After the Stroke
A Journal
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling feminist author’s “lyrical, candid, sensitive” account of her efforts to regain her health, art, and sense of self after a stroke (Publishers Weekly).
Feeling cut off and isolated—from herself most of all—after suffering a stroke at age 73, May Sarton began a journal that helped her along the road to recovery. She wrote every day without fail, even if illness sometimes prevented her from penning more than a few lines.
From her sprawling house off the coast of Maine, Sarton shares the quotidian details of her life in the aftermath of what her doctors identified as a small brain hemorrhage. What they did not tell her was the effect it would have on her life and work. Sarton’s journal is filled with daily accounts of the weather, her garden, beloved pets, and her concerns about losing psychic energy and no longer feeling completely whole. A woman who had always prized her solitude, Sarton experiences feelings of intense loneliness. When overwhelmed by the past, she tries to find comfort in soothing remembrances of her travels, and struggles to learn to live moment by moment. As Sarton begins to regain her strength, she rejoices in the life “recaptured and in all that still lies ahead.”
Interspersed with heartfelt recollections about fellow poets and aspiring writers who see in Sarton a powerful muse, this is a wise and moving memoir about life after illness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The distinguished poet/essayist (The Magnificent Spinster, At Seventy) here presents diary entries from April 1986 through February 1987, written while she was recovering from a life-threatening stroke. Sarton, isolated at the time at her New England home, describes poignantly the long, anxious days of weakness and worrry over the future, fears balanced by accounts of faithful friends who brought her material as well as esthetic comfort. The book also contains the author's recollections of early successes and disappointments in her career as well as regrets for lost loves. A lyrical, candid, sensitive spirit pervades this chronicle, which ends with Sarton well again, rejoicing in the present and putting the past behind her. Photos not seen by PW.