Title:  How Nature Healed a Broken Soul

Author: Penny James       

Genre: Autobiography

 

Penny James was raised in Colorado, spending summers at her grandmother’s ranch in Huerfano County, a place she considered her true home. In 1962, she was crowned Miss Colorado and became a model, moving first to Chicago and then to New York City.

Underneath the glamor, James was beginning to unravel due to addiction, and her marriage was disintegrating. In 1983 she attended her first AA meeting and, over the next thirty-five years, despite challenges, she reconnected with her faith, restored her spirituality, and rediscovered the healing power of nature.

James’s writing has an elegant, organic, and otherworldly quality that is intriguing and How Nature Healed a Broken Soul reads with a natural, engaging fluidity. As her memoir progresses, the prose undoubtedly reflects her personality as she navigates life with a searching intelligence and a keen eye for observation.

There is an open honesty and gentle intimacy in James’s tone, which draws the reader in, making them feel individually addressed and warmly taken into her confidence.

However, although thoughtfully written to give context, chapter one may have been better placed into the later stages of the book or re-purposed as a Prologue. James opens the account of her life from the second chapter, lovingly detailing the time spent on her Grandma Esther’s rural homestead.

She affords a fascinating, richly-drawn glimpse into a life that worked in tandem and harmony with the natural landscape and one in which James fully immerses herself and the reader.

Contrastingly, life with her parents was subject to simmering secrets and an often passive-aggressive atmosphere. Nonetheless, James and her sisters were close and she unfolds her childhood in a relatively straightforward manner where much is observed but little explained.

It wasn’t required, as the reader is given a clear impression of the underlying tensions through James’s cleverly nuanced narrative which begins to resonate with a sense of foreboding.

The unease remains even as she starts work at United Airlines while launching her modeling career and meeting her husband. It’s an entertaining time and James enjoys her new-found fame.

She is careful never to gratuitously name-drop, and her anecdotes involving the luminaries of the day are focused and interesting. A few photographs would have been beneficial and would’ve deepened the narrative even more.

As the 1970s gather pace, the heady Studio 54 vibe starts to darken and James finds herself in a nastily superficial world, propped up by powder, pills, and alcohol. Her life at this point is horribly reminiscent of Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls and equally as gripping to read.

James is lost, fragile, and inhabiting an increasingly toxic and somewhat surreal environment, which she documents with sincerity, although she avoids being overly frank. Her marriage implodes and her self-esteem, which had never been high, plummets.

Slowly, with the support of AA’s 12-step program and sponsors, James begins to find strength and perseverance through religion. She is candid about her spiritual relationship but never resorts to sermonizing.

As she recovers, her creative output is inspirational, especially her profound “Bed of Trees” installations. She spends time on her ranch in Pennsylvania, caring for the wildlife, which reciprocates in kind. It’s wonderfully rustic and heartwarming without becoming sugary.

James intersperses her story with sociocultural developments and historical milestones, which occasionally read slightly randomly, although it provides reference as the reader journeys through the decades with her.

How Nature Healed a Broken Soul is a gently compelling and quietly powerful chronicle of a remarkable life. Beautifully crafted and written, the book is a testament to James’s unique spirit and determination and is one that deserves a wide audience.

 

 

This Editorial Review was written by the Book Review Directory staff. To receive a similarly honest, professional review for one of your own books, click here.