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A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightning
The author describes her experience of being struck by lightning in August 1991, her struggle back to health, and the physical, psychological, and spiritual impact of the accident
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Gretel Ehrlich
59 books358 followersGretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, novelist, essayist, and poet born on a horse ranch near Santa Barbara, California and educated at both Bennington College in Vermont and UCLA film school. After working in film for 10 years and following the death of a loved one, she began writing full-time in 1978 while living on a Wyoming ranch where she had been filming. Her first book, The Solace of Open Spaces, is a collection of essays describing her love of the region.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
May 9, 2022
When walking on her ranch in Wyoming, Gretel Ehrlich was struck by lightning. Although Wyoming sees more lightning striking humans than any other part of the US, hospitals were ill-equipped to help Ehrlich, and her serious heart problems were dismissed. With her parents' help, she travelled to California, where she was treated by an enthusiastic and dynamic heart specialist, who took the electrical damage to her heart seriously. Her heart could no longer regulate the rate at which it was beating, and would get slower and slower, especially if she tried to move. With medication, she was gradually able to get her heart beating regularly again: her two-year recovery is chronicled in this memoir, in which she explores how the heart works, what we understand about how electrical impulses work within the body, and how hard it is to stay still and recover. She meets lightning strike victims, and slowly comes back to herself with the help of her dog, Sam. I enjoy Ehrlich's writing, especially about place and animals, and her no-nonsense writing style gets across her extreme physical experiences directly and with immediacy. Her writing on the heart is clear and easy to read.
I enjoyed this, and thought it was a well-structured and coherent book, but as someone who is disabled and chronically ill, Ehrlich's strength and vibrancy could sometimes be disheartening. Though she nearly dies, her recovery seems, to me, very swift and straightforward, and though she talks about learning to stay still and cope with weakness, she is actually very dynamic and energetic: less than a year after her injury, she is camping on a cliffside in Alaska, surveying seals. These experiences are far out of the reach of most of us!
I enjoyed this, and thought it was a well-structured and coherent book, but as someone who is disabled and chronically ill, Ehrlich's strength and vibrancy could sometimes be disheartening. Though she nearly dies, her recovery seems, to me, very swift and straightforward, and though she talks about learning to stay still and cope with weakness, she is actually very dynamic and energetic: less than a year after her injury, she is camping on a cliffside in Alaska, surveying seals. These experiences are far out of the reach of most of us!
April 11, 2026
I love this book. And I gave it to my husband to read--we generally read quite different things--he loved it as well. It's poetic, it's prosaic, it's medical, it's botanical, it's oceanic, it's emotional, it's unemotional...it's many things. It's worth reading.
September 11, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It will go on my reread list. The subject is fascinating, but the wonderful thing about this book is Erhlich's use of the English language, pure poetry, lovely and startling imagery, and deep insights.
I had read her book on living in the Arctic and was pleased, but this book blew me away for the above mentioned reasons. I particularly liked her comments and experience in the medical model (I was a nurse). Not all doctors are like Blaine, believe me.
It's also an interesting look at the near death experience and how it affected her life. I am so glad she shared her experience. I would highly recommend this book.
"The body is encoded. It is also an instrument inside of which the song of our lives is sung. As he hunched over an elderly patient and placed a stethoscope to the man's chest, Blaine's eyes closed in deep concentration, as if listening to music."
"In the evenings the boat spun on its anchor and mist fell to its knees, raining directly into seawater. Trees grew on red buoys, bald eagles lifted out of dark trunks like white-steepled chapels, a raven ate a crab in the boat's crow's nest, and schools of herring, who sometimes migrate in rolled-up balls five or six inches thick, broad-jumped the incoming tide."
I had read her book on living in the Arctic and was pleased, but this book blew me away for the above mentioned reasons. I particularly liked her comments and experience in the medical model (I was a nurse). Not all doctors are like Blaine, believe me.
It's also an interesting look at the near death experience and how it affected her life. I am so glad she shared her experience. I would highly recommend this book.
