Unconventional Means [Paperback]

Anne Richardson Williams (Author), Lorraine Mafi-Williams (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1597190012 | ISBN-13: 978-1597190015 | Publication Date: June 1, 2005 | Edition: REV and Updated

Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under is a combination of memoir and personal adventure in which the lives of an upper-middle-class artist from Nashville, TN and an Aboriginal Australian elder intersect. Contains traditional Aboriginal stories and artwork by the author. Sixteen-year-old Anne Williams, shattered by a family tragedy, tries to cope through art and reading. She eventually finds solace in Nevil Shute's novel A Town Like Alice. His heroine's journey through the tribulations of war to find love and a new home modeled after the town of Alice Springs, Australia gives teenage Anne hope "that there is something on the other side of the terrible things" for her, too. Someday, she promises herself, she will go to Australia and to Alice Springs. Decades later, Anne's call to Australia deepens. Now an artist and successful businesswoman, she is reading a book about the continent's Aboriginal people when a photograph of Aborginal elder Lorraine Mafi-Williams mesmerizes her. She feels an immediate kinship, even though others find it ridiculous that this upper-middle-class Southern white woman and an Aboriginal elder could share more than a common last name. When Anne finally sets out for Australia, she adds to her desire to see Alice Springs the dream of also meeting Lorraine. But with no address, no phone number, no conventional way to get in touch with an Aboriginal woman, Anne must rely on unconventional means -- dreams, visions, meditation and intuition -- to guide her halfway around the world to find the woman whose ancient tales of a land and its people will help to heal her.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a unique and moving work....a singularly unforgettable read. (Review of the 2000 In Circle Press first edition.) -- Midwest Book Review

...an intelligent, lyrical and inspirational tale...the true story of her pilgrimage is beautifully and directly told... -- Steven McFadden, author, Legends of the Rainbow Warriors

She has entered the magical universe....a travel adventure in the life of the mind. -- Michael White, editor of Safe in Heaven Dead: INterviews with Jack Kerouac & Light of the Three Jewels by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche (Amazon review of the first edition)

From the Publisher

The essence of Unconventional Means is captured by its front cover. Ayers Rock, Australia's most famous natural landmark, is superimposed on a middle Tennessee landscape like a portal from Music City to the Land Down Under.

It's a surrealistic image, befitting the true story of a woman whose dreams, visions, meditations and intuition drew her halfway around the world and across a continent to find the Aboriginal woman whose ancient stories of a land and its people would help heal her.

Artist Anne Richardson Williams originally published Unconventional Means in 2000 through her own In Circle Press. Pearlsong Press is publishing a revised and updated second edition in June 2005. The new edition contains additional illustrations, a glossary, and an update on events occuring since the first edition was released.

At the encouragement of Pearlsong Press publisher & editor Peggy Elam, Williams also added to the second edition text bridging the first section's account of her teenage attempts to cope with family tragedy through art and reading, eventually finding solace in a novel set in Australia, and her call to Australia decades later as she approached her 50th birthday.

Midwest Book Review called the first edition "a unique and moving work...a singularly unforgettable read." The second edition magnifies that promise.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Pearlsong Press; REV and Updated edition (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597190012
• ISBN-13: 978-1597190015
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,359,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful word picture by a true artist., September 6, 2007

By 

Linda C. Wisniewski (Bucks County, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unconventional Means (Paperback)

When you were a little girl, did you ever dream of traveling to a place you read about in a book? Anne Richardson Williams did exactly that. When she was sixteen, she read A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. She was grieving her father's suicide at the time and books were her refuge. She wrote in her diary that one day she would like to visit Alice Springs, Australia, the town where the novel takes place.

