EC Murray |
I
like coming to Tuscany to experience the culture, the people and the
climate—and to challenge myself to adapt to a new environment.
Tuscany and Languedoc, France, are only about 800 miles apart and
roughly on the same latitude, so they have a number of
characteristics in common. Thus it was with great interest that I
picked up a copy of “A long way from Paris,” a memoir published
last year by Gig Harbor author Elizabeth Corcoran Murray. In the
early eighties, Elizabeth spent a half year in a remote part of
Languedoc—and speaking of challenging oneself to adapt, she went
from preppy high schooler to hippie college student to French goat
herder all in a decade. The latter adventure is the topic of her
book, and it’s a page-turner for anyone interested in immersing
themselves in foreign lands and unusual occupations.
She
went to France with uncertain goals and ambitions. In fact, she had
no idea at the time what she wanted to do with her life, other than a
strong but unfocused desire to be a writer. She bungled around Paris
for a bit before going to visit a cousin in a mountainous, remote and
rural area in the south. In a mix of naivety and desperation to find
a purpose for her trip to France, she accepted a job as a farmhand,
despite the fact that she had never been on a farm, spoke only a few
words of French and suffered from an admitted lack of
self-confidence.
She
is refreshingly transparent about her insecurities, struggles,
passions and growth. She gradually became more confident and
self-assured while living
a simple goat herder’s life, experiencing the hardships of a bitter
winter looking after the animals and her adopted family. Her
struggles to understand the language and the realities of mountain
life will resonate with anyone who has ever been uprooted. She
vividly and honestly expresses her roller-coaster ride of emotions
and doubts, but she also describes the peace and stability that can
be found in a simple life of hard work and fresh air while living
close to the land.
Ms
Murray writes simply, clearly and descriptively while keeping a
proper focus on the narrative events that shaped her life both before
and during her farming adventure. Not all of us have the freedom to
plop ourselves down in a completely different culture, but at least
we can experience it vicariously through her fine travel memoir.