A PRACTICE OF MOUNTAINS

by Andrea Mead & Sara Burnaby Lawrence ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 1980

A promising subject blows up. Raised in a ""stone castle"" in the mountains of Vermont, an international ski racer at 15, winner of two gold medals in the 1952 winter Olympics at 19, Andrea Mead Lawrence grew up never knowing ""that dreams and acts are separate for some."" For Lawrence, skiing was always a form of creative art--""one whole and abiding moment, singular and separate, in which I discovered a form of expression""--but what began with affinity and technical ability grew into ""a spiritual journey where reconciliation was the ultimate focus."" These memoirs attempt to trace that spiritual journey from the racing career and its conclusion through marriage, five children, and divorce to the basic pleasures of climbing and backpacking in the eastern Sierra Nevadas at midlife. But what seems an interesting life-history has been turned into a ghastly book, sort of a cut-rate Snow Leopard crossed with the worst of Yeats. At times the transcendental prose moves beyond meaning--so bad it's breathtaking, as in ""sounds of water and winds eddied me to an unconditional repose where space absorbs division."" When Lawrence and Burnaby do manage to focus (for example, in tracing the psychological underpinnings of Lawrence's almost unbelievable second run in the '52 Olympic slalom), they provide a rare glimpse of the total physical and mental commitment that catapults an athlete toward ""an unexplained territory of the spirit,"" where ""the body catches up with the mind."" The '52 slalom account suggests that there's a better book in there, somewhere, than these random-access memoirs.

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Seaview--dist. by Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION