Running to the Mountain: A Midlife Adventure - Softcover

Katz, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0767904982 ISBN 13: 9780767904988

Publisher: Crown, 2000

Synopsis

Jon Katz, a respected journalist, father, and husband, was turning fifty. His writing career had taken a dubious turn, his wife had a demanding career of her own, his daughter was preparing to leave home for college, and he had become used to a sedentary lifestyle. Wonderfully witty and insightful, Running to the Mountain chronicles Katz's hunger for change and his search for renewed purpose and meaning in his familiar world.

Armed with the writings of Thomas Merton and his two faithful Labradors, Katz trades in his suburban carpool-driving and escapes to the mountains of upstate New York. There, as he restores a dilapidated cabin, learns self-reliance in a lightning storm, shares a bottle of Glenlivet with unexpected ghosts, and helps a friend prepare for fatherhood, he confronts his lifelong questions about spirituality, mortality, and his own self-worth. He ultimately rediscovers a profound appreciation for his work, his family, and the beauty of everyday life--and provides a glorious lesson for us all.

About this title

Review

Jon Katz couldn't afford a country house--his wife didn't want him to buy it; his career looked like it was going off track; and his daughter was about to leave home for college. But when he saw the view from a decrepit little cabin in the mountains, near Cambridge, New York, he knew he had to have the place. So, against all rational impulses, he bought the cabin and used it as a summer retreat. He read Thomas Merton, helped his best friend prepare to be a father, deepened his relationship with his dog, and wrote a book about the spiritual wisdom that came to him in everyday life. Running to the Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Change includes some particularly elegant and urgent readings of Merton, whose central concerns Katz summarizes as well as anyone has:

Merton was obsessed with a central issue for our time--figuring out how to live, trying to forge a life of balance, purpose and meaning. I've grown to share his obsession, his belief that life demands a lot of tinkering, and requires people to give birth to themselves not just once, but over and over.

--Michael Joseph Gross

From the Back Cover

"A funny, moving, and triumphant voyage of the soul. . . . Katz finds faith not by running away but by realizing that spiritual sustenance can come from within--from the decency with which we handle our roles as spouses, parents, and friends."
--Boston Globe

"You'll love this book. . . . In the end, we admire Katz, not for the spiritual grace that he seeks but for the grace he finds: the grace of fatherhood, husbandhood, of tending fully to those who depend on him to be a source of stability in their world."
--Men's Journal

"A wonderful book--personal, moving, funny . . . to call a book a perfect gift always seems slightly patronizing, but I already have a long list of names--yes, aging boomers--I'm intending to give Running to the Mountain."
--Deirdre Donahue in USA Today

"If anyone can help the average guy understand and deal with a mid-life crisis, it's Jon Katz."
--Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Candid and inspiring. . . . Katz has much to be proud of: he faced himself, he rearranged himself, and he came back to write movingly of the experience."
--Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0767904982
• ISBN 13: 9780767904988
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272