Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu : A Woman's Adventurous ...

Amazon.com Review:
Novelist and Northwest native Joyce Thompson (Bones) offers an excellent spiritual memoir, blending the contemporary challenges of middle age into a profound mystical awakening through the Afro-Caribbean religion of Santeria. More than a memoir about finding a religion that works for her, Thompson speaks to a familiar American dilemma—how do we integrate an ancient, native spirituality into modern Western life? Like many contemporary seekers, she was drawn to a spirituality that offered a more loving, empowering and non-judgmental God along with meaningful rituals and teachings. "This theology assumes that you have an essential right to prosper, to be the best and most successful person you're inherently capable of becoming, to live in harmony with your fellows and with the earth itself," she explains. As she grows more devout in Santeria, she must learn how to incorporate her spiritual growth into daily living. In her case, Thompson is a divorced, single mother, caring for a disabled mother with Alzheimer's, while trying to pursue a romance with a newfound soul mate (and then attempting to integrate their children into this blessed out union). One of the basic tenets of this fascinating religion (which began as the traditional spirituality of the Yoruba people in West Africa and eventually expanded into the Caribbean through the slave trade) is to revere and respect one's ancestors. So on top of everything else, Thompson must also forge a more loving and respectful relationship with her ancestors. In doing so, she faces her family legacy—including the crippling alcoholism of her father (a widely respect judge) and the emotional coldness of her mother, who was once a stunning and accomplished lawyer. As we read this expertly rendered story about a woman's reckoning with her past and reawakening to her future, we feel privileged to enter into this fascinating religion and this tenderly beautiful life. --Gail Hudson.

This book is a gift.:
This wonderful book overtook my life for 3 days as I savored each short, wise chapter. I was sorry when I reached the last page. A book about love, death, spirit, it is equally a funny down-to-earth account of a woman's everyday struggles with career, family and what to wear. Here's the bonus...Thompson's wordcraft is masterful. Her lovely meditation on the simple dance of a falling leaf is as lyrical as the passages about her working days at Microsoft are richly drawn. If you have an aged, impaired parent, you will find in Thompson a wise and witty guide on how to maneuver the tough, too-real moments. There is heartbreak here but also a sense of honor in helping a loved one transition into death. The vignette when she steals away from her abusive husband with her young children is told mostly though dialogue between her and her unsuspecting 6 year old daughter. A lovely and harrowing account where the mother protects the child but never quite tells a lie. Thompson's memoir challenges readers to find their own stories. The real treasure is her writing, an astonishing gift. If you're a fan of words, welcome to your new favorite writer, Joyce Thompson.

Something For Everyone?:
This is a difficult book to catagorize. Do you wish the enjoyment of graceful prose by an author at the top of her game? Would you follow the highlights of a life story as memory works, with short chapters based on recurring themes but no straightforward timeline--interweaving people, events, family history, spiritual quest, finding a soul mate in middle age and making it work, raising children alone? There are poems written from the point of view of the author's aging mother (and they are good poems, a poet's poems, not the usual chopped prose of a fiction writer). There is humor in situations which were extremely difficult to live through. There is joy in introspection. There is personal growth after the achievement of success as a writer, sought after by movie producers. One might give this book to a friend for inspiration. One might accept the gently proffered challenges to try a different approach to attaining goals in life, and even rethink which goals really matter. Something for everyone? Perhaps.

Great book for book club discussion:
My book club read this book and we had the one of our most lively and interesting discussions. Joyce Thompson's candid story of dealing with her mother's mental decline and her family's history was both moving and funny. Thompson is a great storyteller. I didn't want the book to end. I wanted more details and more stories about her mother and father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, her children and husband. They all seemed to come alive as she tries to make sense of half told family lore. Thompson's neither sanctimonious nor condescending when she writes about the difficult journey she made with her mother. It's a great read.

An Honest Look at Spirituality and Alzheimer's:
Sailing is a fairly rare thing: an honest book about living a spiritual life. It talks about how one writer entered Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion, without losing her skeptical eye, integrating a 21st-century woman's rationalism with a willingness to believe. Not many books show someone actually doing the work of embracing a personal spirituality--doubting, moving one step forward and two steps back, but moving. This is one of those books. Sailing is also about remaking the mother-daughter bond, caring for a mother losing her short-term memory as she moves toward death. By now, you may be saying, "I get it. The woman found God, and God helped her deal with Mom." But spirituality didn't always help. Thompson's mother tried as hard as she could to push her daughter away, and Alzheimer's isn't pretty--one of Thompson's most rousing successes comes when she finally gives Stinky Mom a shower, a production that should make you laugh if you're not dead. Facing your mother's old age takes a sense of humor. Looking back on her ancestors, as Santeria practitioners do, Thompson tells of the family that formed her mother, and braids in her love story with her husband. Thompson as a novelist has always been a superb stylist, and the voice as much as the story kept me reading through the night. When you marry her voice to this true and unusual tale, you get a book I can't recommend highly enough.

A gem.:
I finished this book at 12:30 in the morning on January 2, and can think of no finer way to ease out of one year and greet the next. It's a brave and tender page turner and I could not put it down.