I read the book before I went to the beach, and I was delighted to find in it the seeds of her Gift from the Sea, a favorite of mine that Against Wind and Tide prompted me to re-read. How illuminating to come across her original thoughts — thoughts she would later hone into the book that sold three million copies — on solitude, relationships and what it means to be a woman and a writer.
On that topic, Lindbergh quotes a nineteenth-century writer who says that a woman writer is "rowing against wind and tide" — hence the title of this collection.
As I push against a steady current of my own, I'm happy to row for a few moments with Lindbergh's words, words like these: "I feel a hunger now — a real hunger — for letting the pool still itself and seeing the reflections. I feel a hunger for the kind of writing that I feel is truly mine: observation plus reflection."
There were many passages like this one. My fingers are sore from typing them. But my mind is dancing with thoughts and images.