Book Review - The Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg

When I spied Natalie Goldberg's newest, The Long Quiet Highway, on the library's shelf, I knew it was a must-read. Her first book about writing, Writing Down The Bones, has been hailed as a classic and is recommended reading for any serious writer. Even as a recent re-read, Bones's message remains as clear and honest as the first time I absorbed its pages's words many years ago. I was not disappointed. In this new work, Natalie's refreshing open style is very evident.

In The Long Quiet Highway, Ms. Goldberg weaves together the personalities, the places and events of her personal life so that the reader comes to realize her personal life and her writing life are so intertwined, it would be impossible to separate them. She describes in her own honest way all that has contributed to making her the outstanding writer she is. As she shares events that were epiphanies, places that spoke to her soul, and people who helped her discover the important things of life, we also come to realize that the miracle of being alive every moment, every breath we take is the most important asset a writer can possess.

If your goal as a writer is to become rich and famous, this may not seem like an important book for you to read. But if you are seeking the purpose for this inner compulsion to record your life, this need to write it out in hopes it will help you make sense of it, than The Long Quiet Highway may just be the key to unlock the hidden treasures.

Natalie Goldberg doesn't linger over professional achievements or dwell on the recognition the world has awarded her. She remains a writers' writer, the quintessential teacher, a leader who encourages her students by her own example to continually push aside the falseness and seek to uncover the truth, no matter how painful. Reading her own self-revelations in The Long Quiet Highway gives the reader hope and the encouragement to open themselves wide to the wonders of experiencing life. She helps you to know that as a writer we have an obligation to share with the world the view of truth as we see it.

Gay Ingram -- www.freewebs.com/gayingram/