Simple Gifts: Lessons in Living from a Shaker Village

This book is NOT just for those with an interest in the Shakers. I picked it from the library shelf at random while looking for something else, and I am so glad I did. Those who enjoy learning from their elders, those who are trying to make sense of religion, and those who love a good memoir may want to give this book a try. I loved the author's positive outlook. She treats her subject with great sensitivity, warmth, and attention to detail.

I was looking through the library for a book on the Shaker way, specifically, what it might be like to be a Shaker, what goes on in their minds, and why they live(d) the way they did. This book is a truly engaging read from cover to cover -- the warm, conversational tone of the narrative kept me reading, and the insights into the Shaker world are priceless. Rather than taking a dry, anthropological view of the vanishing sect, or waxing new age, the author simply tells her own story beautifully, evoking the feeling of what it would be like to visit that time and place. I know very little about Shaker ways, which is why I picked up this book, and I'm very glad I did. From the humorous visits with the neighboring miniature makers to the serene white-washed (and even pink!) walls of the buildings to the gentle smiles of the Sisters, this memoir was charming and a great read. I couldn't put it down.

I grew up close to the only surviving Shaker village in the world and my interest in this interesting people is alive and well. I enjoyed this book for the glimpse of people who remain alive within the pages of books written by those who lived and worked among them. I would agree, this book is meant for those with an interest in the people and their everyday lives. It is a great way to prelude a visit to the Canterbury Village where everything is made real.

June Sprigg is a perceptive, compassionate, and poetic observer of Shaker life as she shared it in the early 1970's. Her representation is sympathetic but doesn't "whitewash" the human frailties of the people she encountered. Her descriptions of the beauty of the natural surroundings in which she lived and worked are superb, delicate, and rich. The work is further enhanced by her sweetly simple pencil sketches of the village and the Shakers she grew to love. Perfect reading for summer--or any other time.

I enjoyed the fly on the wall experience I had reading Sprigg's work. I felt like I was going through the same things and meeting the same people she was. All of the people came alive for me as I read about the lives of some interesting women who lived at Canterbury Village.I must say, though, that the book meant even more to me when I made the trek to the village and took the awesome tour. Then all of the people spoke to me. I found myself reading the book again to put myself in their place.