Falling Through Space: The Journals of Ellen Gilchrist

Recently I was looking through Ellen GIlchrist's Falling Through Space trying to find the passage where she writes about getting down on the floor to play with her books. Well, I couldn't find it, but in the process, I discovered that Falling Through Space had been republished in 2000 with the addition of fifteen new esssays. I ordered a new copy. It came yesterday, and I read the whole book again. I couldn't stop. I love the way she writes, her honesty, her outlook on life. I may read it again today. I found the passage, by the way. Apparently she had said on a radio program that "we should all learn from two-year-olds and go to work by different routes and take all our books off the shelves and throw them on the floor and play with them." She writes, "I can talk a good game but where is the action." Then, "...I walked on home and went into my house and started pullng all the books off my bookshelves and piling them up on the living-room floor. Pretty soon I had a carpet of books." She describes it as "one of the best weekends I've ever had." This process of "being into everything" is so important to her that she mentions playing with books again later in the book.

Ellen Gilchrist shares several of her life's experiences in an amicable and pleasant way. Her style is relaxing, and it is pleasant to read this book and share her life in doing so. The reading is not heavy, instead very light. And Ellen is rich in experiences, which she has a pleasant way of sharing with her readers. Two pleasant examples are her flight from New York to London aboard a supersonic jet and her intimate relationship with a man much younger than her. I enjoyed every minute of reading this book.