Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He's not a Christian, or a member of any religious group, but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It's not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it's a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way.
Less a narrative per se than a set of riffs, of traces, each distinct but also joined at a layer underneath the surface of the text. If this is the case with all literature, all art—which is, after all, essentially reflective of its creators’ fascinations and fixations—it is also harder than it looks ... Building a volume out of his own loose notes from three decades of practicing silence, one that eschews resolution as an aim.
Iyer’s intimate, memoiristic essays steadily chronicle his accumulated observations and journey into the self during these quiet moments within the monastic community ... The powerful, centering silence of reflection and contemplation helps him meet various life challenges.
A nice addition to the literature on the blessings of quietude. Iyer’s observations about people, places, and himself are beautifully written and may offer readers some reassurance about these troubled times.
