So Late, So Soon: A Memoir

by D'Arcy Fallon

D'Arcy Fallon offers an irreverent, fly-on-the-wall view of the Lighthouse Ranch, a Christian commune she called home for three years in the mid-1970s. At 18 years old, when life's questions overwhelmed her and reconciling her family past with her future seemed impossible, she accidentally came upon the Ranch during a hitchhike gone awry. Perched on a windswept bluff in Loleta, a dozen miles from anywhere in Northern California, this community of lost and found twenty-somethings lured her in with promises of abounding love, spiritual serenity, and a hardy, pioneer existence. What she didn't count on was the fog. After living communally with more than a dozen “sisters”, marrying before she was ready, and doing domestic chores to keep the ranch afloat, Fallon's life and religious idealism begin to unravel. Through a series of harrowing and heartbreaking decisions, she begins the process that will lead her away from the ranch and into her own life one step at a time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

D’Arcy Fallon has been an award-winning journalist and columnist for nearly twenty years, working for such papers as the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Colorado Springs Gazette. Her stories typically have focused on the disenfranchised, the urban poor, and those most at risk in society. The American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors named her one of the best newspaper columnists in the country. She has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University in Los Angeles. Ms. Fallon teaches English composition and creative nonfiction at Wittenberg University, and lives in Springfield, Ohio, with her husband and son.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting,honest memoir of the author's 3 years living at the Lighthouse Ranch, a Christian commune in N. Calif.in the early 70s. Was obvious to me from the beginning that she was not going to fit in. At 18, the author was confused, struggling,& longing to belong somewhere. Her initial relief on acceptance soon turned to the stifling realization that this was not the place for her.She is now a writing professor at a Ohio college. (Interesting aside:she & I have a mutual "friend" on FB!)

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two of my uncles were at this commune around the same time as the author. The younger one died shortly thereafter at another, similar commune, so I never knew him, but had always been curious about him. It's silly, but I was sort of hoping I might be able to identify one of the characters as him. No such luck (although it was sort of amusing to think that the guy who showed up near the end and treated the author badly could have been the older uncle)! Anyway, I didn't get what I hoped for, but it was still an engaging and interesting read.

[Marisa Burwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, irreverent, and moving, Fallon’s memoir was a stay-up-late read for me. A master of metaphors, I found myself rereading sentences and sections—not for clarity—just to enjoy them again.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written memoir. I was raised by a fundamentalist Christian mother, so there were countless moments where I deeply related to Fallon's internal struggles--her floundering sense of self, her fear and anxiety, her desperate keening for harmony, her loneliness, all the "playing along" and self-scolding, self-bargaining, resentment, confusion. My only complaints were: 1) the epilogue--I wish Fallon had shown us how she left the commune, and how she left Henry. She gave us two sentences about these MAJOR climactic moments and moved on. 2) I would have liked to know more about the actual commune, its history and how it was organized. I understand that this wasn't the focus of the memoir, but it would have helped the reader better understand how the commune works and what makes it unique, beyond the fact that it's fundamentalist Christian, unlike any other communes I've heard of (pagan or non-religious).

I did find the Christian commune aspect fascinating, which was the primary reason I read this, thanks to Hawthorne Books. I can't imagine being that isolated, even though I spent the majority of my upbringing around other fundamentalist Christians (private fundamentalist Christian academy followed by home-schooling with a group of conservative Christian families). Fallon renders this world well--she lets us smell the smells, taste the food, feel the thick wool skirts and flannel, strain under the grueling housework and manual labor, flinch at the eager "saved" souls, pressing endlessly against you, watching what you say and what you do, urging you to "submit, submit, submit." Even though I left "the church" as a teenager and continue to be an agnostic, I can totally understand why Fallon found herself there, and why she stayed for years. We all want to be loved. We all want to be special. We all want to belong.

My thanks to Hawthorne Books for providing a complimentary copy.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved D'arcy Fallon's memoir, "So Late, So Soon."

My daughter recently suggested a book written by a former journalist and resident of Colorado, who presently teaches creative writing at Wittenberg University in Ohio. I just finished the memoir yesterday and found it deliciously hilarious. The author, D'arcy Fallon, was born in 1954 and was a rather rebellious teenager, reaching that stage in the heyday of communes and drugs...not an easy time for kids or parents. Her teenage meanderings ended in a Jesus Commune out west...and her telling of that time is funny, fresh, with front-on endearing honesty. She writes with pointed metaphors and similes which had me in stitches, "He was as self-contained as a baked potato" ... yet D'arcy manages to write with compassion for the times, others, and self.