"The body is encoded. It is also an instrument inside of which the song of our lives is sung. As he hunched over an elderly patient and placed a stethoscope to the man's chest, Blaine's eyes closed in deep concentration, as if listening to music."
"In the evenings the boat spun on its anchor and mist fell to its knees, raining directly into seawater. Trees grew on red buoys, bald eagles lifted out of dark trunks like white-steepled chapels, a raven ate a crab in the boat's crow's nest, and schools of herring, who sometimes migrate in rolled-up balls five or six inches thick, broad-jumped the incoming tide."
April 6, 2025
“If I held a match to my heart, would I be able to see it’s workings, would I know my body the way I know a city, with its internal civilization of chemical messengers, electrical storms, cellular cities in which past, present, and future are contained, would I walk the thousand miles of arterial roadways, branching paths of communication and coiled tubing of waste and nutrients, would I know where the passion to live and love comes from?”
This quote made me want to read this book despite the lackluster experience of her other books. She has some amazing, beautiful descriptions, and I get the feeling in real life, she is one of those lovely, dry humored people that people love.
I think she is trying to be so unsentimental that it is a unalive book. It could be that she has absorbed the dry, sere Wyoming sagebrush and wind and can’t step outside it, or inside it, to find the lushness of being human, being full of feelings and experiencing the richness of being human. I hope she can someday.
This quote made me want to read this book despite the lackluster experience of her other books. She has some amazing, beautiful descriptions, and I get the feeling in real life, she is one of those lovely, dry humored people that people love.
I think she is trying to be so unsentimental that it is a unalive book. It could be that she has absorbed the dry, sere Wyoming sagebrush and wind and can’t step outside it, or inside it, to find the lushness of being human, being full of feelings and experiencing the richness of being human. I hope she can someday.
September 27, 2008
Ehrlich's harrowing experience of being struck by lightning and her long journey back to health is woven into a meandering story that explores, among other things, the human body, weather, and Buddhist beliefs regarding the afterlife. I find all of those topics quite interesting yet I was disappointed by this book. To me, it seemed lacking and bloodless, too removed for such a personal story, and left me with little sense of the author's true voice.
February 16, 2021
In August 1991, as a summer thunderstorm approached her Wyoming ranch, Ehrlich was struck by lightning. Although she woke up in a pool of blood, her dogs stayed by her side and she was able to haul herself the quarter-mile home and call 911 before she collapsed completely. Being hit by so much electricity (10–30 million volts) had lasting effects on her health. Her heart rhythms were off and she struggled with fatigue for years to come. In a sense, she had died and come back to a subtly different life.
After relocating to the California coast, she shadows her cardiologist and observes open-heart surgery, attends the annual Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Conference, and explores a new liminal land of beaches and islands. Again and again, she uses metaphors of the bardo and the phoenix to make sense of the in-between state she perhaps still inhabits. Full-on medical but also intriguingly mystical, this is another solid memoir from a phenomenal author. I know of her more as a nature/travel writer (This Cold Heaven is fantastic) and have another of her books on the shelf, The Solace of Open Spaces.
Words about the heart:
“Above and beyond the drama of cardiac arrest, or the threat of it, is the metaphorical territory of the heart: if love desists, if passion arrests, if compassion stops circulating through the arteries of society, then civilization, such as it is, will stop.”
“The thoracic cavity must have been the place where human music began, the first rhythm was the beat of the heart, and after that initial thump, waltzes and nocturnes, preludes and tangos rang out, straight up through flesh and capillary, nerve ganglion and epidermal layer, resonating in sternum bone: it wasn’t light that created the world but sound.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
After relocating to the California coast, she shadows her cardiologist and observes open-heart surgery, attends the annual Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Conference, and explores a new liminal land of beaches and islands. Again and again, she uses metaphors of the bardo and the phoenix to make sense of the in-between state she perhaps still inhabits. Full-on medical but also intriguingly mystical, this is another solid memoir from a phenomenal author. I know of her more as a nature/travel writer (This Cold Heaven is fantastic) and have another of her books on the shelf, The Solace of Open Spaces.
