/brynglasbooks/an-unknown-woman/ Home of Pantolwen Press and the Bryn Glas Blog Wed, 06 Sep 2023 16:42:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 /brynglasbooks/an-unknown-woman/#comment-13 Wed, 06 Sep 2023 16:42:24 +0000 /brynglasbooks/?p=896#comment-13 I came across this book in the 1980s I think, in a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead. I still have it on my shelf, a small battered US paperback with the original jacket and yellowed pages. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it, but quite a few. It made a huge impression on me, as I now know it has on many others. I think this may be because she does what so many of us should, but never actually do – leave your life behind and spend a long period in quietness and self-reflection. I do remember the author’s feelings about her distant mother, her desire for some kind of success both in her career and in her relationships, and her sense that she could find an ‘answer’ to her problems, and then that in the end, this didn’t matter – she gave up her endless and exhausting self-questioning just to live in the moment. It’s a fine, fine book.

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