Plunge: Midlife with snorkel

by Mari Anderson, Fritz Damler (With)

Both forty-something, Mari Anderson and Fritz Damler said no to a safe and scripted midlife and yes to saltwater, sand and the longest consecutive string of bad hair days ever recorded. With the ink barely dry on their marriage certificate, they rescued an old boat, loaded it with building supplies and pointed the bow toward a remote Bahamian island. What could easily have been a blueprint for disaster is instead a story of discovery, resilience and renewal. Plunge is told from both points of view (think Venus and Mars in Paradise) and sparkles with humor even as unexpected, sometimes unwelcome, events occur. It’s a testament to what’s possible when Why? gets tossed overboard and Why not? steers the course.

220 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2014

About the author

Mari Anderson is a writer, graphic designer and illustrator. She sold her advertising and design company in the late 1990's to sail off with her husband to a remote island in the Bahamas, trading heels for sandals and nail polish for nails (and hammers).

She began writing many of the stories that now appear in Plunge: Crafting the Uncommon Midlife, soon after becoming a winter resident of Crooked Island.

Mari is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. She is married to the author, Fritz Damler.

In addition to teaching yoga and illustrating a collection of yoga pose inspired greeting cards (www.hatamari.com), Mari is currently at work on a new book.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well written and I really enjoyed seeing the situations from 2 different perspectives. What I was missing and hoped for in a book like this is more How do you feel after uprooting your life? How do you make contacts a place that is so different from ‘home’. Are there cultural differences and how do you approach them. And so on. What does it mean to start all over for you...none of these things have been discussed.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like "10 years Behind the Mast...", an interesting tale of some adventurous souls. Really appealing alternating accounts by the pair. The individual stories are a little ordinary at times, but its the bigger picture adventurousness of their lifestyle that makes this an entertaining read.

[Todd Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Local Author here. This is the secon book I read by Fritz and first by Marie. These are great accounts of a different type of life.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a woman who has taken a plunge or two in life herself and who has enjoyed several scuba-diving trips that left her thinking, "I wish I could just live here," I was primed to love this book. Maybe those high expectations unfairly colored my reading. I found that, though I understood this couple's bold decision to leave America and make a new life on a Caribbean island, I wasn't engaged emotionally. I wanted the authors to tell me more about their feelings and show me how this new life changed them as people. Other memoirs have left me with a sense of privileged intimacy with the authors: I'm sorry to acknowledge "Plunge" did not. That being said, the book is well written. I hope it finds an appreciative audience, and I also hope the authors will keep exploring their experiences and writing about them. I just would like to see a deeper level of honest sharing next time.