And Then I Am Gone: A Walk with Thoreau

I've read a few of Mathias B. Freese's book and I've never been disappointed. He is an exceptional writer, who shares his perspective, gained through his work as a psychotherapist, and also as a recipient of psychotherapy himself. This book appealed to me, as it portrays one man's choices and how he measures them in the winter of his life.

I've been to Thoreau's Walden Pond, so I welcomed the author's choice to walk with him and talk to him. Mathias B. Freese does not go gently in the night. He is candid about his own faults as well as his own strengths. He shares not only his difficulties moving geographically in the USA from an urban lifestyle in his beloved New York City to a rural home in Alabama, but also his sadness over his broken relationship with his daughter. The latter is balanced by his loving words about Nina, the new partner in his life.

His writing is at times uplifting, at times depressing, but that's what life is. The loss of health, family ties and place are not easy subjects, but Mathias B. Freese does it with grace and honesty. And woven in all of that is a nice dose of Thoreau.