Twenty-six years later, in 1989, she found her old journal and contemplated her girlish dream, as yet unrealized. By then, Williams had been an artist and a successful businesswoman. After her divorce, she began to explore her spirituality and to meditate. One day she saw a calendar picture of Ayers Rock in the Australian desert and discovered "the closest town of any size, across two hundred miles of desert, is Alice Springs." This is just the first of many serendipitous and mysterious events that bring Williams on her journey. While reading Steven McFadden's Ancient Voices Current Affairs: The Legend of the Rainbow Warriors, she sees a photography of Lorraine Mafi-Williams, an Aboriginal elder, and believes she looks like her; she feels her a sister, even with the same last name, and decides to meet the woman. And that's where the book takes us down a path quite different from the typical woman's "journey."
Everything that leads this author to Lorraine is "unconventional." A fortune teller predicts she will cross a lot of water, meet a woman and everything in her life will change. In meditation, she "sees" Lorraine. In a book on Aboriginal mythology, she finds a clue to where Lorraine lives. A class she was to teach is cancelled; she receives an inheritance around the same time, and uses it to travel to Alice Springs.
Like many a female "seeker," friends and family are aghast at her daring. "You're going by yourself?"
"Have I lost my mind?" Williams questions herself.
Finally, in January 1997, she arrives in Adelaide, where a beautiful rainbow greets her. But on her second day there, her friend falls asleep at the wheel and the car flips. Miraculously no one is hurt. "I left behind ... any illusions that this will be a normal vacation," Williams writes. "...I am ready to follow my nose across Australia."
For anyone who is curious about Australia, this easy-to-read travel journal will be a treat. The author paints with her words a fascinating country, one most will never see. Her vision is interwoven with metaphysical beliefs and tales of ancient people, and she is more open than most to the "coincidences" of life. Animals, dreams, people, images all have meaning and messages that apply to her quest.
Alice Springs turns out to be a curious juxtaposition of two worlds: the Aboriginal community of Mparntwe, a sacred gathering place and "The Alice," a modern town "with a thriving bar scene...and a handful of tourist attractions." The two do not blend, says Williams. "Mounded desert sites ...butt up against grocery store parking lots...The sacred groves of Red River Gums, which manage to look peaceful and sun-dappled, are completely hemmed in by a pair of roads and a constant stream of traffic."
The book is written in journal form with dated entries for chapter headings. After she meets Lorraine, the woman takes her to sacred places. In this part of the book, the stories are told from Lorraine's point of view, adding an interesting contrast. Lorraine's section is filled with fascinating stories of spirit guides and descriptions of peaceful scenery and at the end, I was surprised to find their time together spanned only a week.
The author includes a bibliography and glossary of terms for those who want to investigate further this intriguing place and "unconventional means" of following one's spiritual path.
(Previously published at www.storycircle.org.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, Entertaining, Unforgettable, December 30, 2005

By 

Pat Ballard "Queen of Rubenesque Romance Novels" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unconventional Means (Paperback)

Unconventional Means - The Dream Down Under, is one of those books that stays with you for days after you've read it. It is a hauntingly beautiful story of a woman, the author, who literally allows her dreams - real dreams, not the "I have a dream" kind, to lead her on a self-healing journey that is unforgettable.

I don't usually read this type of book, but Unconventional Means came highly recommended, so I started reading it. I was immediately pulled into this story and couldn't put it down. But more than that, it stayed with me for days, and I still think about it as I go through my day, sometimes.

I recommend this book to everyone. Unconventional Means proves again that truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!, December 2, 2005

By 

Ellen Frankel (Marblehead, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unconventional Means (Paperback)

Anne Richardson Williams crafts a beautiful memoir and invites the reader to accompany her as she embarks upon an extraordinary journey that takes her both to Australia and her own inner knowing. In her quest to meet Lorraine Mafia-Williams, an Aboriginal Elder with whom she's never met yet feels a deep connection, Anne Williams relies on her heart and her inner wisdom as a guiding compass and is rewarded with finding not only the Australian woman she seeks and the stories she carries, but also with a fuller sense of coming home to herself. A wonderful and inspiring story!