Searching for a Mustard Seed: One Young Widow's Unconventional Story

by Miriam Sagan

Poet Miriam Sagan's intimate, poignant, comical memoir begins with the death of her husband, a thirty-six-year-old Zen Priest. She approaches grief in typical baby boomer fashion: going to Korea, attending weightlifting classes, and searching for new lovers. She ultimately finds that she is not alone, and that she is surrounded with continuity, community, and all the beauty that is life.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2003

About the author

Miriam Sagan founded the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College. She is author of twenty-five books, including her first novel, Coastal Lives, and her memoir Searching for a Mustard Seed: A Young Widow's Unconventional Story, which won Best Memoir of the Year from Independent Publishers Association.

She won the New Mexico Literary Arts Gratitude Award in Poetry, and has received the Santa Fe Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Reviews

[Meta Hirschl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal memoir about death recovery and living. Deeply felt, helped me in my own troubled times, it necessarily about a death.
Recommend highly to those my a certain sensibility-like mine I suppose.
Richly observed. Vulnerable. Beauty in unexpected and expected places.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miriam Sagan's Searching for the Mustard Seed is book about her personal experience adjusting to life as a widow. It was not what I expected. Sagan's emotional journey is full of grief, resentment, and a new sense of freedom. For the first time in a long time, without the burden of her husband to care for, Miriam finds herself doing what she wants and exploring her own desires.

There were a few times that I questioned putting this book down and moving onto another book. I'm glad I didn't. I'll admit, I struggled to connect with the author and was surprised and disappointed at how quick she looked for another man to fullfill her womanly desires. But, the overall message of the book, which is tied to the title, is a touching and memorable lesson that I will forever remember.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

More about grief but not really focused on this story. Touches in introduction and at end. Should have a different title. I would recommend Joan Didion's book "Year of magical thinking" over this one.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miriam took aspect of her life, especially during her husband's death, and added a lighter side to it with some humor-in good taste.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars.