A New Kind of Country

While Dorothy Gilman has spoken autobiographically in some of her novels, particularly The Maze in the Heart of the Castle, it is here that we as adults have the opportunity to join her journey into becoming whole. With her sons now in college Dorothy tells of her journey as she sets up a home in an isolated area of Nova Scotia. Her first discovery on that journey is that she has always "belonged" to someone who set the boundaries of her life, first as a daughter, then as a wife, finally as a mother. Now, for the first time in her life she has to figure out who she is without all of the roles. She is, indeed, as the title shares, in a New Kind of Country. I have read and re-read this book, and I recommend it particularly for females who wonder if there is more to life than the roles they live in today. Hopefully it will come back into print at some point, but for now, grab a used copy if you find one. It is worth reading.

A New Kind of Country is my favorite Dorothy Gilman book, and I've read as many as I can find! This one is autobiographical and special, filled with her wit and wisdom. She's the greatest!

This book jumped at me from the free table at the library. In reality, it is gender neutral. We are all from a universal spirit that knows no gender specificity. Ms. Gilman touched on the human longing to be connected to how the rest of the planet lives instinctively. While possible to achieve the enlightenment that she reaches without such a challenging environment, I sense it is a far more embracing and rewarding path. There is great therapy and clarity in living alone. This perspective confronts current evidence offered by Western medicine that married couples are healthier and happier. Like everything else, nothing is one hundred percent. I will always keep this book near me as an inspiration and resource for mental wellness eventhough I may never pursue life as boldly as she. One never knows.

says Dorothy Gilman, of her decision to move to Nova Scotia in the seventies and establish a solitary, productive, joyful life in a farmhouse far removed from the comforts of suburbia. And I would never had read this book, had I not gotten hooked on Gilman's series of mysteries and fallen completely in love with her heroine Emily Pollifax. Emily is that rarest of individuals, a person with a gift for normal living who has imagination and a sense of adventure. She has always been a little "different" and after her husband's death, she decides to fulfill a dream and apply to be a spy for the CIA. The rest is history. After reading these delightful books, one wonders if Dorothy is like Emily, and if so, how? Well, yes and no. Dorothy as a child covered the walls of her room with maps, and Emily visits many of the countries featured on those maps. Dorothy's marriage ended in divorce and Emily remarries, quite happily, to Cyrus, who is from the beginning one of her best friends and who supports her risky adventures with understanding and appreciation. Emily knows karate but Dorothy succeeds in wresting a productive garden out of the Nova Scotia soil on which she settles after her divorce. More importantly, Dorothy learns to lead a joyful solitary life - and it is the wisdom we see in this brief autobiography that shines through her Mrs. Pollifax books. So in the deepest sense, yes, they are much alike. This book could be medicine for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the onslaught of trivial entertainment and activity which comprises the life of urban and suburban people today. It could also be inspiring to anyone who would like to be inspired to a more self-sufficient lifestyle and move to a rural area to establish a homestead. But most of all, it will inspire you to look within yourself honestly and learn from what you find there. Dorothy writes: "What did I learn? I learned to fashion a day out of nothing at all and to give it shape and balance. I learned how to make a blueberry pie, to be very quiet and watch birds circling and tomatoes ripening. I learned how to work hard physically, to sickle grass, haul earth, dig holes and trenches, fight slugs, and cultivate a garden. I made new friends, and one of them was myself...I learned this, too: that we are each, inside of us, a country with our own mountains and plateaus and chasms and storms and seas of tranquility but like a Third World country we remain largely unexplored, and sometimes even impoverished, for want of a little investment." I am lucky that my library still has its copy of this book, but there are plenty of used copies available. Make the investment and read it!