Falling into Place

Ralph Bowden. Rev. Falling into Place: An Intimate Geography of Home by Catherine Reid. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2014.

In Falling into Place, Catherine Reid—New Englander, Quaker, lesbian—has collected twenty of her essays covering a variety of musings, explorations, and events. In short, a life. A very full one, it would seem, encompassing a wealth of interests, knowledge, and skills, mostly connected with her natural environment and the changes she witnesses occurring in it. She’s done the Appalachian Trail and canoed the Connecticut River from the Vermont/Canada border to Long Island Sound. Her family heritage is dominated by New Englanders, similarly concerned with the natural world around them, a concern that was probably normal in former generations, but which has been sidetracked too often in today’s complexly technical and media-driven world.

The essays range from personal to societal to political issues. Reid writes about her ancestors and their passing; her relationship with her partner, Holly; their marriage in 2004, soon after Massachusetts legalized same sex marriage; and the various reactions to that event on the part of friends and relatives. She writes of what amounts to women’s liberation and the strong women who have pushed the boundaries. She describes the Massachusetts town meeting culture; the well-meaning but ecologically ignorant efforts to correct generations of river abuse; the reactions she sees to 9-11; and her experiences living outside of her personal heartland, rural, central Massachusetts.

That heartland is the backdrop for most of the essays, whether they are focusing on birding, cutting trees, a fox skull, fishing, relationships or wider issues. The sense of place is always primary, and the writing, often lyrical, is always thoughtful.