Out of This World: A Journey of Healing

by Mary Swander

When a severe allergic illness dictates that she grow all her own food, Mary Swander finds herself living in a former one-room schoolhouse in the midst of the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi. In this simple yet profound memoir, she shares her experiences as she explores what it means to be a lone woman homesteader at the end of the 20th century, discovering the quiet spirituality born of a life on the land.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1995

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I realized the author was not Amish and simply residing in an Amish community, I expected this book to to include more on the Amish community since that was the first subject heading. Instead the book fits the memoir category and only mentions the Amish incidentally as she interacts with them. The author discusses her decision to move from a California city back to her native Iowa. She purchased the former Fairview School as her residence and planted her own organic garden because of allergies to pesticides and such. The book may interest those who wish to "get back to nature." If readers seek an account of living among the Amish with the focus on the neighbors instead of the author, skip this one.

[Felicity Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It jumped out at me from the library of the house we've rented here in NY for a few months as a thoughtful, back to what really matters book. And it is exactly that!

The book was published in 1995, and I'm reminded of how little I knew about adult things growing up in the '80s and '90s. Quite a lot of Mary's personal health journey would - happily - be approached much more positively today. And yet, outside that story, it's incredible how much has not changed: the removal of the prairies, the floods, etc.

I do feel that the title could be misleading. Mary's Amish neighbors and the Amish community she lives in are part of the story but are not the focus of the story. The book is much more about Mary than "what it's like to be an Englisher in an Amish community," which is a big reason I enjoyed it so much.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Swander is a woman trying to find a way to live in this world when you have medical issues that make you not be able to function in most modern environments. She found a place in Iowa where she could grow her own food but also be able to partake with her community which happens to be mainly Amish. I like the sense of normalcy she takes in describing interactions with all her neigbors and especially the way they look out for each other.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm tagging this book with "disability" and "Christianity" labels because it's about a Catholic woman with Environmental Illness (also called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) who moves to an Amish community to find relief from her medical symptoms--but the author's reflections, presented in mini-essays, mostly center on the plants she grows and the animals she raises. Amish neighbors make appearances but are not the book's focus, and the author's thoughts on medical recovery, life with an invisible disability, religion, and prairie ecology are more like abstract underlying themes than clear-cut topics. In short, this is a lovely book, full of a deep appreciation for simplicity and community, but you should be prepared to find in the end that you've learned more about the sex lives of Swander's goat and her neighbor's ducks than you have about anything else.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I'll be honest, I didn't finish this book. Not even close. The copy that I had from the library (which I think was an older copy) was a little misleading. Instead of it saying "a journey of healing", it said "one woman living among the Amish", which was actually more of why I got it. It was pretty okay what I read, a woman struggling and surviving a life with Environmental Illness, but I think it was written a little like a journal, and it jumped all over the place. I'm sure it was very therapeutic for her to write this book, just not really my thing.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Swander describes how Environmental Illness affected and ultimately re-formed every aspect of her life. To escape the noxious fumes and various physical substances that threaten her health, she relocates to a rural area of Iowa where most of the residents are Amish. As her health restores itself, she finds a home for herself among people whose beliefs and practices are quite different from hers. Themes of grief and healing weave throughout the stories.

[Leda Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swander does such a masterful job describing both her chronic, mysterious illness and, as the subtitle says, her life among the Amish. It reads curiously like a travel narrative, for Swander is not part of the "in" group she lives on the periphery of, but deeper into the book you see more how she's settled into her new home environment and the welcoming nature of her neighbors. A fine read with emphasis on nature writing, I keep coming back to this one for its comfort and familiarity.

[Miriam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get past a few chapters. The author, about whom the book is, not about the Amish, is far too narcissistic and histrionic, reminding me of clients with Munchausen's Syndrome! I grew to dislike her more, with each paragraph. If I had purchassed this book, it would go in the trash. Unfortunately, it is a library book, so will return to sit on the shelf.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Swander is a poet first, and this is reflected in her beautifully written prose. While dealing with a debilitating case of environmental illness the author chose to treat it by living as organically as possible, which led to her moving to a small Amish farming community in Iowa. Her lyrical descriptions of the everyday lifted this beyond dull and boring to a lovely little book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit self indulgent but a still pretty interesting memoir.

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

A true story of a woman who lives among the Amish in Iowa. I only liked it because of the Iowa interest.

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non-fiction. Okay. Woman with "environmental" allergies moves into the Amish community. Lives by herself.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm . . . I was hoping for more about the Amish community. And I found myself being annoyed by the author.

[Jama]

ok quirky

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have come back to this book for the 2nd time now and still felt like it was so worthwhile. There's something so Iowan about this book. Such a cool backdrop to all her stories of trial and challenge due to a rare, relatively unknown illness. For the second time, I feel like I've learned something so profound about a world so geographically close and yet so far from how I live here in Iowa.