Cabin Fever - Paperback

by Tom Montgomery Fate (Author)

"If Tom Montgomery Fate has not found the secret formula for the deliberate, balanced life, he is a chief disciple of the search."--Chicago Tribune

Try to imagine Thoreau married, with a job, three kids, and a minivan. This is the sensibility--serious yet irreverent--that suffuses Cabin Fever, as the author seeks to apply the hermit-philosopher's insights to a busy modern life. Tom Montgomery Fate lives in a Chicago suburb, where he is a husband, father, professor, and active member of his community. He also lives in a cabin built with the help of friends in the Michigan woods, where he walks by the river, chops wood, and reads Thoreau by candlelight. Fate seeks a more attentive, deliberate way of seeing the world and our place in it, not only in the woods but also in the context of our relationships and society. In his search for "a more deliberate life" amid a high-tech, material world, Fate invites readers into an interrogation of their own lives, and into a new kind of vision: the possibility of enough in a culture of more.

Author Biography

Tom Montgomery Fate is the author of four books, including the collection of essaysBeyond the White Noise and the spiritual memoir Steady and Trembling. His essays have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Orion, Iowa Review, Fourth Genre, Christian Century, and many other publications, and they often air on NPR's Living On Earth and Chicago Public Radio. He is a professor of English at College of DuPage in Illinois, where he lives with his family. His cabin is in southwest Michigan.