Customer Reviews

Running to the Mountain: A Midlife Adventure

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Running to the Mountain is your basic mid-life crisis story except that Jon Katz -- for all his protestations of financial woes -- managed to afford to do what the rest of us would love to do: buy a little cabin in the woods, fix 'er up, and live the country life, watching the sun set. Sounds wonderful to me and more power to Katz for managing it.

The heart and soul of the book was lacking for me. It wasn't emotional enough. He outlined his concerns regarding his career, marriage and daughter, the changes in the lives of his friends, the lack of acceptance in our society for men who work at home while the wife does the nine-to-five dance, but he laid them out as simple facts. The emotional turmoil and confusion associated with mid-life re-evaluations (I'm in denial about having a "crisis") is not there.

His relationships with the locals was interesting and his observations of Thomas Merton and his writings were excellent.

For all of us who dream of escape, here's one for us! Just fill in the emotional blanks to suit yourself.

Perhaps it helps to be a "fifty-something" person, for by this time in one's life you start to seriously evaluate where you want to go in the (shortening) time left, and one of the ways you do this is to sift through your life's adventures so far. Jon Katz heeds a "call" to get away (not so much from "urban life" as from the "routine" of life). While each person must find his or her own way (and some are admittedly far more adept at others at gaining meaningful perspective throughout their lives), what Jon Katz did resonated with me. It really is important to take some "time out", to give yourself a chance to see yourself anew, to remember/recall the dreams you once had and to wonder why you have achieved some, failed at others, and given up on still others. Connecting with nature is another reminder, too, that we are all inter-connected (this perspective seems particularly acute when one is both young and old, but harder to maintain in one's "middle years" when scrabbling for career paths and building a family take up so much time). This book lets us share Mr. Katz's adventure and, in so doing, gives us encouragement to do something similar in our own manner. It IS good to remember that we really are on a sacred journey. It is never too late to readjust the course.

I first read A Dog Year (because I have a Border Collie too) and really enjoyed Jon Katz style....so I ordered Running to the Mountain not knowing what to expect. I was more than entertained, enlightened and even "introspected" (if that's a word). I just wish I had read it first, before A Dog Year, as I would have appreciated all the references and time spent at the cabin with the dogs. Can't wait to read his latest.

With a fine sense of humor, Jon Katz reveals his most innermost feelings when he explores the purchase of a crumbling, dilapidated mountain top cabin in upstate New York. Jon, an author, is not a talented handy man around the home. It appears he can barely screw in a light bulb, not to mention his weak skills balancing a check book. Obviously catered and emotionally indulged by his wife, it is a strong reflection of his love for her that he takes on the job of becoming not only responsible financially, but challenging and accomplishing simple things like scrubbing a toilet and cooking dinner. Later, he takes on tougher skills of gardening and basic home maintainance.

His emotional torture is the realization that the couple can barely afford the luxury (?) of a second home, especially one with significant needs. His prolonged assault of ponderous concerns weigh heavily on him as he goes through the decision of actual purchase and facing the extensive renovations ahead of him. He perceives the purchase as an escape for which he can write his novels, articles and self-exploratory memoirs yet the sacrifice he is inflicting on his wife and daughter disturbs his decision making processes. But his love for the home and the mountain lure him and with excessive reflection of his motives and writings of Thomas Merton, he bites the bullet and signs on the doted line.

Central to his development are his extraordinary blond labradors and their day to day activities. A black lab owner myself, I found this the most charming aspect of his life style. There is something so deeply penetrating in one's love for their dog, and it was quite palpable in the experiences they shared together. Special kudos to his patient and loving wife, Paula who understood when to let go and trust in her man. Their daughter, Emma, friends Jeff and Michele, and the incredible townsfolk round out a very lovely story of growth and achievement. Jon's writing skills truly made me feel as if I too, was sitting in his front yard, sipping scotch and watching the mountains looming in the distance. He just may tug of few of you out of your hum drums, and provoke you as well to purchase your little cabin in the mountains.

I first encountered Jon Katz through his mystery novels about a downsized Wall Street type turned suburban private investigator. I liked his stuff. Then, I discovered the Jon Katz who writes on internet and freedom issues for slashdot.org and the Freedom Forum. I like him even more.

Then I read his latest book, Running to the Mountain. It's about aging and spirituality written around his purchase of a cabin in upstate New York and an attempt to write a book on Thomas Merton while there.

Books on these topics are often more preachy than insightful. Running to the Mountain isn't preachy at all. In fact, it's hysterically funny in places. In between the laughs, it got me to think more than I have in years about parenting and other relationships, where I'm going with the last third of my career, and, of course, the last half of my life.

It is by far the best book I've ever read on spirituality and personal growth and is a must for all us aging boomers.

I really enjoyed this book! I read it in less than 24 hours---so obviously it held my attention. I think some of the Amazon reviewers are a bit too hard on Katz. His experience is his experience after all---and who are we to judge if he is too "urban" or if he still doesn't understand what the rural experience is all about. While I do understand that as a writer Katz is always looking for another book topic---I think he found one here that was worthy of his great writing style. He's a self-deprecating guy who is easy to like. He allowed us, his readers, to enter his world and enjoy ourselves. That's a feat in itself. I say---keep writing memoirs Jon---you have a lot to offer.

Mr. Katz's book is well written, amusing, entertaining, and occasionally even thought-provoking, but let's be honest- it is also prosaic, pedestrian; hardly a genuine journey toward discovering secular spirituality based on rural hardship, privation, and isolation it raises expectations it will be through association with Merton's cache.

