuns, monks and religious followers (not just Christian like herself).
All in all I'm not sure I enjoyed the book, although for some reason I kept reading. It's made me think about silence and the noise we are continuously surrounded by, but it's also made me realise that although I enjoy my own company I'm rarely 'silent' in the way that Sara means.
She ends by telling how she partly manages to find the silence she needs, but how even then it won't (and can't) be total.
Green Metropolis
28th March - 17th April 2010
Postscript: as I finished reading this book a strange silence of the skies had occurred across most of Europe. A volcano in Iceland was erupting and the resulting dust cloud had forced the grounding of all flights - therefore the skies were clear of contrails, and those below free from the constant rush of aircraft noise.
Postscript: as I finished reading this book a strange silence of the skies had occurred across most of Europe. A volcano in Iceland was erupting and the resulting dust cloud had forced the grounding of all flights - therefore the skies were clear of contrails, and those below free from the constant rush of aircraft noise.
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