Writing Home
Cindy La Ferle
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Hearth Stone Books
ISBN: 0923568638

Personal essays & newspaper columns from 1992-2004.

Part memoir & part handbook for living, Writing Home is a collection of domestic essays & lifestyle columns by this award-winning journalist.

“Column writing was a tool to help me find the sacred in the suburban,” writes author Cindy La Ferle, “and a ware to share those findings with others who were also struggling to fit all the pieces together.”

Through the elegant form of essays, she shares her experiences of everything from taking her writing seriously to moving her office from a basement to a bright first story room with a window. From establishing boundaries with her son & his delight in the tools of her craft to reinventing family traditions. From losing a parent to parenthood. From growing up to gracefully aging. From the quest to make something of her everyday life to keeping the faith -- Cindy La Ferle's voice speaks for everywoman who has taken the road back home to work on her words, her marriage, her home & her family.

“In the solitude of my small office at home, I was...forced to take a philosophical look at my pending middle-age, the writing life, my father's death, my son's thorny struggle for independence, and what it meant to be a wife, mother, and homemaker in a culture that often marginalized feminine roles.” (p.x)

No strident shrew nor uninformed recluse, Cindy La Ferle has a fine & tender way with words, lilting & uplifting with a dash of self-mockery & a host of references. Don't read her too fast or you'll miss her mischievous wink, her broad view of current (& not so current!) events, her juggling with Feminist angst & domestic bliss, her gentle courage & her free-ranging eye on the world, as she knows it.

“I took it pretty hard when I heard Fred Rogers died...of stomach cancer...My teen-aged son...looked a bit baffled when I told him that [Mister] Rogers was hanging up his cardigan sweater for good. Hadn't he disappeared down the rabbit hole a long time ago?...I read a piece...about an older mother who would secretly watch "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" when her kids were away at college and she felt lonesome... [it] was like being wrapped in a security blanket... made her feel as though she could reach back and steal a sweet slice of childhood innocence...” (p.51)

Grouped together by subjects rather than eras, Cindy's essays welcome us into her House and Garden, & then introduce us to the muggy swamp of Child Care; to her Social Life (such as it is being a work-at-home-parent & spouse); to the philosophies of Kitchen Duty, & to her Creature Comforts.

“...I've spent years trying to figure out why some relationships fly while others can't seem to get off the ground... I'm still in awe of the fact that men rarely waste time wondering why some people don't like them. They shake hands and move on. Women, however, tend to lose sleep devising ways to appease or impress folks who needn't count so much. We work hard to avoid conflict and maintain the status quo, often at our own expense...” (p.89)

Then she gets as serious as she can about Work Ethics before opening the Family Album. She also shows us how she's Keeping Up Appearance & Keeping the Seasons, & as with all things, she gets Older and Wiser & into Soul Caring.

“I've battled perfectionism most of my life, and while it has served me well at times, it usually makes me miserable. Sometimes it makes other miserable too... Perfectionism is the snarky little gremlin hissing in my ear when the floors are littered with muddy shoes and old newspapers... is the imaginary editor looking over my shoulder while I type [nagging] when my sentences are weak, and loves to remind me that I'm not really a writer.” (p.187)

Writing Home is a lovely bouquet of womanly thoughts about things little & big, sad & funny &, in the end, utterly memorable, like a harmonious anthem to the faith that our lives have meaning, or like The Altar in My Kitchen Window.

Cindy Le Ferle is a woman after my own heart, & I whole-hearted recommend Writing Home for everywoman who thinks about her world. Oh, & she's into organic produce, herbs, overnight retreats at a Jesuit monastery, walking with her women friends, a life of prayer & peace. & she likes to laugh!

A portion of royalties are donated to homeless shelters in Oakland County, Michigan.
(11/06/05)

Rebecca