Yet armed with armfuls of Merton material, an IBM powerbook, a cellular phone, 100 channels of media noise, and some old Glenlivet, he makes the astounding discovery that rural life lacks the luxuries, conveniences, and the kind of instant gratification of life he has come to expect in that suffocating suburban stalag he's sentenced in by living in New Jersey. Hey, where's the nearest Starbucks, anyway, buddy?

Hey, Jon, that's why country folk have been fleeing to the city for hundreds of years, to see them bright city lights! One afternoon lightning strikes a tree near his house and his neighbor has to call him on the phone to warn him to go inside! Wow! What an adventure. Wow! What a putz! A strong winter wind blows and shakes the house and he suddenly discovers the "MEANING" of his own spirituality. Mother of pearl, give us pause! Give me a break.

Please don't misunderstand me- I liked the book for what it is. But, while the book is eminently worth reading, it confuses mere frustration with painful privation, annoyance with adventure, and upper middle class financial juggling with fateful personal economic disaster.

It is all too typical of today's confusion among urban dwellers. Living in the land of hyperbole, they can no longer tell the difference between superficial experiences and the genuine article. Thus, they think annoyance is some kind of spiritual tribulation, and that everything they experience or think or wonder about on the way to the grocery market is philosophical grist for the world's attention. Does the phrase pampered self-absorption strike anyone as relevant here? Most simply put, this is just another urban book, written by another clever urban author full of what sometime seem to be arrogant urban assumptions, someone who is just beginning his journey toward any real country consciousness.

Placing this slim and silly volume alongside real rural adventures like "Edges of the Earth", or "Living the Good Life' makes this painfully obvious. Too bad Jon didn't do some research before writing about his journey to the center of the void. He is a skilled and talented writer, and I enjoyed his tall tale. One gets the sense there is a warm and emotionally valuable human being writing in there.

Yet one finishes the book hoping other urbanites don't mistake this loosely threaded-together 'adventure' as a Thoreau-like return to nature (although both Jon and Henry David did return home whenever things got a little rough in the woods). Rural life is much more complicated and requires a passle more of self-reliance and endurance than is evidenced here. Most of us living in the country cannot simply "buy" our way out of our difficulties the way Mr. Katz describes.

The real shortcoming of the book stems from a shortcoming Mr. Katz cannot avoid; his own urban-based consciousness. Sadly, though, the danger here is that he is speaking to an audience even more ignorant and inured to hyperbole than he is, who is likely to honestly believe that what he describes is some kind of meaningful adventure instead of just an impromptu afternoon playing with his ducky in the neighbor's above-ground pool. Mr Katz no more experienced the wilderness by his commando raids into upstate New York than I experienced the spirit of Paris with a two hour layover in Orly airport a couple of years ago. Some things can't be rushed or experienced on the fly.

After fifteen years spent living on the cusp between the urban and rural worlds and learning the lessons of how to live a rural lifestyle, I understand it takes years to drown out one's need for constant, anxious busyness and goal-orientation that one carries around as a result of lonmg-term immersion in an urban environment. Mr. Katz just doen't allow enough time to lose all the noise before whipping out his power book to describe the life and times abroad in the wild wilderness. Natty Bumpo, stand aside. No time to waste. Print out the manuscript and mail it off to meet the schedule. Rural life should be so easy to understand and capture...

Buy the book, by all means. Read it. But don't mistake it for anything like a return to nature or an effort to seriously get back to the kind of spiritual simplicity a meaningful rural life requires. It's just an inside joke, like the New Yorkers that come up here looking for true wilderness and not understanding why it isn't right off the freeway. Straight Ahead! Wilderness and the scary dark woods! Button up your woolies. Natty Bumpo has arrived. Hope you continue to season in your country skills, as well, Jon. Glad you survived your first year or so, and good luck in your further adventures. Anyone reading your book will agree you've got a lot of heart, and a lot of gumption. Just not much country sense.

Ready to escape from his world -- Manhattan and a well-paid dream job that "lots of people would covet," Katz first escaped to the life of a writer. Approaching fifty, he now finds a house in "a small corner of upstate New York," where he retreats to write and cogitate for several months. Accompanying him are a dead monk and two dogs, as he says. The monk is Thomas Merton, whose presence begins to seem real as Katz carves out a contemporary version of a hermitage.

I found some of the soul-searching a little embarrassing to read. This author, a product of years of psychoanalysis, has no qualms about sharing his thoughts. However, the reflections on midlife are right on. Katz's doubts (yet another comeback?) are real and realistic. Read his thoughts on the "lonely generation:" with no guidance from parents or ancestors, we have to face change.

Worth a read as a role model for those who feel the call of the mountains.

When I was about 100 pages into this book, the thought struck me. All the almost all "getting away, discovering true self" books are all written by men. The women stay behind, keeping the home fires burning and the bills paid. I enjoyed this book once I got over the inequity of the whole "getting away" situation. Jon Katz has a gift for capturing the emotions of everyday struggle, complete with the absurdities of many of the things we do. His tale of discovering the ramshackle cabin and reclaiming it from the mice and encroaching forests brings a smile to anyone who has lived in a "fixer upper". He eventually blends into the local culture and weaves the people who inhabit the town into the book. It does tend to get a bit bogged down with Thomas Merton references (I am not a huge fan). When Katz deals with the reclamation of the cabin and the people who populate his world, he is at his best

I enjoyed this book very much. There are a lot of "searching my soul, what do I want to be when I grow up, mid-life crises" books out there in the market but this one is definitely worth reading.
I just finished "A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me" by Katz, so the story had even more meaning from a historical perspective. Katz makes you think about what is important in live as well as business.