Of Landscape and Longing: Finding a Home at the Water's Edge

by Carolyn Servid

Though Americans move frequently and often live far from the place they were born, they retain a memory of the landscape of childhood. For Carolyn Servid, and for others who love shorelines and boats, this imprinted place is where water meets trees. Using memoir as a means of meditation, Servid writes about connections to the land and the ways our love of a place can lead us to see it as an adversary, as she once felt during an ascent in Glacier Bay; as something to be consumed, as in the sprouting of mansions in the valleys of Colorado; or as a lover, as in her intimate, abiding knowledge of the shore near her home, where her greatest pleasure is to row her Banks dory among the whales and nearby islands.

198 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2000

Reviews

[Carole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my type of book. I read 1/2 the book before I realized it was just more of the same Be the land - or Be with the land or Love the land or whatever.

It started off pretty good telling about her childhood in India being raised by missionary parents, then she goes off to climb a mountain with some young man her parents fixed her up with just so she could experience Alaska. What dumb thinking! Good thing she turned back before she got herself killed. He was so hell bent on climbing that he didnt realize she was the wrong person to do it with, but he didnt care.

Then she moves to Alaska. that is it, the rest is how she is breathing in the country. She just gets there, then net thing you know it is 10 yrs later without any hint of what she is doing to be able to stay there, what kind of work, or relationship or what.

This just was not my type of books. To many flowery words that all said the same thing: BE one with the land. ok fine.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

my curiosity about nature writing led me to pick this up at a used book store and i think it was simply not a good fit. carolyn servid had a fascinating life- growing up in india with her parents on an evangelical mission and somehow ending up in sitka, alaska in an old house by the water. there were some interesting tidbits- the essay on her old boat, chronicling the restoration process, the adventures she's shared with it- stood out to me.

i think my problem is that i just want *more* out of nature writing than what i see dominating the genre. "nature is beautiful, trees are old but they get cut down for paper, my heart beats in a ceaseless rhythm with the sea" kind of thing isn't doing anything new for me. we all have mystical experiences with nature -- but can we dig something more impactful out of those experiences for our literature? or at the very least-- something less dull?

[Barrie Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carolyn Servid gives us a glimpse into her life from the early days in India to where she lives now in Alaska. She comes across as a passionate conservationist and a compassionate human being, I liked this book and its author.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful essays on the meaning of home within the land. Beautiful writing and heart stopping imagery. This book will stay with me for a long time.