Meanwhile, Next Door to the Good Life

by Jean Hay Bright, Samantha C. S. Jones (Illustrator), David Bright (Editor)

This is Jean Hay Bright's original 2003 memoir. (The Revised 10th anniversary edition is now available, at Amazon.com/Meanwhile-Next-Door-Good-L...) This early book chronicles the 1970s when Jean and her first husband, a traumatized Vietnam veteran, homesteaded in Harborside, Maine on land bought from Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of Living the Good Life. With the help of letters Jean's mom saved and gave back to her, this memoir recounts the joys and pains of one woman's personal experience going back to the land, from personal and community dynamics, through several births and the many deaths in that neighborhood. Beyond her own story, Jean also used her investigative reporting skills to examine some long-standing and nagging questions surrounding the Nearings. Her research turned up some surprising and enlightening facts about how Helen and Scott Nearing actually lived -- and died. Part of the neighborhood dynamic Jean recounts involved abutters on the other side, Eliot and Sue Coleman (who also bought land from the Nearings), and their young daughters Melissa, Heidi and Clara. Eliot would later write several highly-popular gardening books, while some 40 years later (2011) Melissa would write her best-selling memoir, This Life Is In Your One Dream, 60 acres, and a Family Undone . Jean's book is the adult version of what happened on Cape Rosier during those years. The April 2012 paperback version of Melissa's book lists Meanwhile, Next Door to the Good Life among the sources for many of the non-family details woven through Melissa's text. For those who want a closer look at Living the Good Life and how that best-selling Nearing book impacted real back-to-the-landers, Meanwhile, Next Door to the Good Life is for you.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2003

Reviews

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY liked this book. Jean Hay Bright and her husband bought land from Scott and Helen Nearing back in the 70's. The Nearings wrote many books on self sustainable living and were thought by some to be who started the movement of "Back to the Land." On one side of Jean and her husband were the Nearings, on the other side was Eliot Coleman, author of many organic gardening and cooking books. We follow the Brights through their journey of self sustainability, building their home from trees on the property, starting their garden, the animals they chose for food, the births of their 2 children and their friendships with the Nearings and Colemans. We learn many facts about these people, which may have been glossed over in the books they wrote. It isn't a poke and jab story, but rather a better insight as to how these people really lived and survived on their land. The end got a little dull, but otherwise I couldn't wait to read what happened next. Great Read. Definitely recommend.

[Jennifer Ockerlander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Answered a lot of questions

I first read “The Good Life” in the mid 1990’s. While my husband and I have never homesteaded, I have incorporated many of the values and principles into my life. This answered some of my questions as to “how did the Nearings really live on their homestead in an economic sense”. Spoiler: they had inheritance and trust funds. I feel like the author was very objective and in the end, I don’t feel like this new information took away from what Scott and Helen Nearing did or their life’s work. I do just wish that the Nearings had been a little more forthcoming in their books about how they were able to start homesteading.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting side story to the Nearings. What Jean Hay Bright did was to shake off that mystique of going back to the land. I think, or perhaps want to believe, that the Nearings had it together and were dedicated to living this lifestyle, but I also feel that so many people who joined them in Maine were more or less attempting to find themselves more than committing themselves.

If you have an abiding interest in homesteading, the somewhat radical views on societ the Nearings espoused (albeit fairly mundane in 2015/2016), this offers a nice balance to the Nearings.

[Amy Kimball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t know why, but I was fascinated by ‘The Good Life’, which left me with many questions.
‘Meanwhile..’ addresses many of them. A very enjoyable read

[Justin P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for the critical thinker or skeptic whose heard about the Back to the Land movement. Have you read Walden or The Good Life? Bright's book tells the other side of the story that Thoreau and the Nearings left out.

Did you know one of the most prominent organic gardeners in the US, whose book is required reading in many gardening classes, Elliot Coleman, was the neighbor of the Nearings?

Or how land holdings changed over time in the community that the Nearings lived in? How could the Nearings afford "cheap" land?

Bright shares answers to questions like these in forgotten stories of that community. Bright is a journalist, and this book shows her skill. She uses a narrative re-telling of the who, what, where, and when. Critical reviews evidently expected local "gossip", which is not here. Bright neither praises nor condemns the Back to the Landers; Bright herself was one of them, and faced challenges that many people can empathize with. Instead of being lop-sided, Bright uses a more narrative look at the lives that touched the Nearings, how those lives changed over the decades, and about the land they lived on. So there's no gossip, but there are details that the reader could interpret. For example, the Nearings kept selling land over time ... and that is a source of their income not clearly discussed by Bank to Landers but Bright makes a note of it for her readers.

A must-have for anyone whose read The Good Life and wondered how it really happened.

[Alison Lauderdale · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing sometimes seemed disconnected, but I realize the author was using several different sources (journals, letters, newsprint) to tell her story. From the reviews on Amazon, I thought there would be more "gossip" about the community living on Cape Rosier, but it was basically the author's experience homesteading there and the dissolution of her marriage and thus move to a more 'standard' American lifestyle. While I enjoyed Ms. Bright's insight on the Cape Rosier community, I much preferred Melissa Coleman's recent memoir, "This Life is in Your Hands."

[TM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I re-read this for research regarding my thesis. While I appreciate all that Bright went through, I feel that the end of the book, where she focuses on Scott and Helen's deaths, could have been done with fewer repritings of articles and obituaries. I would have liked to have seen more of her own personal reflections on what caused her and Keith t become homesteaders, what went well for them and what didn't specifically in their pursuits. It felt like a lot of the hands-on achievements and failures may have gone over looked.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decided to read this take on "back to the land" homesteading in Maine during the early 1970's after reading Melissa Coleman's book (this woman was a neighbor). Some similarities, but a different point of view made it interesting.