Words about the heart:
“Above and beyond the drama of cardiac arrest, or the threat of it, is the metaphorical territory of the heart: if love desists, if passion arrests, if compassion stops circulating through the arteries of society, then civilization, such as it is, will stop.”
“The thoracic cavity must have been the place where human music began, the first rhythm was the beat of the heart, and after that initial thump, waltzes and nocturnes, preludes and tangos rang out, straight up through flesh and capillary, nerve ganglion and epidermal layer, resonating in sternum bone: it wasn’t light that created the world but sound.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
April 10, 2024
Well this was all over the show! The book jumped round as much as a fibrillating heart in VF!
Ehrlich appears to be unsure what she wanted this book to be. At times we got a layman's biology textbook, at times it was a nature journal, a study of the moon and tides, a discussion of Buddhism, lists of various sea dwelling organisms, but never I feel did we get the true experience of Ehrlich's life post-injury. She decides very irresponsibly to troll off to London on a transatlantic flight mere weeks after suffering a near cardiac arrest. Then she decides to attempt a multi-state book tour shortly after. I mean is she some sort of idiot (you can't blame her poor judgement on her injury)???
The telling of her lightning strike feels both over dramatic and superficial. She never discusses the reality of her post-injury disability, indeed we get more insight into her dog's experience than her own.
And the final worry of the book. She follows a cardiologist on his ward rounds, discussing patient cases, and goes to watch open heart surgery. Erm, consent much??? What about the poor patients that she was peering at, standing over and learning of their medical histories? Did they get any say in the matter? I find this episode highly unethical and unprofessional.
Overall a very disappointing read. This could have been an amazing book but Ehrlich fucked it up good style!
An absolute no no.
Ehrlich appears to be unsure what she wanted this book to be. At times we got a layman's biology textbook, at times it was a nature journal, a study of the moon and tides, a discussion of Buddhism, lists of various sea dwelling organisms, but never I feel did we get the true experience of Ehrlich's life post-injury. She decides very irresponsibly to troll off to London on a transatlantic flight mere weeks after suffering a near cardiac arrest. Then she decides to attempt a multi-state book tour shortly after. I mean is she some sort of idiot (you can't blame her poor judgement on her injury)???
The telling of her lightning strike feels both over dramatic and superficial. She never discusses the reality of her post-injury disability, indeed we get more insight into her dog's experience than her own.
And the final worry of the book. She follows a cardiologist on his ward rounds, discussing patient cases, and goes to watch open heart surgery. Erm, consent much??? What about the poor patients that she was peering at, standing over and learning of their medical histories? Did they get any say in the matter? I find this episode highly unethical and unprofessional.
Overall a very disappointing read. This could have been an amazing book but Ehrlich fucked it up good style!
An absolute no no.
June 19, 2013
While I was recovering from my knee surgery and doing PT at the Mapleton Pool. I met a professor from CU who told me that this was the best book he had ever written. Indeed, she is a beautiful writer and shares her process of recovery after being struck by lightening. Using images of nature she weaves a sometimes intense but beautiful account of her journey back to health.
I found it very inspiring for my own recovery process.
I found it very inspiring for my own recovery process.
January 17, 2018
I read this as part of my "what does it feel like to be struck by lightning?" research. While the author's descriptions of the strike and its aftermath are fascinating, much of the book just didn't grab me, and I found myself skimming over those paragraphs.
February 9, 2025
All epidermal exteriors are nothing, mean nothing, their purpose only to hide the forbidden cities within. The patient's legs and torso were bound in transparent Mylar wrap— a surgical dressing coated with iodine — mummified and inert. Nothing drew my eyes to those exteriors, not even the curled penis, thighs, chest, or the articulation of toes or arch of feet, so unsexed was he. Legs splayed, belly protuberant— a convenient shelf for instruments tossed down— the body had no head, or appeared not to. Eyes, looks, conversation were only surface, the skin of personality. Whatever else came into my line of vision in that first instant was incidental. Nothing could train my eyes from the view. I was a voyager. How did they get inside there? The room was cold. Steam rose from the opened cavity. I felt as if I had broken into a hidden cave and come upon rubies and sapphires.
