My Year of Dirt and Water: Journal of a Zen Monk's Wife in Japan

(Paperback)

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MUCH MORE THAN "ZEN."There is a lot here that will appeal to Buddhists, but this is a book from a unique perspective: that of the partnerof the Zen monk. How does it feel to be left behind and also to be out of context in Japan First and foremost, this is a book about seeking, and the spirituality of everyday life.

A RARELY SEEN JAPAN: Franz reveals details of personal relationships and physically/mentally taxing practices that are fresh and insightful, with vivid portraits of characters boastingunique charms and personalities. Armchair travelers will like the insight into untouristed areas and lifestyles.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE AS A MEANS OF AND METAPHOR FOR PERSONAL GROWTH. For practitioners and truthseekers everywhere. Franz's bookwill appeal to anyone who is actively engaged in dealing with a painful past in order to move forward. In this case the frame is Buddhism, but the goals and struggles are universal.

Reviews

Intriguing... Franz writes in elegantly understated journal entries, each with a satisfying heft, like a rustic wabi-sabi tea bowl. --The New York Times Tracy Franz's poignant memoir, My Year of Dirt and Water, is full of carefully observed details. . . what emerges is a discreet love story, but also an account of a woman discovering her own inner strength while living in Japan. --The Japan Times Franz lovingly introduces readers to the intimate parts of Japanese culture and society, while using what she's learned to look honestly at her own life." --The Literary Review Franz's beautifully crafted memoir... is both immediate and reflective, full of anecdotes from Franz's daily life as a gaijin as well as meditations on time, love, culture, and more. --Politics and Prose Bookstore This is a book that, once begun, sends assumptions tumbling, one after the other." --Kyoto Journal An evocative look at the expat experience in Japan. . . --Lion's Roar Magazine Franz matches restraint with reflexiveness, the precision of her self-awareness countered by her telling omissions. --The Millions While [Franz] profoundly misses her husband, this beautiful memoir is not about a woman waiting. She too is a student of Zen, of karate, of the Japanese language, and of traditional pottery. --Pacific Rim Review of Books Franz has written a moving account of her experiences, not just what it's like to be the wife of a Zen priest who is also a gaijin, but of what it's like when you finally understand." --Asian Review of Books The beauty of the descriptions will make you want to pick up your own clay, or more likely, search out whatever piece of Japanese culture lies closest to your heart. --Ian Yates, GaijinPot My Year of Dirt and Water takes readers on a personal journey of reflection, posing questions that are larger than the life in which they arose. The very act of reading this journal is meditative, prompting a profound stillness worth experiencing and definitely worth recommending. --World Literature Today My Year of Dirt and Water incorporates Zen, pottery, living abroad, and Franz's past and present with skillful delicacy, connecting these elements as if by analogy. Traversing territory defined by lack, My Year of Dirt and Water offers the singular pleasure of a story that 'obscures but is not obscured'. --Foreword Reviews The vivid and highly distilled prose drew me in from the beginning and gave me the pleasurable sense of a journey to a world different from my own. --Tricycle Magazine "My Year of Dirt and Water is a wonderfully intimate and brave work. . . The reader will be enriched by a sanctuary of words, by the author's heartbeat and compassionate sense of beauty." --Richard Gilbert, author of Poetry as Consciousness: Haiku Forests, Space of Mind, and an Ethics of Freedom (Keibunsha) Crisp, glittering, deep and probing... --Dai-En Bennage, translator of Zen Seeds [Tracy Franz] is a warm, calm, and curious voice that allows us to see Japan in an accessible way. --Cannonball Read My Year of Dirt and Water turns out to be a narrative treat. Even the brief journal entries capture vibrant peeks into life in Japan--the good, the bad and the frustrating. From her pottery classes to family visits, Tracy Franz takes you to a sometimes magical and sometimes complex world, but one very much full in enriching experiences. --JQ Magazine My Year of Dirt and Water is filled with questions - on love and loneliness, on fulfillment and failure - and as Tracy ponders them (both behind and away from the potter's wheel), it prompts a self-examination by the reader of their own state of awareness, happiness, and acceptance. --Uncovering Japan While waiting for her husband to complete his year of formal training, Tracy teaches English at a university for young women, takes pottery classes from a Japanese teacher (hence the dirt and water), and chips away at her meditation practice. Amidst it all, she keeps a daily journal that eventually becomes this book. Her lyrical prose and sense of moment bring each vignette to life. --Sumeru Press In a year apart from everyone she loves, Tracy Franz reconciles her feelings of loneliness and displacement into acceptance and trust. Keenly observed and lyrically told, her journal takes us deep into the spirit of Zen, where every place you stand is the monastery. --Karen Maezen Miller, author of Paradise in Plain Sight: Lessons from a Zen Garden It is a long poem, a string of koans and startling encounters, a clear dream of transmissions beyond words. And it is a remarkable love story that moved me to tears. --Bonnie Nadzam, author of Lamb and Lions, and co-author of Love in the Anthropocene A remarkable account of a woman's sojourn, largely in Japan, while her husband undergoes a year-long training session in a Zen Buddhist monastery. Difficult, disciplined, and interesting as the husband's training toward becoming a monk may be, it is the author's tale that has our attention here. --John Keeble, author of seven books, including The Shadows of Owls

Author Bio

Originally from Alaska, Tracy Franz lived in Japan for ten years. She now resides in Nova Scotia with her husband--Soto Zen priest Koun Franz--and their two children. Her essays have most recently appeared in Lotus Petals in the Snow: Voices of Canadian Buddhist Women (Sumeru, 2016), Lion's Roar, and Tricycle Magazine. Find her at tracyfranz.com