A Place in the Country

In SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS, author Laura Shaine Cunningham movingly remembered her life growing up in the Bronx with her single mother, Rosie, until the latter's untimely death, after which Laura's guardians were her mother's two odd-ball bachelor brothers, Len and Gabe.A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY is essentially a sequel, wherein Ms. Cunningham describes her life from the mid-1950's to Y2K. Indeed, the first couple of chapters reprise events of her life with Rosie and her uncles - all in the context of explaining her developing love for "the country". This is not unexpected in someone who grew up in small, overcrowded, city apartments. Most of the book revolves around the two rural homes in which the author has spent a good portion of her adult life, the Castle and The Inn, the latter having been her abode away from The City for the last 18 years up to the present. Laura's life has been, in many ways, perfectly ordinary - probably not so different from the general pattern of yours or mine. Perhaps that's why it's so appealing. (We have here not the memoir of an obnoxious diva, whining and overpaid sports figure, or dysfunctional actor.) The author's great ability in sharing is her gentle, wry sense of humor, whether it's telling us about the trials of converting an old underground cistern into a swimming pool, or starting an ill-conceived cottage industry in potpourri pillows, or battling the local fauna over home-grown tomatoes, or the adoption of her first daughter from Romania, or her second daughter from China, or learning the pitfalls inherent to raising chickens, geese and goats. For instance ..."I spent most of my time preparing the alleged garden, jumping on the end of a pickaxe, trying to tilt the tip of what might be a glacial formation (of rock) that extends to the core of the earth. When at last there was a thin strip of what we could call soil, we stuck in seeds, which were instantly lost and unidentifiable except to the birds that snacked on them. We graduated immediately to seedlings that cost as much as the finished vegetables. In this way, we worked our way up, with credit cards, to the six-hundred dollar tomato."Not all of Laura's life in the country has been happy. In the later chapters, when she tells of the eventual dissolution of her 27-year marriage, or the neighbors that move away, or die, or just her slide into middle-age, the tone of A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY becomes occasionally melancholic. ("Time is supposed to march on, but now it hurtles.") But, her narrative never loses the sensitivity and poignancy that conveys to the reader the fact that she is, from all evidence, a truly good human being giving Life her best shot. A person that it would be an honor to hug.

I love to read about dream houses and people getting their wish fulfilled so this story of the poor little orphan from the bronx, who grew up in city apartments, seven people in three rooms, really moved me. The story is as sad as Angela's Ashes but funny as The Egg and I--It is a really fascinating mix of memoir and how a city person can live in the country. I could not put it down as Miss Cunningham lucks out and gets a romantic estate in upstate New York. The writing is as beautiful as the travel books but I liked it more as it is about our home country. It is not pretentious like some of those books --You don't have to be a millionaire to have a dream house come true! This is also a beautiful memoir of a special family. You have to read the first book, too, Sleeping Arrangements, because it dares to go where few writers are willing --the true secret unexpurgated lives of city kids. I was one too! LOVED THIS! What a pair of books! If you ever wanted country property, get this quick!

A "must read" for anyone who has ever longed for the "country." The author takes us along with her on her (often hilarious) quest to find that idyllic place in the country. This is a book filled with charm and wit, full of eccentric and wonderful characters (many of whom readers of the author's earlier book "Sleeping Arrangements" will recognize). Laugh-out-loud funny but also wise and loving. Her description of the cows alone is worth the price of the book.

As a writer, I have often divided other writers into story tellers and lyrical writers. Story telling skills are obvious, lyrical writing skills less so. A writer who can create a mood or scene in words gets my vote. I like to be able to hear, see, smell, and if possible, touch, it. Laura Shaine Cunningham is both kinds of writer. She manages to tell a compelling story of her childhood in the Bronx, losing her mother, her young adulthood just north of New York City in Tuxedo Park, to finally settling in upstate New York in Willowby. I was entranced with the stories and images of her life and highly recommend this book to anyone longing for the country or anyone who just enjoys good writing.

Delightful. Fix yourself some ice tea, put your feet up, and pretend that you are sitting among the foxglove and asters in a New England garden, even if you're stuck on the twentieth floor of a New York City high-rise. This is summer in the country as it should be. The pleasures of country life are so vivid, along with the absurdities, the weeds, the mud, the mosquitoes, and the contretemps that can only be dealt with by laughing, that you may be tempted to move to a small, rural village. Unless you happened to also read The Enduring Shore and have decided to move to a saltwater village on Cape Cod. Or to read Bullough's Pond and are looking for a small lake within commuting distance of Boston. Or, well, you could just check them all out of the library and put yor feet up. It's been a great season for books about New England.