Director of programs and education Martha Williams recommends The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey.
I have found this little memoir to be the perfect companion on days that keep me indoors. It’s a quiet book that invites us to observe what’s right around us, even as we dream about the wide world beyond our window.
In her mid-thirties, Elisabeth Tova Bailey finds herself struck with a mysterious illness that damages her nervous system, sending her into years of horizontal inactivity. Harsh sounds and lights are too much for her body, and her once-active life becomes one of solitude and quiet. She spends countless days lying in a studio with short visits from caretakers and friends to sustain her still-active mind.
One day, a friend brings her a pot of wild violets, and with them, a small snail. With little else to do, Bailey begins observing the snail as it surveys its own new, strange, and unasked-for surroundings. As she watches the snail’s movements around the pot, and later within a terrarium another friend creates for her, Bailey brings us into the calm and miniscule world of this tiny creature.
She finds comfort and companionship in its serene world full of wonder and possibility.
Bailey pours what energy she has into reading about snails – from 19th century naturalists, to poets Elizabeth Bishop and Rainer Maria Rilke, and writers like E.O. Wilson and Patricia Highsmith. (Some of my favorite poems that she includes in the book are haikus by the 18th century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa: sleeping and rising / always with your shell! / oh snail).
Remarkably, Bailey resists anthropomorphizing her new friend. Rather, she often imagines what humans might learn from snails, or what we would be capable of with their skills and adaptations. Sometimes, she is envious of the snail, especially as her own body threatens to fail her.
What if she, too, could go dormant for months at a time, closed up from the world’s challenges for a little rest?
What Bailey shows us most is how observing, learning about, and imagining the life of another creature (big or small) opens our own world and helps us to better understand ourselves and our place on this planet that we all share.
In a post-COVID world, I think we all may have greater appreciation for Bailey’s story about diseases beyond our knowledge and control. In a world rife with division and fear, stories such as this remind us where curiosity and wonder can lead us, when we let it. And in a world moving ever faster, Bailey’s words are a reminder to slow down, to observe the beauty and mystery right around us.
Find it in our collection here.
Note: Martha Williams will host The Community Library Book Club at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, with a discussion of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. More/register here.
