Description
Book SynopsisHow do the places we live in and visit shape our lives and memories? What does it mean to reside in different locations across the span of a life? Presenting the portraits of places seen from within, the author contemplates how places create and gather their stories and how, in turn, a sense of place locates the stories of our own lives.
Trade Review"
Across an Inland Sea is a striking collection of essays; each one tingles with immediacy and intimacy. Ranging from Chartres to High Street in Columbus, Ohio, from a boat on the Seine to the Openlands of Oklahoma, the writer discovers what in Kim Kipling called 'the solace of stories.' To the French writing virtues of lucidity and clarity, Howe adds wit and art."
—Paula Fox"
Across an Inland Sea enacts a dialogue between the visible traces that time leaves upon space and the more evanescent ones it engraves on our memories, so that we see each place as a palimpsest of different moments. The elegantly written pieces reinforce each other, giving the book as a whole a cumulative force that makes it larger than the sum of its separate parts."
—Michael Gorra"This book's power and beauty derive from Howe's subtle meditations on time and place, and the precision of his eye in measuring and describing the specific sites in which he finds himself. Howe's stunning achievement is to mingle the commonplace with the exotic and to encourage us to experience his places—and our own—with careful, sensitive attention."
—Willard SpiegelmanTable of ContentsCHAPTER 1: Inland Sea: Buffalo and Beyond 1 CHAPTER 2: The View from the River: Paris 41 CHAPTER 3: Openlands: Oklahoma 73 CHAPTER 4: Pilgrimage Sites: Starting from Chartres 109 CHAPTER 5: The Place of History: Berlin 141 CHAPTER 6: Writing Home: High Street 167 AFTERWORD: Writing in Place 193 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 199 NOTES 203
