Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton

Even though this is a short book, 208 pages, it took me a long time to read it and I read two other books while reading this one. Sarton said things I wanted to ruminate on for a while before reading on. The copyright date is 1973, and the books is slightly dated due to its age, but it has mainly stood the test of time. I understand that this book was required reading for a lot of classes on feminism and well so. Sarton was a feminist and a lesbian and an artist. Journal of a Solitude explores all of those things and more.

Sarton lived alone in a house in New Hampshire where she wrote and gardened and contemplated the joys and sadness of solitude. I think some of my favorite parts of this book are when she talks about her gardens and the animals she lives with and the people who live around her. Of course that is what makes a life.

When she talks about the joys of solitude she is very convincing that the only way an artist can truly achieve something is to live alone enough to explore solitude and the way the mind works when it is alone and unencumbered by people. She whines quite a bit when she feels she is on a writing roll and is interrupted by people, even those she loves.

Throughout this book she studies her relationship with her lesbian partner--they see each other occasionally--and by the end makes a decision about that relationship. She also looks at the way her art is accepted by the public since she essentially came out in a previous novel. This all from a woman who is 59 while writing this journal. Yeah for her!!

I am surprised I didn't read this book earlier, in college or on my own. As someone who considers herself to have an artsy bent, it seems a natural, but I must have missed it. I am glad I finally got to it and Sarton intrigues me enough that I will find some of her poems to fill in the blanks there.