“So we die before our own eyes; so we see some chapters of our lives come to their natural end.”

-Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs

Every once in a while I'll take a stab in the dark and read something completely out of my wheelhouse. I came across a beautiful hardcover version of Sarah Orne Jewetts’ The Country of the Pointed Firs in a second hand bookstore. It's an episodic, regionalist novel following a nameless female writer who spends a summer in the quiet Maine coastal town of Dunnet Landing. Seeking solitude, she instead becomes immersed in the lives of the residents.

This book had high praise from one of my favorite writers, Willa Cather. In her introduction to this book she stated “If I were asked to name three American books which have the possibility of a long, long, life, I should say at once: The Scarlett Letter, Huckleberry Finn, and The Country of the Pointed Firs. I can think of no others that confront time and change so serenely.” High praise indeed.

I think it's safe to say this didn't quite have the lasting impact she thought it would, but I still appreciated the elegant prose and its ability to capture a time and place so well. From some of the reviews I've seen most of the younger readers weren't really into it, but older ones could empathize with its introspection on time and mortality. I enjoyed it overall.