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Running to the Mountain: A Midlife Adventure

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Running to the Mountain: A Midlife Adventure

By: Jon Katz  

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Lowest New Price: $5.82
List Price: $13.95

Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Description:
Jon Katz, a respected journalist, father, and husband, was turning fifty. His writing career had taken a dubious turn, his wife had a demanding career of her own, his daughter was preparing to leave home for college, and he had become used to a sedentary lifestyle. Wonderfully witty and insightful, Running to the Mountain chronicles Katz's hunger for change and his search for renewed purpose and meaning in his familiar world.

Armed with the writings of Thomas Merton and his two faithful Labradors, Katz trades in his suburban carpool-driving and escapes to the mountains of upstate New York. There, as he restores a dilapidated cabin, learns self-reliance in a lightning storm, shares a bottle of Glenlivet with unexpected ghosts, and helps a friend prepare for fatherhood, he confronts his lifelong questions about spirituality, mortality, and his own self-worth. He ultimately rediscovers a profound appreciation for his work, his family, and the beauty of everyday life--and provides a glorious lesson for us all.


Description:
Jon Katz couldn't afford a country house--his wife didn't want him to buy it; his career looked like it was going off track; and his daughter was about to leave home for college. But when he saw the view from a decrepit little cabin in the mountains, near Cambridge, New York, he knew he had to have the place. So, against all rational impulses, he bought the cabin and used it as a summer retreat. He read Thomas Merton, helped his best friend prepare to be a father, deepened his relationship with his dog, and wrote a book about the spiritual wisdom that came to him in everyday life. Running to the Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Change includes some particularly elegant and urgent readings of Merton, whose central concerns Katz summarizes as well as anyone has:
Merton was obsessed with a central issue for our time--figuring out how to live, trying to forge a life of balance, purpose and meaning. I've grown to share his obsession, his belief that life demands a lot of tinkering, and requires people to give birth to themselves not just once, but over and over.
--Michael Joseph Gross

Publisher: Broadway

Release Date: 2000-03-01

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Running to the Mountain - This is a thoughtful, intelligently written book which describes, in often comedic detail, one man's personal search for balance between spirituality & creative fulfillment, a thirst for solitude and need for the human touch within the confines of personal responsibility and accountability.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great Read - My 28 year old niece read this book, liked it , and bought me one to read. I'm 62 and I liked it a lot. So...I guess it appeals to all ages.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Worth Your Time - I read this book some time ago, I believe after hearing the author interviewed on the radio. Having dealt with my father's recent passing, and now that I'm approaching forty myself, the book means a lot more to me now than it did upon first reading. Other reviewers have criticized Katz as being whiny-who among us wouldn't want to be living the high life as a TV producer? Who among us wouldn't want to buy a rural getaway and leave the soccer games and grocery store trips to our spouse? All that is true, and, as Katz would probably admit, fair.

But the book is more than that-Katz pretty frankly admits that, according to nearly anyone's standards, he's got it made. But life is lived subjectively-and each of us has to find our own truth-our own equilibrium point to allow us to go on living. This is a beautiful book, (even if the references to a dial up modem seem dusty at this point, only 10 years or so after writing) and well worth your time, if you're struggling to keep your head above water.

Customer Review: 1 out of 5
Garbage and dishonest writing - This author is becoming well known for his dishonest and insincere tugging at the heart strings of dog owners and dog book buyers. Don't buy it and don't read it. The way I see it, he owes me a refund.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
I really enjoyed this book - I really enjoyed this book! I read it in less than 24 hours---so obviously it held my attention. I think some of the Amazon reviewers are a bit too hard on Katz. His experience is his experience after all---and who are we to judge if he is too "urban" or if he still doesn't understand what the rural experience is all about. While I do understand that as a writer Katz is always looking for another book topic---I think he found one here that was worthy of his great writing style. He's a self-deprecating guy who is easy to like. He allowed us, his readers, to enter his world and enjoy ourselves. That's a feat in itself. I say---keep writing memoirs Jon---you have a lot to offer.

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