The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating / Elisabeth Tova Bailey

The snail is a lowly creature, and probably one that most of us have never truly contemplated. The snail was probably a creature to which the author hadn't given much thought before a debilitating disease kept her confined to bed, practically immobile, for months and months. One day a friend put a woodland snail in a pot of violets on her nightstand.

After being transported from the woods, the snail had emerged from its shell into the alien territory of my room, with no clue as to where it was or how it had arrived; the lack of vegetation and the desertlike surroundings must have seemed strange. The snail and I were both living in altered landscapes not of our choosing; I figured we shared a sense of loss and displacement. p 20

The companionship of this tiny creature is what sees her through the darkest days of her imprisonment by her horrible disease. The snail, thriving in its slow-mo existence and life of undemanding simplicity, provides interest and comfort to the author.

Not only does this small book provide copious fascinating details of the shelled gastropod, but the snail serves as a metaphor for the author’s newly defined reality. The snail’s slower pace and circumscribed existence reflect her own recently narrowed boundaries and helps her come to terms with her limits, her new sense of being.

As the months drifted by, it was hard to remember why the endless details of a healthy life and a good job had seemed so critical. It was odd to see my friends overwhelmed by their busy lives, when they could do all the things I could not, without a second thought. p 11

This is a thought-provoking book. It reminded me of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but the study of the snail gives it an entirely different feel. Read it as an amateur naturalist or as a meditation on life, either way it will not disappoint.

(The last time I was at the pet store buying cat litter I seriously paused in the aquarium aisle, thinking I’d fill one with moss and ferns and make a nice terrarium and adopt my own pet snail.)

Have a look at the book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2suzMV_ME

Thanks to my sister-in-law, who gave me this book as a gift!