Letting the Body Lead

by Jenn Crowell

In Letting the Body Lead, Jenn Crowell introduces us to gifted NYU graduate student Isobel Sivulka. Though her academic and personal lives seem perfect, she feels without direction. Making the first rash decision in her life, she heads to Iceland, where a much-revered high school mentor once embarked on her own spiritual path.

In the very welcoming city of Reykjavîk, Isobel eventually discovers herself, bonding with a circle of strong, centered women and embarking on a tumultuous affair with a charming but deeply troubled man. In a culture completely different from her own, this accomplished woman must finally embrace what it means to be young and gifted, while coming to terms with life and love.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Tory · Rating 2 out of 5]

"…I think marriage can be a profound and gorgeous thing that we shouldn’t just throw out the window, but at the same time it can be a huge mess you’ve got to just get the hell away from."

I have mixed feelings about this book.

I thought Isobel’s, the unlikeable main character with a great name, sadness was described as if you were looking at her. That is an inherent writing flaw, because that is the magic of books! Being able to feel and understand the character so fully, in a way that you never can in films. In parts the book became like a weird Indy film, I thought it was pretty, but kept asking myself, what the fuck is going on with this girl?

However, the way the author wrote about Iceland, it’s cultural intrigued me… it made me want to go. I developed a huge crush on Iceland.

[krdito · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was never SO glad to finish a book! I found Isobel to be completely unlikable, and her motivations entirely confusing. She was always running from something (high school to college early, college to grad school, grad school to Iceland, nice guy to bad guy), but there was really no good explanation why. All of this just made me just want to slap her. The story of her high school "mentor" just didn't work as an overarching influence in her life. And there was no explanation of the visions of a little girl she saw in her bedroom at night. Crowell seemed so intent on lyrical writing, that I sometimes couldn't even "get" what she was saying (and I am a well-read, well-educated person). Seems like she was trying to impress with her writing skills and just ended up causing confusion. This book was such a disappointment after "Necessary Madness."

[Zinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Isobel Sivulka is driven to achieve. Working on a thesis for her post doctorate degree, she encounters one of those jags most all of us - if at all we are the types to grow and expand in our selves, in our personal journeys of enlightenment throughout our lives - sooner or later encounter. Now and then it simply becomes necessary to move a few steps off our usual beaten paths, strike out, and blaze a new trail. Isobel blazes hers to Iceland. She abandons the thesis, she breaks off a relationship with her lover, puts a few close friendships on the back burner for a while. Iceland is a foreign place for her, and it is this "foreignness" she seems to need and want most. Perhaps we all need to, on occasion, place our familiar selves against an unfamiliar background in order to regain a clearer focus on who we are - and who we wish to be.

All of this is accomplished in Jenn Crowell's second novel. She writes well and uses enjoyably fresh expression and crisp dialogue. If I felt I was missing anything, then it was that I would have enjoyed the "foreign background" of Iceland to be painted in richer color, brought more to vivid life, so that I could have had a deeper compassion for Isobel's inner foreign ground in contrast.

"The rest of that evening was a kaleidoscope of burnished colors and surging emotion," Crowell writes... yet I didn't quite follow the crest of that surge. Isobel's journey is perhaps a bit too muddled and unclear - did she find what she was looking for? Or did she merely get lost?

A well written book, fresh enough that I am now reading Crowell's first novel (written at the ripe old age of seventeen!), "Necessary Madness," but with potential for growth I look forward to the author's filling. I believe she will.

[Jacqie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very "young" feeling book. I think that the author is young (considered a prodigy?) and the writing reflects her limited experience and extravagant emotions. Well, we've all been there, haven't we?

There's not much plot at all. A young graduate student burns out and heads to Iceland for a few months where she has conveniently been offered a place to stay for free while she sorts herself out. Man, I wish that I had a few extra months and an interesting and free place to stay while I introspect! Alas, such is not my lot in life. Very great care has been taken with the language in the book. Alas, I read for plot and (interesting) character more than writing style, so was more impatient than impressed.

The book seems to be about, as much as it's about anything, the idea that this young woman is not familiar with her physical being and what she does or doesn't find pleasant sensually. She's scared of herself. She's careless with her own safety. And she's mad because her boyfriend doesn't know what she needs, but then she doesn't even really know what she needs, does she? She ends up finding an older man who knows enough about what he's doing in bed that she convinces herself that he knows her in other ways too. And... about this time I started skimming.

I believe what happens next is the familiar feet-of-clay stage when she figures out that just because he's charming and somewhat sophisticated doesn't mean he's really good for her. Well, we've all been there, haven't we?

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crowell alternates between NYC and Iceland in this graduate-student-coming-of-age story, and that's actually a major distraction. The best parts of the book were the two chapters spent telling the tales of the younger guidance counselor (the inspiration for the student's eventual trip to Iceland) and the beleaguered grad student herself. The rest of it was choppy, though interesting. I felt like Crowell was trying to push some personal boundary with this novel, and some of the novel comes off as forced.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent...but not real compelling--good enough to read but not one I'd read again. I found myself impatient with some of the flashback chapters. I certainly identify with a woman struggling to be fully engaged (& having some balance) in her intellectual and physical 'selves'. I liked the concept of a book set primarily in Iceland, and the author did make the cultural landscape apparent.

[Amy Pallant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure if it was timing (reading a book that matches your mood) but I enjoyed this book. It is about a woman who decides to change paths, she was just finishing her PhD, for a little while, follow the needs of her whole body rather then just her mind. Not sure it is for everyone but It hit the right tone for me.

[jojo Lazar · Rating 3 out of 5]

sometimes i binge on slightly beach-ready books, and this one was even better than that. Icelandic affairs & beautiful prose.

[Elnora Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was unexpectedly engaging in its interesting development of some fun, troubled, and nuanced characters. And the description of Iceland's social culture was great for a confirmed traveler.

[Carrie]

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