Reviews

• A great read

  I am loving reading this journal. May Sarton had a very relaxed but literary style of writing so it is easy to settle down and read. She puts the reader at ease whilst being honest, brutally honest at times, about her own feelings. Her love of her life at this age is very apparent. A great read if, like me, you enjoy memoirs.

• A lovely account

  I am not sure how I stumbled upon May Sarton’s Journals but what a delight! I feel happy and relaxed after reading few pages. What a sensible, loving and grounded person.

• One journal is enough

  I found May Sarton by accident when book trawling and chose this volume because its title was (then) nearest to my own age. Overall, I enjoyed reading about 'the literary life', but would have appreciated a glossary of names. Surely, without reading all of MS's earlier journals I can't be the only reader with no idea of the place and importance those mentioned had in May Sarton's life, both private and professional? (I'm a little better informed now because I did some research.) I did like her easy writing style and was impressed by her mental and physical energy but do not expect to read her other diaries. I appreciate that a journal is 'all about me', that's its purpose, but just one window into this writer-poet's world is satisfying enough, for me, at least. In any case, I understand that later journals make for painful reading and I have no interest in witnessing anyone's decline. Seventy is a good enough stopping point, thank you!

• I Longed for More Personal Stories from May Sarton

  I gave this one the benefit of the doubt. In all honesty, to me it's worth 3.5 stars. I truly enjoy May Sarton's journals when she writes about her most personal feelings--her anger, her sadness, her frustrations. There is more of her angst in her later journals. This seemed like one of her most "flowery" journals (focused on her garden) and one of her most historical and political journals. She frequently dwells on the suffering of her fellow humans in this one--whether it be the Holocaust or a recent news item featuring a gang rape. These things can detract from the soothing images we have come to expect in May Sarton's journals. I want to add a little story from my own life in regard to the Bedford, Massachusetts gang rape Sarton agonized over in this journal. I was in my thirties when I read about this horrific crime in the newspaper. Like Sarton, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I asked the Lord for his help. Then I went to the mall. Well, the Lord must have had angels on duty that day because I was struck by two of the most delightful young men. I saw one through the window of a jewelry store. He, with the help of a young saleswoman, was selecting a diamond ring. His smile was warm and his eyes were sparkly. The second young man I saw was sitting in the pit that was built for people with young children--the toddlers were running around--and he was helping a young woman, whom I assumed to be his wife or partner, diaper their baby. He could have been the other young man's twin--he had the same warm smile and sparkly eyes! And then I said, "Okay, Lord, I get it now! There is evil in the world. But there is a lot of good too!" Now I am happy that Sarton includes many stories in this book about admirable men and women whom she knows. But I will admit that the stories reminded me a little of the stories you might find in a Reader's Digest. Nice stories but maybe not anything I'd like to reread. It's when she gets up close and personal and writes about the way her emotions get the best of her sometimes that really resonates with me, and I don't know if I can recall one such instance in this book although I imagine there was at least one. I think this one reminds me a little of Doris Grumbach's stories who writes memoirs that tend to get political and focused on people we don't know. And I want to say, "Doris, tell me about you!" The one frustration that May has throughout the book is keeping up with her high volume of correspondence, but this frustration is part of all of her journals, I believe, so nothing new. I like May Sarton a lot, and I certainly would rather have been reading this than many of the trashy books out there. But there have been some that were more my cup of tea.

• My Second Time Reading This

  I have read most things May Sarton wrote and I read "At Seventy" about twenty years ago. I am reading it again as I am about to turn 70 and it is more delightful and insightful than the first time I read it. Sarton's journals are not to be missed as she takes us through her days ... some joyful, others not so ... with superb writing, insight, and her amazing, wondrous gift to see into the marrow of whatever she is writing about. Even her journals are poetry. Brava!

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