The only criticism I have is, though I instinctively felt she would eventually reach a more mature relationship with her beliefs, she changes mood during the very last chapters of the book, where she goes from compassionate reflection to past/present (?) pain and/or anger. This is understandable, but didn't quite gel with the first 3/4 of the book. These chapters perhaps would have been better in a continuing memoir of a different flavor. This change in mood confused me, but it took her six years to form the memoir, so perhaps her mood changed during that process. That can happen. In any event, I found Ms. Fallon to be a brilliant writer, and I will be eagerly awaiting any new material from this gifted writer. And anyone that has wondered about a youthful path, chosen, seemingly out of nowhere, would certainly enjoy this meandering journey, written with such a compassionate, humorous touch! I highly recommend it. Furthermore, Wittenberg is certainly fortunate to have her among their midst.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir was amazing in how it so authentically created a particular setting and spiritual milieu and stayed, in a sense, objective about highly personal and sometimes volatile subjects. The author was a truth tell in every sense for the word - going for the facts, but also the emotions and meanings behind them. This was truly a good read - I kept wondering whether the narrator of this memoir would completely chuck the Christian faith or retain some part for it. I didn't know until the very end. Please know that the length of time it took me to read it was extended because of a four week absence from the book while I travelled.

As a Christian myself, reading of the commune that D'Arcy lived in, I kept cringing and longing that Fallon could meet the kind of Christians I know--kind, authentic, and gentle people are quite opposite to the authoritarian, simplistic, emotion-denying, conformity-demanding people she describes. Yet these people are quite believable and, I suppose, sincere in their religious ideals and fervent worship. The book is an important read for anyone who wishes they could start up or live in a commune

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

When D'Arcy Fallon was a newspaper columnist for the Gazette Telegraph in Colorado Springs I looked forward to her pieces. I always found something to relate to and I thought she wrote very well. This book, SO LATE, SO SOON is about her life in Humboldt County in California in the 1970's when she was 18. She inadvertenly got hooked up with a fundamentalist sect and a husband in a commune that divided up work by men's work and women's work. Although I read this book a long time ago and nothing has stuck, I do remember thinking that I was glad it wasn't me that had to figure out the life she led then. I couldn't figure things out when I was 18 and would have gladly joined a commune for the sake of being communal. Her painful insight into what she tried to make herself believe about her situation was very believable to me.

[Annabeth Leong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, and strange. Really stayed with me -- I've thought lots about it in the two months since I read it. The story is very painful, so much so that it was a hard book to finish. This is largely because of how vividly written it is.

Sometimes, I thought the book could have been organized a bit more clearly. It's a series of personal essays that work out to be roughly chronological, but at times the pacing felt a little off.

The author waited many years to write this memoir, and I really appreciated the contrast between her current sense of self and the self she describes from the time when the story is set. That sort of wisdom and space is what memoirs really need, and it's good to read one that the author allowed to percolate sufficiently.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir set in Humboldt County. A friend of mine grew up in this religious community (Gospel Outreach, a kind of hippie/Jesus-people commune), and I've been curious about it. The book is a great personal portrait of a young woman who joined the group quite accidentally, while looking for something to do with her life, and how she ended up leaving. It doesn't paint a very clear picture of the structure or history of the group, and some of the details are sketchy, but Fallon's style is readable and elegant. It was pretty fun to read a book about life in Eureka in the 1970s, and wondering if any of the characters were my friend's parents...

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a sad story! The 1970's--an era of excess. Marabelle Morgan suggests that you can't change your man, change yourself--by greeting your man at the door wrapped in Saran Wrap and holding a martini. When you are a teenaged rebel armed with a GED, and fundamental Christian sect is where you land, this is the memoir that gets written. The author discovered many things that she didn't want, some things she did want but not how to get connected to them. That was the sad of the story. As a Christian, I did not relate to the fundamental approach to Christianity. It was not a shock that the author ultimately did not either.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confused Bay Area Teenagers ends up at Jesus freak farm just south of my hometown in 1973. My favorite parts were her descriptions of "Going Into Town" and selling newspapers, or donuts door to door... probably because she picked a few things from my young childhood that I'd forgotten about ol' Eureka! Other than that, a easy read that hasnt' stuck with me. The stories tell of her increasing discomfort with the Jesus crew, and ends with her deciding to leave, for real, and then a postscript on how she did it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's experience with Gospel Outreach began at the Lighthouse Ranch in Eureka California and ended in New York. Mine began at the Lord's Land in Wasilla Alaska and ended in New York. Our stories easily could have been written by each other. A great look into a world of "Jesus People" as it was in the 1970's

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty bizzare story of a religious cult/ commune. It was an ok book, but I had trouble relating to the religious aspect of the story. You have to wonder why that lady bought into it for so long.