Cabin Fever: A Suburban Father's Search for the Wild
Recommended byUSA Today“I grew fond fast of this book, and  it’s hard not to. Fate is a man who brings coyotes and cougars to the page in a  thoughtful, beautiful prose that’s readable, lyrical, and begs the reader to  slow down and take their time. The book is a wide, deep river, best observed  with a cup of coffee as the sun’s coming up over the ridge and the night’s  crickets have given way to the scratching and calls of the morning’s  towhees.”—Terrain.org“Tom  Montgomery Fate’s charming volume is about his search for meaning in the  suburbs, a search that takes him to the woods of Michigan where he builds his  own cabin…What makesCabin Feversuch good reading is that the author doesn’t try to be a modern-day  Thoreau…The magic ofCabin Feveris the author’s willingness to move back and forth between the two  worlds of hectic suburbs and the more isolated nature-soaked  cabin.”—Christian Century “Cabin  Feveris a quietly stunning book, organized  around the four seasons, much asWaldenis structured…His elegant and rhythmic prose is about embodiment and  the fight we must make to swim against the current that seeks to sweep us away  from such bold and incarnational living…Not all books invite us to enter their  lives in so intimate a fashion, to join our own patterns of living with theirs.  But Fate’s admission that he is a “slow and bungling pilgrim” serves as an  admonition and a blessing to his readers to go and live, even if imperfectly,  this one blessed life we’ve been given.”—Brevity“May touch a  chord in a desperate urban-dweller's heart … may also show … that Mother Earth's  bosom is not always welcoming to mere humans.” —Wall Street Journal“His account of a  quest for a “more deliberate life,” inspired by a re-reading of Thoreau’sWaldenseveral years ago, is  refreshingly modest but also aching with yearning for the Home we all desire.”—Christianity Today “His frank, poignant, and funny essays grapple with the quandaries inherent in the effort to live a balanced life. Fate’s clarion musings on place, time, family, social responsibility, the wild, and the civilized are thoughtful and affecting in their revelations of how complex and precious life is.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review, May 1, 2011"Never snide or condescending, Fate blends the significant milestones of marriage and family in a high-tech BlackBerry society with the joys and shortcomings of being mindful in both cultures." —Publishers Weekly“The  tone of Fate’s writing is serious and thoughtful, yet laced with some humor  (particularly the chapter in which he imagines a gay relationship between two  male cardinals)… Fate is introspective and writes in a lyrical manner, offering  much food for thought in this multi-layered, 'how to live” memoir.'” —Hilary  Daninhirsch,Foreword Reviews“This quietly marvelous book is really a mystery novel at heart. The mystery isHow to live? Tom Montgomery Fate, a self-described ‘slow and bumbling pilgrim,’ sets out to answer this question, meandering, with Thoreau as his companion, toward the truth--or more accurately, the truths.  Henry David Thoreau has never been more relevant than he is today, and what a pleasure to follow the two of them sleuthing toward something solid in these fickle and shifting times.”—David Gessner, author ofSoaring with FidelandThe Tarball Chronicles “With Thoreau as his guide, Tom Montgomery Fate explores a wild territory where Henry himself never dared to venture: marriage, parenthood, and the suburban backyard.  Along the way, he shows us how to embrace the challenges of our world, and our daily lives, with new grace, restoring us to the place where we should all be living: in gratitude and wonder. A profound and beautiful book.”—John T. Price, author ofMan Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships “InCabin Fever,Tom Montgomery Fate has written a book as wise as it is charming.  Fate, in his deeply informed dialogue with Thoreau, never dodges the many realities of American middle-class existence that might lead to a life of quiet desperation.  Still,Cabin Feveris, finally, not a book about avoiding desperation but achieving balance.”—Stuart Dybek, author ofThe Coast of Chicago “Tom Montgomery Fate resonates with Thoreau without needing to be Thoreau. HisCabin FeverechoesWaldenwithout pretense. It is a book for our time by a writer of our time. Fate proves himself against his transcendental literary ancestor and, in the process, gives us a contemporary book of thought, hope, and promise.Cabin Feveris an antidote to the ills of the day.”—Jeffrey S. Cramer, editor ofWalden: A Fully Annotated Editionand curator of the Thoreau Institute“Quiet, beautifully written reflections on nature and the mindful life, laced with the thoughts and writings of Thoreau.” —KirkusFrom the Hardcover edition.