Rating: 
Summary: Living a dream
Review: Running to the Mountain is your basic mid-life crisis story except that Jon Katz -- for all his protestations of financial woes -- managed to afford to do what the rest of us would love to do: buy a little cabin in the woods, fix 'er up, and live the country life, watching the sun set. Sounds wonderful to me and more power to Katz for managing it.The heart and soul of the book was lacking for me. It wasn't emotional enough. He outlined his concerns regarding his career, marriage and daughter, the changes in the lives of his friends, the lack of acceptance in our society for men who work at home while the wife does the nine-to-five dance, but he laid them out as simple facts. The emotional turmoil and confusion associated with mid-life re-evaluations (I'm in denial about having a "crisis") is not there. His relationships with the locals was interesting and his observations of Thomas Merton and his writings were excellent. For all of us who dream of escape, here's one for us! Just fill in the emotional blanks to suit yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Merton in the Mountains
Review: A warmly written work about a man's search for meaning (with apologies to Frankl) after he discovers an emptiness of soul at the top of the corporate/media mountain. I almost never read books that are given to me unsolicited. So when my mother handed me this tale and asked me to read it I inwardly sniggered that I'd first have to read the 40+ books on my To Read shelves. One night I thought I'd try it on for size and wound up finishing it the next afternoon. Katz writes and details backwoods New England in an engaging manner reminiscent of Stephen King. The first half of the tale is the best, noting the landscape, the people and the trials of moving into a slipshod rat trap of a cabin he can ill afford. I enjoyed the nature scenes and was reminded a little of A Walk in the Woods. Sadly, the purpose of the book, the contrast of his soul-searching with that of his hero Thomas Merton is the weakest part of the book and the least developed. Additionally, Katz's relation with his wife is not well illustrated and left me scratching my head at his frequent, but amicable, separations from her; retreating to the mountains. She didn't seem to mind his departures, dispite her having to tend to their daughter alone, a teenager recovering from major surgery. The central message is that one does not need to isolate oneself from the world to find inner peace and/or to "know oneself" (as Merton did). Indeed, it's possible to find oneself in the reflective actions and words of friends and family. It is our relation to the world that defines us and not our individual "seperateness" from it. A pleasant read.
Rating: 
Summary: Run away to the mountain...What? There's no computer or TV!
Review: I did not enjoy this book much. After watching the author explain his sabitical, I ran for my computer to get the book ordered. A week later after my book arrived and had been read I was let down. This was not a sabitical or a spiritual retreat this was running away from responsibility. After some time in his mountain cabin he didn't miss his family as much as he missed his computer, email, internet and cable TV. I think this was a writer just trying to write a book on a given subject with a deadline, not someone who is compassionate for the inner truth.
Rating:
Summary: Middle age??
Review: How do people get off saying "middle age crisis" at 50? Life won't last till 100 for most of us....38-42 is the middle folks! I see no value in having a play house at 50. Or buying this book.
Rating: 
Summary: ego dressing
Review: An amazing journey of a man who trades one set of "ego clothes" for another! I kept expecting this book to reveal more of the inner transformations required of the mid-life journey but alas all I got was septic tanks and rodents! This would be a great text book to show how not to take the journey!
Rating:
Summary: Just a little too much Merton
Review: After watching Oprah 2 books were mentioned for men and women to find themselves again after reaching middle age. I purchased a Year by the Sea for myself and Jon's book for my husband but as he was reading something I decided to read it first and I must say really enjoyed it....but the first part of the book was the most enjoyable for me. It was funny sad and soul searching and if he had kept this form up through out the book I would have loved it even more but what did happen was just too much Thomas Merton and was a little off putting nearing the end. My husband is reading and enjoying it but also feels the same.
Rating: 
Summary: meaningful and touching
Review: Some people seem to be missing the point of this book. Of course Katz isn't Henry David Thoreau, nor is he trying to be. Very few of us can be monks like Thomas Merton, and Katz is writing directly to us - how can we, normal people, who CAN'T isolate ourselves totally the way Mertom did, and who AREN'T necessarily especially religious, find meaning in our lives? This isn't a mid-life crises book; I'm 18 and i've rarely connected with a book this much. If you're looking for the new Walden, give up, because that will never happen; classics aren't re-written, and you'll never find "the new Hamlet." But for those of us who can't be a Henry David Throreau, but still want to live deeply and well, this is a book you should really consider. And all my ranting aside, the book also happens to be sweet, touching, funny and basically an entirely enjoyable experience.
Rating:
Summary: Distance from "everyday" - necessary for discernment?
Review: Perhaps it helps to be a "fifty-something" person, for by this time in one's life you start to seriously evaluate where you want to go in the (shortening) time left, and one of the ways you do this is to sift through your life's adventures so far. Jon Katz heeds a "call" to get away (not so much from "urban life" as from the "routine" of life). While each person must find his or her own way (and some are admittedly far more adept at others at gaining meaningful perspective throughout their lives), what Jon Katz did resonated with me. It really is important to take some "time out", to give yourself a chance to see yourself anew, to remember/recall the dreams you once had and to wonder why you have achieved some, failed at others, and given up on still others. Connecting with nature is another reminder, too, that we are all inter-connected (this perspective seems particularly acute when one is both young and old, but harder to maintain in one's "middle years" when scrabbling for career paths and building a family take up so much time). This book lets us share Mr. Katz's adventure and, in so doing, gives us encouragement to do something similar in our own manner. It IS good to remember that we really are on a sacred journey. It is never too late to readjust the course.
Rating:
Summary: Insipid
Review: I hesitate to write this review as I feel it might hurt the author's feelings. He never hesitates to tell us how sensitive he is. Sappy? Yes. I did complete it hoping for some interesting revelation to come along, but it never did. One has to wonder what Mr. Katz learned from buying a cabin in upstate New York - certainly nothing of being self-sufficient or of a greater appreciation of nature. What he learns is that he "needs" (as he puts it) the suburbs, fast-food, strip malls and e-mail. He refers to his computer almost exclusively by model name betraying the kind of shallow brand identification typical of a shallow mind. He tells us he wants to die collapsed over it. As silly as they are, these insipid epiphanies are presented as weighty spiritual stuff. I had to laugh when he spoke of his "exhausted" friends who'd just had children - a couple who work from home and are well-off enough to afford a nanny. They will not experience a fraction of the struggle that the average parent goes through. I must reserve my sympathy for others. This is probably a satisfying read for yuppies looking for validation of their materialism. Not a good thing, but it does have an audience.
Rating:
Summary: The "Journey" Was A Tad Different Than I Expected
Review: Mr. Katz is a good writer who kept my attention throughout the book. However, I kept waiting for the author to tell us more about his "interior" life and how his appreciation of Merton had made a difference. The book seemed to be less a journey of "faith and change" than it was a description of how to renovate and update a dilapidated mountain cabin. Mr. Katz learned a great deal about how professionals dig for water, the challenge of ridding a cabin of pests and the art of finding one's way out of the woods. He described these experiences vividly and in an entertaining way. What I expected however was to learn more about the man himself. While I know Mr. Katz better now, I am not sure that I know what he beleives in or how the experience on the mountain changed him. Possibly my expectations were too high. Thomas Merton is a hero of mine and I had thought that Mr. Katz would relate to us how Merton spoke to him and influenced him. The parts of the book that dealt with this seemed somewhat superficial and left me wanting more.
| 
