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Dec03

The Beauty of Wild Places …

Sacred Place--Where Rock Looks Like Wood

Sacred Place–Where Rock Looks Like Wood

…can be captured in words.

As I wound my way up Tioga Pass toward Tuolomne Meadows, the landscape enticed me to stop the car and hike down a slope to a mountain lake.  The day was crisp and fair.  I set my phone on the app for meditation chimes, sat still for ten minutes, and witnessed the following–sunlight in needle shafts that shot straight up from the riffling water; sunlight in lines that veered off at angles; sunlight as glitters of tiny spired tents; sunlight as dancing stars–all in endless motion.  There seemed no greater happiness possible than being a witness to all this.

Do you like to read about landscape?  If so, Place Last Seen, by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman, is for you.  “Place Last Seen” refers to exactly that–the spot where a Down’s Syndrome child disappeared from a panorama at least as spectacular as the one where I sat that day.  The book is about the detailed efforts to find that child.  It is a story of family and disability and marriage and grandmothering and community in the face of impending tragedy.  But above all, it is a loving description of that vast landscape, so seductive, so indifferent, which sustains us, yes, but can easily be our downfall as well.

My cousin looked for Place Last Seen on her Nook and it wasn’t available, so here are the links to the Amazon Kindle version (2011), and the Amazon hard-copy site.  Plus,  Charlotte Freeman has an attractive and readable blog about her farm in Montana.  But the main thing is to read the book.  Well worth the effort.

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2 Comments

  1. Charlotte Freeman

    Hello — had to take the Kindle copy down, since it was somewhat rogue. There are used copies out there, or folks can email me at cmf406 at gmail and I’ll sell you an autographed copy for five bucks plus postage … thanks for the kind words for my out of print novel!

  2. barbararhine

    Well, as you can tell from my post I loved your novel, so I’m honored to be in touch with its author, and glad my readers will now know how they can get a signed copy. I’m about to launch my own first novel. Self-published, so I have to market it, but at least it won’t go out of print! “Tell No Lies” will launch at Diesel Bookstore in Oakland, October 5 @ 3 PM. Different from yours–the store of a black militant on the run, a UFW organizer and a Berkeley feminist, who get caught in a love triangle during one of the largest Cesar Chavez marches in history. You can read Chapter One if you wish by clicking on Literature at the top of this blog, or going to http://barbararhine.wordpress.com/tell-no-lies-chapter-one/.

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