The Leaving Season: A Memoir
離開的季節
內容介紹
凱莉·麥克馬斯特斯（Kelly McMasters）在三十多歲時發現自己正在生活在夢幻之中：她和作為畫家的丈夫一起從紐約市搬到了賓州的鄉村，在那裡他們的孩子穿著雨靴和尿布在田園般的土地上漫步玩耍。最初，田園風光和他們在小鎮開立的書店對修復她的身心和婚姻。然而，不久之後，她悄悄地開始策劃她逃離婚姻的枷鎖。
在《離開的季節》（The Leaving Season）這本回憶錄中，凱莉·麥克馬斯特斯記錄了她墜入愛河並在城市中和愛人開創生活的激動時刻，她在與世隔絕的農舍中和丈夫關係逐漸破裂的過程，以及她作為單親母親為自己和孩子們打造新家的複雜經歷。她深入探討了看到與被看到之間微妙而常常令人心碎的平衡；失落與渴望；慾望與懷疑；以及為了生存而離開所愛之物的悖論。
無論是透過農場裡沒有繁殖能力的母牛反思鄉村的男性氣質，在車禍後新生母親的脆弱，還是在獨立書店中湧動的社區力量，《離開的季節》這本書帶著讀者在每一個關係結束中找到一個新的開始。
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婚姻生子似乎是很多女性給自己的人生目標，但很多時候遇人不淑，最後還是選擇離婚自力更生。
《離開的季節》(The Leaving Season: A Memoir)，作者凱莉·麥克馬斯特斯（Kelly McMasters）愛上了一位畫家，後來結婚並生了兩個小男孩。兩個人約會的時光總是如此甜美像童話故事一樣，後來畫家老公身體出了狀況，兩人決定買下鄉下的農舍改建成未來的家，讓畫家老公調養身體，但還是保留兩人在曼哈頓的各自的住所，由於老公的經濟狀況沒那麼好，鄉下農舍還沒改建好之前，凱莉不但要照顧老公還得接各種案子賺錢，原本她獨立自主的生活變了樣，她放棄了自己舒適的公寓搬去了老公的工作室，工作室沒法洗澡，凱莉只能到附近的健身房洗澡省錢。
最終兩人搬去了鄉下，凱莉還開了書店想要賺錢，但畫家老公對於經營書店興趣缺缺，記帳收款也亂七八糟，兩人的婚姻出現了各種裂痕。老公在書店舉辦活動的時候跑去別的地方釣魚，凱莉不但要照顧兩個孩子還得同時打理家裡和書店，凱莉發現老公不在身旁反而是一種解脫，她的心中慢慢的浮現和老公分居與離婚的念頭，她做為一個單親媽媽也可以過得很好，最終她選擇帶著兩個小孩離開在婚姻在工作沒有太多作為的老公。
書中有一個段落讀起來挺感人的。凱莉寫到
「我原本以為搬到鄉下可以讓我們的關係像植物一樣吸收新鮮的氧氣，我們會像一株室內植物被移植到室外花園一樣，在城市外找到我們適合我們的形態。未經過濾的陽光、新鮮的空氣、充滿綠色植物的花園，而不是桌子和沙發、布滿灰塵的書架和廚房的油煙味：這難道不是最健康的決定嗎？然而有些植物根本不適合放在室外。有些植物需要花盆的結構，要求穩定的恆溫，只能在有地板、天花板和牆壁能依靠的環境中茁壯成長。現在當我翻看我的園藝書籍時，我認出了某些頁面上那些垂垂欲死下垂的植物。這被稱為移植休克。這些植物被移植後進入了靜止狀態，不會死去，但也無法茁壯成長。在一段時間內，植物看起來還好。但實際上，它已經死了。」
作者介紹
凱莉·麥克馬斯特斯（Kelly McMasters）是兩本回憶錄的作者，也是選集《渴望：女性寫欲望》（Wanting: Women Writing About Desire）和《這裡是家：女性寫家庭》（This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home）的合編者，《這裡是家》曾獲選為《紐約時報書評》編輯推薦書。曾經是書店老闆的她，目前在霍夫斯特拉大學（Hofstra University）任教，並居住在紐約。
書評
"In her gorgeously written memoir, Kelly McMasters navigates through―and ultimately out of―the very real yet unmappable space that a marriage occupies. Her story is one of a kind and yet pieces feel familiar: the gradual estrangement, the power imbalances, the anguish around the decision to stay or go, and the surprising discovery that, as a single mother, ‘the load felt lighter, the house brighter.’ This book, written by a complete stranger, made me feel a sense of community. What a profound gift."
― Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful
"Poignant and engrossing.… Kelly McMasters writes with urgency and honesty.… [A] vivid, searing memoir."
― Hilma Wolitzer, East Hampton Star
"A sharp and lyrical exploration of marriage, divorce, and motherhood.… McMasters shares a resonant tale of resilience and grace, brimming with unflinching, evocative prose."
― Jenny Bartoy, Chicago Review of Books
"[Kelly] McMasters’ writing shares some of its DNA with Leslie Jamison and Rebecca Solnit.… The Leaving Season is a candid, often wrenching account of a relationship’s slow, inexorable crumbling and a survivor’s attempt to climb from the ruin and build a new life. Kelly McMasters is a graceful, fluid writer, and though the subject matter of her memoir is anything but easy, the rewards of sharing her company on the page are undeniable."
― Harvey Freedenberg, Bookreporter
"[McMasters] rhapsodically renders the experience of living at one with the natural world.… [The Leaving Season] is told with candor and grace."
― Kirkus Reviews
"McMasters shares a wise, honest, and completely absorbing memoir of marriage and motherhood that is particular in the details but universal in a way that will resonate with many readers."
― Booklist
"McMasters’s masterful, moving memoir of her journey from the city to the country to the suburbs makes an excellent case for taking the time to figure [out who you are], no matter how frightening it seems."
― BookPage
"Heart-wrenching and nuanced.… Kelly McMasters is a brave memoirist, walking us on a tightrope through the loss of a job, a city, a marriage, a bookstore, a farmhouse, and her interior life as she gains children, community, fiscal security, wisdom, and independence. She shows us how when our dreams unravel, we may restitch them anew. This is a book of mourning and its opposite―a hallelujah."
― Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora
"I tore through The Leaving Season as though I was on fire and had to finish reading it before I could reach a bucket of water. Kelly McMasters lays bare the vast, unchartable difference between the way things look from the outside and the experience of being inside a marriage, a painting, a place, a home. Anyone who has ever had to step outside of a picture in order to see it clearly will recognize the grief and triumph of her choices."
― Gina Frangello, author of Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason
"A profound and beautiful book.… Never have I encountered a memoir that explores motherhood and marriage with such warmth, intimacy, and wisdom. This is a book that will forever change the way you see your world―and yourself. If you loved Cheryl Strayed’s Wild or Claire Dederer’s Love and Trouble, you must read The Leaving Season immediately."
― Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year: A Memoir
"The Leaving Season is an astoundingly gorgeous memoir of life, love, and leaving. With devastating insight, Kelly McMasters paints a delicate portrait of love, home, and what happens when it all falls apart. The Leaving Season is about how endings are beginnings and beginnings are things of beauty. With an eye for detail and empathetic, deeply human portraits of the communities she inhabits, McMasters has created a soul-deep work of aching beauty and stubborn hope. Written with lush prose and an expansive heart, both gentle and gut-wrenching, beautiful and profound, The Leaving Season is a work of wonder."
― Lyz Lenz, author of Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women
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