WHAT THE STONES REMEMBER

WHAT THE STONES REMEMBER:
A LIFE REDISCOVERED
by Patrick Lane
Shambhala Publications

After 45 years of alcohol and drug abuse, Patrick Lane emerged from detox, experiencing the world around him with a kind of hallucinatory vividness. He precisely describes the intensity of light and wind, the grace of various plants and small animals in this deeply civilized book, which is a memoir, a gardening manual, and an informed meditation on language. The prose is beautiful and careful, like Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim, but more grounded and specific. I closed What The Stones Remember with a sense of gratitude to Patrick Lane for allowing me to see the world freshly again. This book is a contemporary spiritual classic.