The Late Interiors (A Life Under Construction)

At a time in her life when she once thought a person should have been well settled in for the long haul, Sandor and her new beloved set out to being a new life together. They buy an old house on the border between the large university, which employs them both, and a small urban/student “wilderness.” Sandor’s young daughter, Hannah, divides her time between her father and her mother’s new home. Almost immediately, Sandor’s partner, Tracy, undergoes sudden heart surgery. He survives, but as they marvel at the fragility of their new life together, they discover that a developer, the Archdiocese of Portland, is planning a multi-story student apartment complex just behind their small, nascent back garden, where a small cluster of Arts and Crafts cottages stands. The development threatens the newfound haven they hope to make for themselves and Sandor’s daughter.

The Late Interiors tells the story of five seasons of change and renewal in a woman’s life, braiding entries from a garden journal with lyric meditations and full-blown essays on our eternal—and contradictory—hunger for adventure and refuge. Making a life in art, finding domestic harmony in a new partnership, discovering how a neighborhood comes together to take on seemingly unbeatable developers, and learning how to move forward through hardship and fear to embrace life in its fullest are the enduring themes of this witty and beautifully crafted memoir.