Learning to Float
The Journey of a Woman, a Dog, and Just Enough Men
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- USD 11.99
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- USD 11.99
Descripción editorial
Lili Wright is a thirty-something woman on the emotional lam. Faced with a choice between two men--Stuart, the steady veterinarian, and Peter, the dreamy writer--she climbs into her car and leaves them both behind.
With only a borrowed dog named Brando for company and a map of twelve states in her pocket, Lili sets out on a road trip, hoping that by setting herself in motion she will find a way to settle down. Charting a course from Cadillac Mountain in Maine to the faded glory of Key West, Florida, she camps out on beaches and crashes on couches, in sketchy motels and even in a cop's trailer. She travels not only south, but also back in time, trying to figure out why previous relationships with a Nantucket waiter, a French tennis clown, a Utah ski bum, and others flared and fizzled.
Along the way, Lili meets a string of unlikely gurus, including a well-worn shrimper, a vegan astrologer, and even a woman who marries herself. These and other unassuming strangers offer offbeat wisdom and guidance as Lili struggles to understand the nature of love, the voodoo of sex, and how couples can settle down without settling for. Between adventures, Lili tackles tough questions: Why does everything love touches turn risky? Does staying with the same person mean staying the same? Where does love come from, and where does it go? By journey’s end, this restless traveler begins to see how she can share her life with just one other person, and how love, like water, can make a body float.
Lili Wright’s engaging memoir from the road updates the tradition of the picaresque traveler’s tale. With unflinching honesty and refreshing wit, she captures the torn emotions, comic misfires, and inevitable trade-offs felt by young people everywhere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like an episode of Sex and the City, Wright's memoir of her solo East Coast trek from Maine to Key West begins with and often revisits her personal romantic history, which includes flings with a wealthy Greenwich banker, a Nantucket waiter, a ski bum, a responsible veterinarian and a "dreamy writer." After ignoring a marriage proposal from a man who moved from Utah to New York City just to be with her, Wright decides that at the age of 33, she needs to "settle down" and make a decision about her future. By the time she reaches the New Jersey shore, she's sent home her marriage-minded man's dog and given up understanding her past relationships. Determined to live in the present and take whatever comes lightly, she drifts southward from town to town, encountering several men who offer her drinks, boat rides, fishing lessons, astrological readings, places to sleep, homespun wisdom and no trouble whatsoever. In Key West, a final epiphany arrives right on cue, revealing that Wright needs to let love happen, to stick with it through the wild waves just offshore to the calm, supportive deep beyond. However, this revelation comes off as a hollow device, as if Wright actually took the road trip only to write about it in her first book after 10 years as a newspaper reporter. While Wright is a deft wordsmith, she fails to deliver the satisfaction of any unusual or penetrating insight into love, relationships or life. (On sale June 11)