Long Way from Paris (Murray)

A Long Way from Paris 
E.C. Murray, 2014
Plicata Press
280 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780990310211


Summary
IIn this searing true story named one of KIRKUS BEST BOOKS of 2014, EC Murray discards her dream of being a famous writer in Paris and hitchhikes by herself to the south of France where she winds up herding goats on a remote mountain farm.

Living with a non-English speaking family (she speaks little French) she carves a life without running water, heat, and only two electric light bulbs. Struggling under the watchful eye of the harsh matriarch, this city girl fails at farm chores. She can’t carry buckets of water, milk goats, or work fast enough making goat cheese.

Murray recently lost sixty pounds, so her body is stiff and unused to the rigor of mountain life. Still, she feels a spiritual calling to this remote Languedoc farm, west of the Mediterranean, north of the Pyrenees. Life eases when a young English speaking shepherd joins the family.

Together, Murray and Randy laugh and eke fun where they can. He teaches Murray how to tend the goats, sheep, and ornery pregnant cow. As Elizabeth slides into her role as goatherd, she spends hours at a time alone with her animals, reading, meditating, and mulling over the classic books she never read in school—Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, The Reivers.

Murray yearns for the boy she left behind, her first love. He captured her heart, but lived a self-destructive lifestyle. She remembers her days doing drugs and partying, and in contrast, relishes the clarity she finds up in the fresh air and open sky of the countryside.

Throughout this riveting book, Elizabeth reflects on her days at an elite New England prep school, her wilder days as an Oregon hippie, and her student days as a philosophy major. When tragedy strikes the family and the matriarch departs, Murray realizes her metamorphous as she runs the farm with new strength, confidence and competence.

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.S., University of Oregon, Washington; M.S.W., University of Washington
• Currently—lives near Seattle, Washington


Although EC Murray wrote her first play, Lilly and Milly Go to Mars, in second grade, decades passed before she returned to writing. In the interim, she roamed from her conservative New England home to the west coast, and on to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia. Her jobs ranged from being a cocktail waitress to telephone book deliverer; from wedding hostess and to goatherd; from retail clerk to bureaucrat. Eventually, she earned a Masters in Social Work, and worked with people with developmental disabilities. Romance struck, then marriage, child, and all the accoutrements: soccer tournaments, dance recitals, cross country meets, family fun.

As empty nesting approached, she returned to school to learn the craft of writing: the University of Washington, Richard Hugo House, and Southampton Writers Conference. She founded and publishes The Writers Connection, a newsletter and Web site for readers and writers, and today, writes, tutors, and teaches at Tacoma Community College.

Works
- The Paralympic Games, Vancouver—2012 Strokes and Spokes
- Be a Tourist in Tacoma – Seattle’s Child
- Lady Gaga’s Bus Tour; Bus Reduction – Tacoma Volcano
- When Mom is Puking – Hybrid Mom
- Be a Tourist in Gig Harbor – Seattle’s Child
- Transit Cuts for People with Disabilities—Tacoma Volcano
- Paralympics Vancouver – ABILITY magazine
- Life Kind of Sucks—Published by The Writers Connection, 2014
- "The Urban Goatherd" –Wilderness Literary House Review (nominated for a Pushcart
    Award award and Honorable Mention for New Millenium Writings.)
(Author bio from the author).

Visit the author's website and The Writers' Connection.

Book Reviews
A riveting read. Murray engages the senses every step of the way.
Scott Driscoll, University of Washington, author of Better You Go Home

 
Murray is both a sharp observer of the local color and a cartographer of her own internal geography, making A Long Way from Paris as richly textured as fromage de chèvre.
Langdon Cook, author of The Mushroom Hunters
 

[EC Murray] beautifully explores her deep awareness of the land, an unfolding appreciation of hard work and the importance of family. The result is a fascinating journey filled with wisdom, grace and compassion.
Carlene Cross, author of The Undying West, Fleeing Fundamentalism

 
EC Murray brings the reader to the haunting, godforsaken beauty of the French Pyrenees…living a life stripped down to the basics, her senses, intuition, and heart must take over. It is a thoughtful, heartwarming journey…that leads…to the core of life.
Beth Corcoran, Lévis-Lauzon College

 
Written with beauty, candor and wit.
Wendy Hinman, author of Tightwads on the Loose


Totally engrossing and imbued with both humor and heartbreak. Murray has infused the everyday with meaning and adventure.
Carol Wissmann, Freelance writer, editor, and speaker.

 
Anyone who’s struck out on the road to find themselves (and those who’ve wanted to!) will surely see themselves in E.C. Murray’s lovely and nicely rendered A Long Way from Paris.
Theo Pauline Nestor, author of Writing is My Drink.

 
Every woman—and her daughter—should read this book, brimming with gentle insights and strength of spirit, as sometimes we, like the author, mistakenly believe ourselves bereft of both.
Carol Wissmann, Freelance writer, editor, and speaker.


[A] young American woman backpacking through Europe.... A Long Way from Paris recounts [the author's] jarring transformation from footloose vagabond to live-in, language-deficient goatherd for a family in the mountains of Languedoc.... Flecked with humor and bittersweet candor, this account captures the essence of coming of age.
Bellingham and Kitspa Sun


A rich, lucid debut memoir of an American hippie’s adventures on a goat farm in southern France in the early 1980s, pieced together from the author’s journals.... A welcome memoir of France that offers a complex mosaic of memories (a Kirkus Best Book for 2014).
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Murray is shocked at Jacques eating like "an eagle coming in for the kill" because she grew up with a rigid idea of acceptable table manners. How important are manners and etiquette? Do you adhere to the manners you grew up with or have you incorporated new ones?
     
2. How did Murray’s relationship with her herd change and foster her growth? As Murray reflects on her family’s behaviors, she sees some she values, some she shuns. In what way is she "re-parenting" or "reinventing" herself out on the hillside?
    
3. Murray writes, "when you have 'it'—a true spiritual connection, there’s no need to broadcast it or put it on bumper stickers." Do you think it’s important to reveal to others your spiritual beliefs? Why or why not?
   
4. George Eliot writes in Adam Bede that "people living closest to nature are the ‘purest,’" a phrase Murray mulls over. Do you think this is true? Why?  How did the books Elizabeth read influence her understanding of life with the Fontaines?
   
5. Murray reflects on losing weight saying, "I lost weight in my body, but not my mind." What does she mean by this? Do you think this is why many people gain their weight back after losing it?
   
6. A Long Way from Paris is filled with many courageous moments. What took more courage—withstanding the physical isolation; learning a new way of life; being far from friends and family? In what ways was Murray courageous and what ways was she reckless?
     
7. Murray describes her relationship with Garner as being fraught with contradictions. Have you ever found yourself in an unhealthy relationship? What did you do?
   
8. What do you think of the "back to nature" movement which captured the imagination of so many people in the seventies? How would you do living in such primitive conditions?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)

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