By Monomoy Light: Nature and Healing in an Island Sanctuary [Hardcover]

North T. Cairn (Author), John Hay (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2000

In this beautifully written book, North T. Cairn reflects on her three extended summer stays on Monomoy, an island wildlife sanctuary. Residing alone in an abandoned lighthouse-keeper's cottage, she lived simply in the wilderness, studying the diverse habitats of the refuge and its creatures.

Cairn recalls her sojourns on Monomoy, seamlessly blending memoir with natural and social history to trace the transformations that come from encounters with nature and its inhabitants. Her evocative observations of the barrier island paradise-sea and sand, light, flora, migrating birds, white-tailed deer, gray and harbor seals-echo larger, transcendent issues of life in a changing world. For Cairn, the outer world of nature also becomes a metaphor for the inner world of reflection, new discoveries, and healing, particularly of her own childhood trauma and long estrangement from family.

By Monomoy Light will reawaken the reader to the necessities of rest and peace; of space apart for meditative listening and quiet; of the imperative to preserve the character of the wilderness, wherever it may be found.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cairn, a nature columnist for the Cape Cod Times, spent part of three summers (1993-1995) on Monomoy Island, a wildlife refuge off the coast of Cape Cod. Living in an abandoned lighthouse-keeper's cottage, she took the full measure of this federally designated wilderness area, regular stopover point for migrating birds, home to deer, seals, voles, snakes. She also healed herself emotionally and spiritually, she says, through immersion in nature, but in this beautifully written account she gives only sporadic, tantalizing glimpses of her inner life. We learn that she was born Martha Mulder and changed her name to sever her ties with the past; that her estranged father, a well-to-do Chicago lawyer, was authoritarian (the book opens in 1993 with her visit to his deathbed). She alludes briefly to childhood incest that left deep psychological scars. On Monomoy, healing and self-transcendence arise as she communes intensely with creatures eking out a living in the sand, sun, tides and rain. This produces shimmering, exquisite prose that offers a lyric meditation on what it means to be human and our place in nature, but is a lot less satisfying as a record of personal transformation. Seamlessly fusing ecology, history, archeology and naturalist observation, Cairn examines Monomoyick Indians' early contacts with European explorers and settlers; conjures up now vanished Whitewash Village, a once thriving 19th-century fishing port on the island; recounts shipwrecks and heroic rescues; and explores myths, lore and legends surrounding animals. She also evenhandedly reviews the simmering controversy pitting environmentalists and local residents against federal wildlife officials who exterminated aggressive gulls and coyotes in an effort to preserve species biodiversity. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The author is a journalist specializing in nature and writes a prize-winning weekly nature column for the Cape Cod Times, where parts of this book were published originally. After a heartrending introduction, she reflects on her summer stays on Monomoy Island, a wildlife sanctuary off the coast of Cape Cod. Cairn effectively describes the effect of the island on her inner self. "I did not foresee what Monomoy was to become in my life: the site and the occasion for an indisputable, interior continental drift which would shear away so much of the past, so imperceptibly at first, and leave behind the moveable sands of deep and lasting change." Cairn's objective coverage of the controversial U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service management (i.e., poisoning) of the gull population and descriptions of other island wildlife provide a very personal, internal look at nature. Highly recommended for all general collections.
-Mary J. Nickum, Lakewood, CO
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Northeastern (April 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555534481
• ISBN-13: 978-1555534486
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,479,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lighthouse living, examined, June 16, 2004

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Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By Monomoy Light: Nature and Healing in an Island Sanctuary (Hardcover)

"[P]eople on the move are always fleeing a fate that no longer suits them for the unknown territory of change and fresh starts."And so Chicago native Martha Ruth Mulder reinvented herself as North Tavis Cairn, a journalist who had an opportunity to live alone for several months on Monomoy Island.

Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area lying at the southeastern knuckle of Cape Cod's beckoning finger. Once it was a peninsula inhabited in the past by Indians and then later by summer tourists. Over time, Nature and conservationists intervened. A powerful Nor'easter caused a separation with the mainland in 1958; twenty years later, a blizzard broke that island in half. Now that the Monomoy area is part of the Refuge system, its human visitors are most often only birders, fishermen, and scientists.

Cairn's essay-like chapters reveal Monomoy's history and its unique flora and fauna, told with the pen of the intimate insider. While she confesses that the island provides a much-needed solace in which she can process events from her troubled past, she thoughtfully neglects to share her entire backstory with the reader. We know that part of her residency was for spiritual reasons, and she doesn't overwhelm us with more details than we need to know. We all have baggage; it's enough to know that Cairn was lucky enough to find a place where she can deal with her own. Her descriptive prose may get you thinking about visiting Monomoy yourself someday. At the very least, you'll look at gulls a little differently from now on.