December 17, 2013
Here we have a memoir based on a woman’s ordeal after being struck by lightning. But perhaps more than memoir as such, it’s a series of essays on the bodies reaction and response to such an event, and the way the human body protects itself, even when its owner attempts to override such protective mechanisms.
Ehrlich is often referred to as a travel writer. The label does her little justice insofar as her writing qua writing goes, as they say in creative writing classes. Maybe travel poet works better. Her word choice, sentence construction and the rhythm of the work reflects a long acquaintance with poetry. In describing her ordeal after the lightning strike, in 1991, she drags the reader into the terrible malaise, the months and months of enervation the event caused her. The writing itself reflects this lugubrious state she finds herself in, a prisoner of the mechanisms her body uses to heal itself, dismissing her efforts to live the life she remembers. Through it all she worries, not about her own eventual healing, her crumbling marriage, displacement in a kind of writer’s diaspora and the mothballing of her work, but that of her dog Sam. (Like God only spelled backward, she says). Sam seems to be her touchstone, the only other being available to her that she allows herself to reach out to. The only exception may be her cardiologist, Blaine, a man whose presence in the book anchors many of the essayistic sections on anatomy and physiology that Ehrlich uses to explicate her healing process.
There are, however, whole sections that seem to have no connection to the disabling lightning strike, such as the boat trip in Alaska, the discussion of oceanic wave formation and the surfers who take advantage of that. In a broad sense, those detours could be metaphor for a human body and its saline, oceanic systems, so perhaps the author wished to leave readers with a sense of just how little we truly understand who and what we are.
Like the great ruminations of Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman and Pico Ayer, with a touch of Anne Lamott tossed in, A Match to the Heart does indeed read like a travel essay of healing. Though it’s said that lightning doesn’t strike twice, a follow up book is begging to be written.
Byron Edgington, author of The Sky Behind Me: A Memoir of Flying & Life
Ehrlich is often referred to as a travel writer. The label does her little justice insofar as her writing qua writing goes, as they say in creative writing classes. Maybe travel poet works better. Her word choice, sentence construction and the rhythm of the work reflects a long acquaintance with poetry. In describing her ordeal after the lightning strike, in 1991, she drags the reader into the terrible malaise, the months and months of enervation the event caused her. The writing itself reflects this lugubrious state she finds herself in, a prisoner of the mechanisms her body uses to heal itself, dismissing her efforts to live the life she remembers. Through it all she worries, not about her own eventual healing, her crumbling marriage, displacement in a kind of writer’s diaspora and the mothballing of her work, but that of her dog Sam. (Like God only spelled backward, she says). Sam seems to be her touchstone, the only other being available to her that she allows herself to reach out to. The only exception may be her cardiologist, Blaine, a man whose presence in the book anchors many of the essayistic sections on anatomy and physiology that Ehrlich uses to explicate her healing process.
There are, however, whole sections that seem to have no connection to the disabling lightning strike, such as the boat trip in Alaska, the discussion of oceanic wave formation and the surfers who take advantage of that. In a broad sense, those detours could be metaphor for a human body and its saline, oceanic systems, so perhaps the author wished to leave readers with a sense of just how little we truly understand who and what we are.
Like the great ruminations of Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman and Pico Ayer, with a touch of Anne Lamott tossed in, A Match to the Heart does indeed read like a travel essay of healing. Though it’s said that lightning doesn’t strike twice, a follow up book is begging to be written.
Byron Edgington, author of The Sky Behind Me: A Memoir of Flying & Life
February 24, 2020
Fascinating both from the science of it, but more from the personal experience. She tells of her experience being struck by lightning and the recovery over the next couple of years. She ponders on the meaning of life, goes into he biology of the body, and muses on her walks on the beach.
June 21, 2012
Let me start by saying that I've enjoyed Ehrlich's other writing, but found this caught up in detail and only moderately interesting. Match was the short and overly simple story of getting struck by lightning and the following two years of recovery. I hate to criticize the book because her journey is as admirable as it is arduous, but from a purely literary standpoint it suffers from the same wandering, wondering pointlessness she confronts as a survivor. I think it was meant to be a cross between My Stroke of Insight, conveying surprising details inside a dramatic medical event, and a Pilgrim at Tinker Creek-esque narrative of natural history and the intersection with spirit. While I commend Ehrlich for her bravery and honesty, this book isn't as good as either of those notable texts.
