The Island of the White Cow: Memories of an Irish Island

From 1972 to 1977, the author, an American poet from the Midwest, lived on a small, unmodernized island off the west coast of Ireland. Her adventure begins when Tall, as a rebellious undergraduate, falls under the romantic spell of a much older visiting Irish professor. He, undergoing the dissolution of a marriage, is seeking a pure source of inspiration free from the taint of city life. Together on the island, they gradually establish a communion with the reclusive inhabitants, glorying in the savage beauty of the environment, coping with the lack of amenities, and constantly astounded at the ""tight, viperish nest'' that, at the memoir's close, is home to only 192 people. A record of two people's futile attempt to keep the world at bay, the book is also an affectionate elegy for a way of life that has very nearly passed. January 27