Long Quiet Highway [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] (Audio Cassette)

~ Natalie Goldberg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This tape chronicles Goldberg's life--from her middle-class Jewish roots on Long Island to her early days as a writing teacher to her 12-year relationship with Zen master Katagiri Roshi. After finishing college, Goldberg moved to the Southwest, where she began to write, teach and search for some spiritual connection outside of Judaism. She ended up marrying her college boyfriend and moving to his hometown, Minneapolis. Although the marriage didn't last, Goldberg began her Zen studies there with the legendary roshi. Katagiri's impact on Goldberg and her writing is so significant that even many years after his death, she finds it difficult to believe that he's no longer living. With her distinctive nasal "New Yawk" accent, Goldberg ambles from her childhood to her days as an inexperienced teacher overwhelmed by her students to her demanding studies at the Zen Center. Because this is such an intimate story, Goldberg's narration seems particularly emotional and heartfelt. However, listeners who aren't interested in Zen or those unfamiliar with Goldberg's writings may grow weary during this meandering audio book. Based on the 1993 BDD hardcover. (Apr.)

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Long Quiet Highway Natalie Goldberg

From bestselling author Natalie Goldberg, here is the story of her life as a spiritual seeker struggling to "free the writer within." Threaded with the story of Goldberg’s 12-year relationship with legendary Zen master Katagiri Roshi, Long Quiet Highway illustrates the challenges – and rewards – that unfold when a Western student seeks a teacher of Eastern wisdom. Observant and relentlessly honest, Long Quiet Highway is a reflection of the people, places, and experiences that helped Natalie Goldberg discover the transformational power of writing and the truth of the spiritual life. Original author adaption of the book with commentary and exclusive interview.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Sounds True, Incorporated; Unabridged edition (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564557081
• ISBN-13: 978-1564557087
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,950,366 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Travels with Natalie, July 20, 2006

By	C. Maples "Writer" (Sidney, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At first it looks like nothing--simple prose--simple stories--a simple, straightforward, non-dramatic reading. The pure, direct simplicity of Goldberg's prose makes her writing seem effortless, almost unintentional. The text is nearly transparent, as though the reader were listening to Goldberg's mind in all the fresh, unstudied, immediacy of first thoughts. But, any writer learns very quickly that nothing is more difficult than simplicity, and anyone who's ever attempted a memoir discovers that Goldberg's unembellished, naked honesty is almost as impossible to attain as enlightenment.

Long Quiet Highway, like a Zen garden, is an open gate to quiet reflection on the journey of becoming, on the pain and pleasure of striving to be human, on the way that death both pierces and gives meaning to our existence. Goldberg's meditation upon her own spiritual journey, upon the essential loneliness of all such journeys, and upon her own passage through grief is read on these tapes in the simple, unpretentious voice of an old friend calling long distance, just to talk. And, her conversation is the late night talk at the heart of our deepest friendships--the one about how we come to terms with the impermanence and loss in our lives, how we learn to survive change and grief, and how we may yet turn this survival into something very akin to joy.

I listen on the interstate as I drive the half hour to and from my work teaching writing at a local college. I rewind. I listen again. I slow down inside and remember the real journey. And, I'm glad to have Natalie, with her flat Long Island accent and her "simple" stories, along for the trip.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eclipses the Book, June 3, 2000

By	Cam Ostrin (Venice, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Natalie Goldberg's reading of her book Long Quiet Highway truly enhanced the amazing content of her work. Her wonderful New York accent, complete with its dry wit, wonderfully transformed the recollections of her search for true direction in her life through both her writing and her Zen Buddhist practice.

The motion and rhythm of her voice as she describes the depths of her great love for her teacher makes for both warmth and a riveting story. Her travels take her from the suburbs of New York to New Mexico and beyond. The greatest of her travels, of course, proves to be the journey into herself as she continues her challenging Zen practice.

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting thoughts but distracting voice!, June 9, 2009

By	DJ O'Haley "Seeker" (Oregon) - See all my reviews

Although I agree with many of the already presented reviews, I must say, Natalie's voice was quite a distraction from the content of the book. Her nasal, New York accent was so strong, I was tempted multiple times to just go away from the book. However, I am glad I did not as there are many things to be learned from her ideas to her life experiences.

Still, I would have preferred to have had a trained professional's voice read the book. Natalie's voice was so flat and sounded so bored! This certainly took away from the book.