Place in the Woods - Book 57

Helen Hoover was a popular writer back in the 1960s. This book, Place in the Woods, tells the story of what motivated that writing career. She and her husband had lived through the Depression and World War II and had good careers in the city of Chicago. Helen Hoover was a metallurgist by trade, but both she and her husband dreamed about getting away from it all. I think this books takes place in 1954 or so. At first they were just going to buy a cabin in the woods as a vacation retreat, but this grew into a decision to leave the rat race and make a permanent change. They were in their mid-forties and they figured if they wanted to this, now was the time, before they got older. It took a lot of courage. And their first year in the wilderness was filled with so much bad luck and many hardships, but they muddled through just barely and discovered they really did love nature and simplicity, in spite of everything.

Hoover had a love and way with animals. At one point they were really struggling for money and she decided to try to write an article for a nature magazine. It was published and that started her writing in earnest. Her husband is a lovely pencil sketch artist and he developed his own stationery and became an illustrator.

Even though the Hoovers moved way out to the very edge of an area in Minnesota on Lake Superior that had some rustic cabins and a lodge for summer tourists, they kept meeting people. It seemed there would just be a lot of random knocks at their door at all times of the day. They made good friends with the keepers of the lodge three miles away. Of course for long periods of time they were pretty isolated too. Many of the mishaps that happen to them are harrowing! This book had me gasping and thinking what next? They just seemed to have one catastrophe after another. Helen Hoover is a very straightforward writer. She doesn't put on any airs. She'll tell you how hard it was, how tired they got and how much they were sore and ached, but they also achieved a hard won contentment. They loved devoting their time to fixing up their cabin(s), watching and interacting with the animal life around them, and just being together, nice and cozy, reading and sewing by the fire on snowy winter nights.

A very pleasant read! For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.