March 30, 2011
This memoir is Gretel Ehrlich's account of being struck by lightning or, more specifically, of her recovery from being struck by lightning. After the appaling lack of sensible, let alone compassionate, medical care that she initially received, she finally receives care from Dr. Blaine Braniff, a truly gifted healer. The book zig-zags like lightning from here to there, spending a lot of time on science, both of the body and of nature, some of which was interesting but a lot of which had my eyes glazing over. Ehrlich's beautifully descriptive language and her relationship with her dog Sam pulled me through the dull parts. On the whole, however, I found her memoir The Solace of Open Spaces more compelling.
Book Pairings: Alice Hoffman's novel The Ice Queen.
Book Pairings: Alice Hoffman's novel The Ice Queen.
January 30, 2014
This book chronicles the two years after the author was struck by lightning. It follows her mental and physical healing as she travels from Wyoming to California to London back to California, back to Wyoming, back to California. Oh, yes, Alaska was in there too.
It also chronicles her love for her cattle dog and its own health woes.
Erlich writes a poetic prose that is spiritual and scientific, sometimes confusing but always beautiful.
My favorite chapters are the ones where she follows her doctor on his rounds, is a guest in the operating room during heart surgery, and attends the Third Annual Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Conference.
It also chronicles her love for her cattle dog and its own health woes.
Erlich writes a poetic prose that is spiritual and scientific, sometimes confusing but always beautiful.
My favorite chapters are the ones where she follows her doctor on his rounds, is a guest in the operating room during heart surgery, and attends the Third Annual Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Conference.
July 19, 2021
I absolutely adored the way this author wrote about nature in relation to the body. Her whole premise of being struck by lightning and healing from it was lost in me because of her discussing her meanderings from the California coast to Wyoming and her Dr. Blaine blatant HIPPA violations. I kept craving her to add the depth of her backstory. Her divorce. Who she was. Her healing. But what I got instead was a lovely description of poetic nature and a bit of confusion.
December 6, 2019
Being struck by lightning is nothing sort of strange. And Ehrlich manages to put that experience into words. Her narrative is efficient, to the point, distant when it needs to be, though it could use less efficiency and more passion in some moments. But when emotions come into play, when she pours her heart out, this book becomes a page-turner.
June 22, 2012
The first half of this book was engaging and interesting. Then she stopped actually telling the story of her getting struck by lightening. She stops telling the reader all of the details about her experience which help the reader stay grounded in story. Great beginning, weak second half.
October 19, 2019
A nicely balanced mix of memoir and the science of what lightning does to the human body. At times I felt afloat, lost in this book's narrative, but I got the sense that Ms. Ehrlich herself felt lost, too.
July 11, 2020
I picked this up on account of my love affair with Ehrlich's The Solace of Open Spaces. As a nurse I enjoyed her exploration of the pathophysiology of lightning strikes fleshed out by the expertise of her cardiologist turned close friend. Though certainly not the focus of the story, the immediate aftermath of her lightning strike highlights the devastating consequences of chronically under-funded and under-staffed healthcare centers in rural America. Lucky for her, her fame and her supportive parents supported a transition from her Wyoming ranch to a beach-side rental along the California coast where she sought healing through beach walks and close proximity to excellent healthcare. Though The Solace of Open Spaces still has my heart, I enjoyed her familiar descriptions of the Wyoming landscape contrasted with that of her city mouse digs. The companionship of her fellow lightning strike victim ranch pup helped explore the challenges faced between those torn between city and country.
March 31, 2022
The trauma of being struck by lightning and the inability of the medical community to correctly diagnose and treat this condition. The unbelievable neglect of a husband that leaves his wife in such a traumatic condition to go back to whatever he was doing in another part of the state, taking care of cattle or something like that. (I just had to mention this although the author ignores this.) A father who arranges a private jet to fly the author from Montana to Southern California to be treated for the damage caused by a double strike of lightening. It was heartwarming to read about the author's relationships with her dogs. The author is a nature writer so there is a lot of information about nature and the different places the author travels to. For example, she lives on the beach in Southern California, and there is a lot written about the animals and nature in that area. An interesting book. I learned a lot reading this book.
