Customer Reviews

Deep Water Passage: A Spiritual Journey at Midlife

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Deep Water Passage is one of the most honest and compelling stories of personal journey that I've ever read. I've now read this book four times, and have given it to countless friends and family members as gifts. (I can't keep a copy in my house!) Ann Linnea's amazing courage, her passion for her children, Lake Superior, and kayaking, as well as her quest for her own spiritual awakening and life make for an incredibly heartwarming and poignant story. Great information on Lake Superior too--that most majestic of the Great Lakes! You won't be able to put this book down!

Sooner or later, we all face the prospect of losing a loved one. Often the death of a friend leads one to reflect on one's own mortality. Sometimes undertaking an arduous physical challenge helps alleviate the emotional pain following loss. Often the loss of someone dear leads to enormous changes in one's life.

Ann Linnea lost a good friend to breast cancer. In a state of grief buried so deep she was not fully aware of it until she had completed a good part of her journey, she set out on an extraordinary trip kayaking around Lake Superior. She and her travel companion were subjected to incredible physical stress, and they experienced sublime beauty. By day, they paddled against the surf, in the rain and broiling sun, and through the treacherous debris of the coastline. Sometimes they paddled at night, where she saw "dark lichen-covered boulders..illuminated by a full moon."

Like Pirsig in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Linnea alternately describes her evolving mental and emotional state and the intricacies of kayaking a long distance. "I wore heavy-soled hiking boots, teal wind pants, yellow waterproof parka"... she says. And a moment later, "The only other time in my life that I could remember feeling connected like this to the ancient spirit of a place was in 1988 on my second three-month camping trip to the desert southwest with my children."

By the end of her book, Linnea has successfully circumnavigated Lake Superior, found the perfect place to scatter the ashes of her dead friend, and made some life-affirming decisions about her own existence.

A luminous book, filled with adventure, discovery and emotional truths. Since I live in Michigan, I'm very familiar with Lake Superior, and the images that Linnea evokes are wonderful: she made me feel the storms, the magic, and the fury that the Lake can unleash.

The emotional part of the story is a somewhat familiar one, but it is beautifully told. Any woman who has taken the track that society told her to take--at her own expense (and many, like me, who actually had a mother who told them to question it)--can relate to this story. In taking this journey Linnea found the rest of her life. We are fortunate to be able to take both journeys with her: the inward and the outward. I am filled with pride that this strong woman had the courage to take both leaps: the one that took her around the big lake, and the one that took her away from a man who had no egregious flaws, but who wasn't meeting her needs in any way except financially. Sadly, societal pressures still tell women that any "decent" man is better than being alone, and if you find one, your happiness is less important than that of your family. Of course, "decent" is open to discussion: a man who won't even adjust his university schedule to spend time with his children doesn't seem like a particulary stunning father to me. For too long a woman's happiness has been subjugated to that of her husband and children. Linnea reclaimed her joy: I'm sure her children feel and appreciate that joy.

My only gentle criticism of this book is that Linnea at times waxes a little too New Age for me, but the quest for traditions that speak to women in a way that our patriarchal choices do not is a very valid one.

This is a wonderful book to give as a gift: It's an adventure story, an introspective memoir, and a delightful travelogue. Give it in good health!

I read this book in one sitting and found it to ring true from my own experience. Some have criticized the author's presentation, motives, and sincerity. These criticisms only reflect the different perspectives and expectations that we all bring to our reading.

For me the author's journey framed experiences similar to my own under different circumstances. Anyone that has tested themselves in the crucible of nature or human endurance will find resonance in the words of Deep Water Passage.

Similarly, those that have sought refuge from the modern in nature will understand the link between spirit sensed and humanities struggle for understanding. Those embroiled in the today should probably wait for a later time to read and appreciate.

If your ready, a very good read!

I couldn't put this book down! I was there with every storm, every breathless moment of this incredible journey! I was exhausted when I finished this page-turner strictly from the adventure standpoint, but the emotional journey which parallels the physical is equally compelling and I found the author's honesty to be refreshing and comforting. This is a beautiful book to read and re-read when your own life's journey makes you wonder if you're on the right path and it makes a wonderful gift as well!

The day after her 43rd birthday Ann Linnea (and her brother-friend, Paul) begin circumnavigating Lake Superior by kayak, a 1200-mile spiritual and physical journey of 65 days. In order to complete this passage, and move onto the next phase of her life (which includes leaving her husband of 21 years), the author struggles to overcome physical and emotional limits while battling raging seas, bitter winds and freezing temperatures. Her desire to understand the changes she needs to make lead her on a search for life-affirming answers, and ultimately allow her to find purpose and meaning in her life. The insights she shares enable the reader to bear witness to her transformation as she faces self-doubt, life-threatening danger and exercises her choice to live. A marathon runner and cross country skier, Linnea is no stranger to the elements, no idle pursuer of physical challenges. Her life lessons are learned through her body. In the summer of 1992, Ann Linnea became the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior. Her experience with "She-Who-Is-The-Biggest" changed her life. The telling of that experience is both moving and meaningful.

Ann Linnea writes about many issues that women face as they grapple with motherhood, careers, love, relationships, and sense of self. Her harrowing kayak trip around Lake Superior is the back drop for her journey toward self realization. Her struggles with the elements, as she paddles, mirror her struggles toward self understanding. This is a wonderful book about courage, and an eloquent statement about what it means to be a woman. It is a good read for kayakers as well as non-kayakers, women, as well as men.

Linnea's book is one of only a handful of kayaking books really worth dipping into. Her prose and purpose are conveyed perfectly to the reader. Both kayakers and students of water will enjoy this work. Only Chris Duff's book comes close to matching it for creating lingering memories. Both works figure strongly in my book which reviews outdoor water recreation - Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water. Linnea writes with passion and enjoys getting wet and immersing herself in Lake Superior's coasts. As Thoreau wrote " That part of you that is wettest is fullest of life" (quoted from Profitably Soaked: Thoreau's Engagement With Water; Green Frigate Books, 2003).

Ann's book was inspiring to me - her vivid descriptions of Lake Superior country and the inner landscapes she traversed helped me journey within myself as I read. It was an intimate and poignant story that I enjoyed very much.

Ann Linnea is a woman of great courage as evidenced by her ability to persevere on what has to be described as a monumental vision quest. Her book is a courageous act also. She allows us into her thoughts and emotions, gives us an honest look into what was going on "inside". I felt it was a privilege to be able to go on this journey with her.

We need more women role models who are willing to risk and "tell it like it is" especially for younger women. I celebrate her willingness to share it with the rest of us.