Writer on the Rocks: Moving the Impossible [Paperback]

Linda Tatelbaum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2000

What happens when a writer runs out of words? Linda Tatelbaum's meditation on ambition and despair tracks her ascent from rock bottom, the wordless place. "English has failed me. Body is the only way out. But how do you speak Body?" Linda's best teacher is a fallen stone wall on her Maine homestead. Rebuilding it, she learns how physics magnifies strength, and how language is another way to move things. "The impossible is only a name for what we haven't yet accomplished," she says. Change the definition of failure and loss. Use obstacles as leverage. Take matter into your own hands, and speak Body English.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Linda Tatelbaum knows what happens when the words run out. She has hit "rock bottom" before:

When is a writer not like a rock? When she is lying, inert, on the floor. What you see is, objectively, a body at rest, not unlike the rock except for one thing: her mind, which, doubts. Does a rock think, Will I ever move again?

Rocks get the author to thinking. Her homestead in Maine is littered with them. For a while they don't mean much. Sure, they mark old boundaries and once impeded the progress of a vegetable garden, but not until a man in a pickup tries to make off with a few choice ones does Tatelbaum realize they're worth something. Working with rocks--moving them, using them--becomes her path back to words. In this sense, Writer on the Rocks is a book-length exercise in remembering how to write.

Tatelbaum is a lyrical correspondent from the rock-strewn edges of the American landscape; and while her digressive ruminations on aging, death, and the value of physical work will strike some readers as overly self-conscious, these frank, playful essays should inspire anyone building a stone wall or relearning the leverage of language.

Review

"A celebration of the body and nature, a meditation on loss and redemption. Every line is a lesson in elegance." -- Monica Wood, Novelist

"A lovely, inspiring, galvanizing book." -- Letty Cottin Pogrebin, President, The Authors Guild

"From the darkness of lost hope to the bringing out of this book, Linda Tatelbaum's wonderful story of a writer on the land, and in the community, reaffirms the creative power of human, earth-loving ambition." -- Kate Barnes, Maine Poet Laureate

"Writer on the Rocks" is an impressive collection of metaphorical essays in which the author has deftly woven threads of the past, present and future. From the detritus she uncovered in cleaning an old well--shards of dishware, an old bucket, the blade of a hoe--she pieced together a speculative record of the struggle and broken dreams of those who abandoned the hardscrabble land a century ago. Her struggle through applied physics to move huge slabs of stone scattered about her land to build steps is a metaphor for her struggle to find words and make them into something meaningful. Only one with a profound intellect, a mastery of language and a passion for the land could have written such perceptive and stimulating essays. -- Jack Barnes, Maine Sunday Telegram

In addition to being a genuine homesteader, Linda Tatelbaum is a professor of English. Anyone who reads this book can tell she could also be teaching philosophy. Or writing under names like Linda Emerson or Henry David Tatelbaum. For "Writer on the Rocks" is a series of linked essays, each of them more philosophic than how-to, each as much about life, death, and the spirit as they are about digging wells, moving rocks, and writing. On balance, however, it is the act of writing, setting pen to blank page and then creating something of value, that is the solid trunk supporting a cluster of branches. This is a book of digressions as well as dissertations, a philosopher's view of writer's block, a philosopher with a fine sense of metaphor and metaphysics. "Write about not having anything to say," a friend counsels the author early in this collection of essays. When you read these charming and vehement (yes, both at the same time) transcendental essays, you must wonder if there will ever be a time in her life when Linda Tatelbaum has nothing left to say. --John Cole, Lewiston (ME) Sun Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 117 pages
• Publisher: About Time Press. Appleton, Maine; 1st edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965442837
• ISBN-13: 978-0965442831
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,749,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars inspiring piece of writing, October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Writer on the Rocks: Moving the Impossible (Paperback)

Linda Tatelbaum has a real gift with language- of taking the most mundane tasks of ordinary country life and transforming them into something that provides tremendous meaning and inspiration. The format of the book- much like a college curricula- is both stimulating and progressively enriching. One does not need to be a "homesteader" or "back to the lander" to appreciate the true meaning of "moving rocks"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much heart!, March 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Writer on the Rocks: Moving the Impossible (Paperback)

This is a writer with so much heart! I wouldn't live off the land if you held a gun to my head, yet I was deeply inspired by this woman's life and work. Tatelbaum presents her unusual lifestyle--she's a longtime homesteader--as a metaphor for creativity: both its curses and its pleasures. A wonderful book, especially if you're a writer or painter or musician--someone who knows how hard it is to keep going in the face of rejection.