The Deep Limitless Air: A Memoir in Pieces

by Mary Allen

Mary Allen is the author of The Rooms of Heaven , published by Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books. She received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 2002. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers , Tiferet , Real Simple , Library Journal , CNN On-line, The Chaos , Shenandoah , Spoon River Poetry Review , and in the anthology If I Don't Make It, I Love Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings . She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has taught at the University of Iowa. She lives in Iowa City and is a full-time writing coach. ENDORSEMENTS "Mary Allen's effortlessly original voice addresses the reader with startling simplicity and moral clarity, whether she is introducing us to the tender friendship between a young woman and a celebrated octogenarian, or allowing us to see through her eyes the beautiful solemnity of monks at their devotions, or tracing her own strange citizenship in the liminal realm of a disrupted childhood and the years that follow. Simply put, read this book. Allen's beguiling and brilliant writing will leave you exhilarated."-Jo Ann Beard, author of Festival Days "A snarl of honeybees in a parcel at the post office evokes a mother's long-ago rage; a medical insurance crisis arises when a sister gives birth; past loves, an old man who was kind; Boston, Iowa City, Hawaii, speculations of the afterlife. The Deep Limitless Air tells a life of successive revelation, evolving wisdom. Mary Allen's prose has the freshness of the most optimistic morning. I adore this book."-Honor Moore, author of Our Revolution, A Mother and Daughter at Midcentury "Among the reasons I love The Deep Limitless Air is that its spirituality is so light-handed and matter-of-fact and barely distinguishable from the apprehension and appreciation of ordinary life, life both lived and recalled. Mary Allen writes about growing up with a rejecting mother, of lovers, partners, friends, and a procession of animals who summon her tender and respectful attention, of learning to bear the long silence of meditation and the joyful shout of the world. A beautiful, funny, warm, and heartbreaking book."-Peter Trachtenberg, author of Another Insane Devotion, On the Love of Cats and Persons Mary Allen is the author of The Rooms of Heaven , a literary memoir published by Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books.

210 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 11, 2022

About the author

Mary Allen is a memoir and fiction writer whose themes are spiritual and psychological healing, love, the nature of life and death, and the ways our states of consciousness intersect with our experience of reality. Her writing — and broad range of writing topics — reflect her belief that the personal and the practical, the painful and the numinous, the spiritual and the ordinary are all blended together in our lives and cannot be separated from one another without at least part of the truth being lost.

Reviews

[Karen_RunwrightReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Deep Limitless Air is immediately enthralling.

The book reads like a novel, narrative nonfiction is what this writing style would be called, I think, so the "story" begins with a first-person description of an experience of installing bees in a hive with her father. This first chapter, entitled Bees, describes Allen's recollection of taking a class and being inspired to curate a beehive herself. The vignette wraps the theoretical study of beekeeping with the sensory experience of fear and physical pain from being stung. The story mentions but doesn't delve into the complexity of her family dynamic - we see her father's support of her ideas and his involvement in her plans, but just as clearly we see her mother's pseudo-absence; and a sister is mentioned by the way but just in passing. All these aspects made me curious to know more about the narrator and what she would share but I also felt impressed to go learn more about bees and beekeeping from the descriptions in that first vignette.

The ensuing chapters are just as interesting and well written. I love the author's voice, I admire her strength for sharing the painful details of her life with the reader. I enjoy how when Allen introduces us to a person, she also gives us a little look into how her story with them ends. In talking about a boyfriend, she says, "He will turn out to be someone I would cross the street to get away from but I'm crazy about him i this moment." She also does this with some events in her life, giving the reader a glimpse into the future while she is talking about something happening in the present. It is a foresight that Mary Allen explores with phrases like, "He has less than two months to live, but we don't know that, of course." I appreciate the preparation she gives the reader, to deal with the hard topics but sparing us the shock of pain. 

I was impressed reading this memoir that spans several decades, because Allen's recollections are vivid, although I love her transparency in a line on page 82, "I had to rewrite this piece twice because, as I learned when I started researching, I remembered a lot of the details wrong." The quote appears towards the end of the chapter where she recalls being part of a school shooting in 1991 where her boss and other administrators were killed by a former student. I think over the years that follow something so traumatic, memories can become colored by influences so Mary Allen's statement makes the book feel more authentic, that she isn't just sharing what she remembers, wrong or right, but that she is also seeing how it aligns with the official records, to give the reader the most accurate picture.   

The Deep Limitless Air is an emotional, intellectual but also very literary, memoir. The book addresses issues like parental neglect and foster care, unexpected friendship, the loss of friends and family through illness and suicide, religion and life as a monk, mass shootings and the back story behind what's covered in the news, and it is all transmitted with simplicity and tenderness. I was here for all of it.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of The Deep Limitless Air in order to participate in a publicity tour organized by TLC Book Tours. I was not otherwise compensated and the above represents my honest opinion about the book.

[Bianca Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in an unique form of short stories, Author Mary Allen candidly shares moments of her life with her readers. From beekeeping to her strained relationship with her mother, the variety of her experiences were a huge hit for me.

In Cowboy Justice, Allen shares her experience in the 1991 shooting that took place on campus at the University of Iowa. While this happened 31 years ago, she tackles a very present issue we are still facing as a country.
“...And that in a country where anyone can buy a gun in a store, blame, hate, distorted thinking, misunderstandings, and - almost certainly - mental illness, can lead to the mass slaughter of ordinary people.”
While most of the topics discussed were a bit heavy at times dealing with grief and loss, I found humor in some of her stories that lightened the load.
In The Way Back Home, she shares a smelly train ride on Amtrak. Allen’s witty writing style paints the scene. I found myself as a fly on the wall watching her trying to rid of the smell of poop from her hands.

Overall, I walked away feeling as if I just had a deeply intimate conversation with Mary Allen, rather than reading a memoir. I highly recommend this book - there is a little something for everyone in her stories!

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this collection of essays, 'a memoir in pieces,' in just two days. In these essays Allen must face the mother who failed her in her final days of cancer, the loss of her beloved sister to ALS, as a failed beekeeper alongside a father she'd like to bond with further. Allen also fearlessly interrogates her relationship to random traumas; her proximity of a mass shooting, and a fall that gives her an injury and renders her helpless and temporarily dependent on the kindness of others. This book is in turns hilarious, heartbreaking, compassionate, fierce and honest. The essays are about love and failed love, friendship, fear, vulnerability, and also, charmingly about the many animals who find a place in Allen's heart. It offers resilience and hope for those for all of us who sometimes feel uncertain we can carry on.

[Sara Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great memoir with humor throughout, even when talking about the hard (and not so great) stuff. I really enjoyed this one.