A Stone Bridge North: Reflections in a New Life

Kate Maloy has the life I want to live. We have similar backgrounds, including age, gender, past marriages, Quakerism and more. So perhaps I should seek that life -- it's out there, she proves so in this book. This is not a light or superficial book -- it is rich and shines with deep thoughts and reflection. She includes all the wrinkles, twists and lines that real life brings to us. In this book she shares the kinds of things you might think about, but not speak, the contents of a personal journal, introspective and quite true. She has managed to make the most of her life, and this book is a wonder to read. Her writing style is one that invites the reader along, and I felt (as you probably will) as if this was part of a conversation with a close friend, part with myself, part simply a life viewed through a warm and inviting window.She writes about so much, this book is incredibly full -- I'm not done yet reading it again and again. A quote I love, "Long before I ever met Alan, I wondered if any man of my generation could love a woman his own age, could feel passion (and compassion) for her aging, vulnerable flesh, could open himself to a soul-deep love even as he himself loses muscle tone, stamina and hair -- could well and truly stand naked in front of another and not be ashamed. Now I know there is at least one such man on the planet."Sigh. This Friend speaks for me. An uplifting, warming reading for cool nights and warm days, too.

I'm not a Quaker and I've never attended a Meeting. Although I consider any religion that calls its practitioners Friends a step in the right direction, my motivations in reading SBN were strictly secular. I was first drawn to the book because I have enormous respect for the publisher. The cover also spoke to me. The simplicity and purity of it. A single stand of snow covered trees. And I've always been intrigued by bridges as metaphors, so the title was perfect. There's no doubt that SBN is a book of the spirit in the sense that it's a look at the effects of Quakerism in the writer's life. And this is a strong theme of the book. To say otherwise would be misleading and disingenuous. But the book is so much more than that, too generous with its reach, too honest in its outpouring of contemplations, too bighearted and open-minded to be pigeonholed as a theological dogmatic text. It is indeed a soulful book, but it offers its deep solitude, silence and solace to all. For some unknown reason I dipped into the book haphazardly, rather than reading it linearly, which did not ruin the experience for me. Covering a rapid and transitional year in her life, it alternates between journal-type entries and short and long meditations on all things human: emotions, food, television, our education system, everyday life, and even the internet, which becomes another form of metaphysical uplifting for the author. It turns out she's met her new husband on the web. Some of their communications back and forth, via re-mail, are included in the book. That atypical love story is just one of the truly fine, honest - and surprising - things that the author reflects on. They all conjoin into the story of a lifechange. An intelligent, quietly passionate, appealing, and insightful story of the process of continuing to make oneself a better person through faith in life and in each other.

I'm Kate Maloy's ex-husband. She speaks about me in her good book, A Stone Bridge North, anonymously, because she was considerate enough to try to protect the guilty.Because I figure in her book, but not in especially complementary terms, I figure that potential buyers or readers of her book might be interested in my take on it.It's a captivating story of emotional venture and spiritual adventure, with author-centered but gifted, exquisite reflections on the meaning of the struggle - in terms with which anyone can empathize - to enrich a life, a marriage, a sense of self, one's soul.It's also a guarranteed page-turner, a compelling story of the roles of reflective struggle and the mystery of grace in amazing turns of life.The story of how Kate found the wonderful man who became her soul-mate and new husband is, simply, amazing by any standard. Any person who ever wondered how - by concerted effort or by gentle grace - life can, indeed, take magnificent turns needs to read this book. And take heart.

A fascinating unobtrusive and non-threatening account of the unfolding of a soul, No shoulds or shouldn'ts are present for others to follow. The author only offers her thoughts as a true friend who shares her travels and travails, as well as her path of traveling and coping, the lessons given and the lessons learned with their heartbreaks and the heart thrills. Most of all Kate Maloy shares the center of her being - her faith unshaken - unstintingly in a truly Quaker way. All three of her dimensions can be seen while those who are closest to her show perhaps two and a half of their three dimensions and those others, who touch her life but are more distant from her, only two or less. This is as it should be, for the finding of her stone bridge north is her tale to tell - not the tale of how others did or did not find theirs. I found her account compelling and read each new chapter eagerly for both the enjoyment of her lovely mastery of words and ability to paint harmonious word pictures. This is probably the best book for the general public for Quaker understandings since I Take Thee, Serenity and Friendly Persuasion.

Several summers ago, while writing my Master's thesis on the trappings and workings of memory, I stumbled, quite ecstatically, into A Stone Bridge North, through a link on a website for James Hillman. I downloaded the author's self published offering and stepped into her magical and enchanting story. I use the words magical and enchanting not in a literay way, in order to suggest magical realism, but rather because I was so moved and captivated by the depths of her honesty and her insight into the capriciousness of life. The story is evocative and gently provocative, beautifully written and ultimately very inspiring to those of us who dream of leaving the cacophony of urban living ideally, although not necessarily, hand in hand with the unexpected guardian of our soul. Her story is inspiring, enlivening and ultimately a place I often find myself wandering around, two years after squinting at my computer screen, unable and unwilling to leave the author, her friends and family behind. Give this book to anyone you know who is tending to dreams of a simpler and more meaningful way of living, without sacrificing the erotics of life, in the name of the only life we have to live.