Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging, and the Crosscut Saw, by Ana Maria Spagna

Stehekin Leaves

Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging, and the Crosscut Saw
by Ana Maria Spagna

Oregon State University Press. 2004.

nowgohome

Now Go Home tells the story of how a quintessential California girl ended up earning her living in the Pacific Northwest with a crosscut saw. Ana Maria Spagna came of age in southern California in the "hot-pink eighties." By the time she turned nineteen, she had visited Disneyland thirty-seven times and was ready to hit the road. In these finely edged essays, she takes her readers along.

With candor, wit, and hard-earned wisdom, Spagna reflects on the journey that took her from a childhood in the suburbs of LA to a trail crew in the North Cascades, where she falls in love with a place and, unexpectedly, with a woman. With days spent laboring as the only woman on a trail crew and evenings in a cabin no larger than Thoreau's, she has world enough and time to wrestle with the compromises and contradictions of making "a life in the woods." From the work she does and the people she meets, she comes to see the nuances, and occasionally the humor, of big ideas like wilderness and environmentalism. And she decides this is the place she must call home.

Praise for Now Go Home:

"Ana Maria Spagna slices through the sap of what brings people to the woods, whether to work or play. Her writing is remarkable in the way it scrutinizes and probes while accepting the way things are."
Spokane Spokesman Review

"In the tradition of the best essayists, Spagna uses the particulars of her own experience, adopting a new place as her home, to reach beyond and muse on the great notions of belonging, loyalty, and love."
The Olympian

"With good stories and emotional grit, Spagna’s insights into work, community, environment, and love offer a deeper perspective on the nature of romance."
Utne

"The narrative voice is appropriately casual, admirably economical, engagingly honest… the language rich, imaginative, and playful."
The Women’s Review of Books

"Beautifully written essays. It’s the combo of what Ana Maria sees and how she relates to it that makes this book a joy to read."
Powell’s Bookstore Daily Dose

“This is Spagna’s first book, and I hope we will see others. She’s alive with the apocalyptic desperation that makes people feel all of the natural wonders will be gone soon."
East Oregonian

“At heart, Spagna is a woman grateful for the most fundamental treasures in life: solitude, nature, friendships, and gratifying work, In the end, that’s something we all can learn from”
The Douglas County News Review

Even to readers for whom a day of manual labor in cold, mud and rain sounds like the least appealing activity on Earth, the scope and sincerity of these 18 essays will make you laugh, think and appreciate your heated home and they lead you to a fine and quiet place.
The Seattle Times - Named a Best Book of 2004