‘To live on this continent exhilarates me, ’ announces Nora Mitchell early in this book; then she goes on to prove it. Her passionate voice sounds like Whitman out of breath, writing in gaspingly brief lines; she seems deeply in love with everything she sees, everyone who touches her. Every experience–driving at dawn or watching Korean pearl divers–is read as transcendently meaningful. Mitchell never slides into the maudlin or bathetic; she shows too much emotional integrity for that. Passion like this is rare and exhilarating. –Booklist