Summary: Natalie Goldberg, Long Quiet Highway

Meg Gibbs

Natalie Goldberg writes about being American, Jewish, a feminist, a writer, and a student of Zen. She traces her path from a lonely childhood in a suburb in Long Island to discovering writing and feminism in college to beginning her spiritual journey in New Mexico. From New Mexico, she moves to Minnesota. When in Minnesota, she discovers a Zen school led by Katagiri Roshi. Goldberg becomes his student. Later, she returns to New Mexico and focuses on her writing. She sketches a portrait of her study of Zen, from her time under Roshi to the time away from Roshi that helped her understand his teachings to his death and finally to her acceptance of his death.

Through this documentation of her spiritual growth and life, Goldberg weaves in teachings of writing and Zen with vignettes, both her own and other people's. Goldberg compares the practice of Zen, the difficulty of sitting and just sitting, with the practice of writing and just writing. These things work together to make her the writer she becomes. However, she also learns she could not be both a Zen student and a writer. In the end, she chooses writing, though the practice of Zen remains central to her. In all things, Goldberg stresses the necessity of practice as a grounding force in life, especially for writers. She writes the book to give guidance to people who seek to become a writer, but also as a tribute to her teacher, Roshi.