March 9, 2018
I read The Solace of Open Spaces for class in high school and was immediately taken with Gretel Ehrlich's style of writing. Her story of recovery and struggle is beautifully written. Her journey into herself written through the landscapes of the California coast, Wyoming plains and glaciers in Alaska is mesmerizing. Whatever Ehrlich writes about whether it's the inner workings of the heart muscle or the many creatures that occupy tide pools; it's always well researched obvious from the depth and detail she goes into. Vivid descriptions of interacting with landscape for me evoked deep emotion and transported me to wherever she was. I Highly recommend her books to anyone who spends time outside or wanting to expose themselves to some amazing writing.
January 1, 2020
I read this along time ago now - over 20 years. And was very moved by it. The author Gretel Erlich was struck by lightning’s and was injured. I had met a man who also was when I first started doing some hospice volunteering. He recommended this book. Bad pun, I was very struck by both of them and the changes in their lives as a result. I remember Gretel found solace on the land.
I liked the way she wrote. I would like to re-read this and also her book Blizzard that I also read around the same time. The beautiful wide skies of the West and the ranches she wrote about in Blizzard still speak to me. There is stretch of road between Merced CA and Yosemite that I find breathtaking. It’s one of my favorite places. Huge ranch with these huge skies. Close to the earth and coyotes and horses.
I liked the way she wrote. I would like to re-read this and also her book Blizzard that I also read around the same time. The beautiful wide skies of the West and the ranches she wrote about in Blizzard still speak to me. There is stretch of road between Merced CA and Yosemite that I find breathtaking. It’s one of my favorite places. Huge ranch with these huge skies. Close to the earth and coyotes and horses.
October 25, 2025
I like Gretel Ehrlich’s writing in general — it is very lyrical and poetic (though sometimes I have to read paragraphs several times in this distracted age). For this read, I most enjoyed the parts that were concrete stories — her time in the hospital and interactions with medical staff, her journey to Alaska and to the lightning convention. Sometimes there was a bit too much abstract for me, but I recommend the book.
Read
December 18, 2019Gretel Ehrlich tells her own story about being hit by lightning on her ranch in Wyoming, one of her dogs was also hit. Her two years of recovery involve many moves, family, friends, a support group and medical appointments. Her main discovery is few medical people know what to do to help those hit by lightning.
Read
January 12, 2021Loved the language she uses to describe nature and her experience of recovery. This would be a great book to read when backpacking. The pace is slow, not a page turner in my opinion, but very much enjoyed her beautiful descriptions of the landscape. I hope to read her other book 'The Solace of Open Spaces' the next time I visit Wyoming or the great plains.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2021
We are all electric. A meditative blending of poetry and medicine contemplating the connection between our circuitry and our emotional lives – and what happens mentally and physically when that wiring is fried by a bolt from the heavens. After detailing all the ways lightening can mess with us, you'll definitely seek shelter in a storm.
July 23, 2018
This is a fascinating read! I’m a huge fan of this author’s accessible yet erudite style. Somehow she makes the science and statistics behind this wild, frantic, random event (being struck by lightning) as interesting and page-turning as a thriller.
October 26, 2021
It’s like a whole book of prose poetry on life & death and the space in between.
4 1/2 stars. I love Gretel Erlich. Her writing is phenomenal and makes me see the world differently and better and more clearly. Also if my life can be half as interesting as hers by the time I’m done I’ll call it a success.
4 1/2 stars. I love Gretel Erlich. Her writing is phenomenal and makes me see the world differently and better and more clearly. Also if my life can be half as interesting as hers by the time I’m done I’ll call it a success.
June 7, 2017
It's part Barbara Kingsolver, part Terry Tempest Williams, part Dianne Ackerman, and part medical memoir. Absolutely beautiful in its description of nature, and human bodies relation to nature.
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