Once again, Big Sur Kate has woven a tale that pulls us in from the first sentence she writes. For those of us who find that Big Sur coastline absolutely incomparable in the entire world, we find ourselves being drawn back as often as we can — for as long as we can. For some of us, it has been most of a lifetime. And we have never been disappointed.
That coast, that thin winding road, is one with heart-stopping surprises around its every bend. Let’s be honest here: it touches the heart and never lets go.
I am a visitor only . . . but one who understands why others would make it “home”.
And, yes, we DO understand why those who have pulled up stakes elsewhere — to make this wilderness paradise theirs alone — would bond early on. And yes, they would be there for their neighbors far and near in these times when the storms coming in from the Pacific – one after another – look to threaten their very existence.
Big Sur Kate so compellingly tells tales of the unknown, the life-and-death health moments that could easily cut off the locals’ lives on this go-around, the impassable roads that have the heart racing already. But now another storm is racing in . . . I can just imagine the locals wondering if they are going to make it through.
And yet — yet — I believe they will prevail — as Kate certainly has proved in other years as well. Big Sur grabs for the heart . . . and never lets it go. In this beautiful piece of writing, she pulls us in in ways that make us part of her world.
It will be a long time before Big Sur is once again restored . . . but it will be. And, once again, I join us all in wishing for a good life again to come for its residents.
Joan Larsen
Park Forest, Ill.
Park Forest, Ill.
