Entering into May Sarton's mind, through her [The House by the Sea: A Journal], is an agreeable and instructive experience. The small but telling events of her daily existence teach the reader, by example, how to reflect more keenly on one's own experiences.

Sarton's selected moments include a daily walk with her dog and cat through the woods, her feelings about aging, the visits of a close friend now almost senile, her efforts in her garden (she wishes visitors would observe it more attentively).

In her isolated home on the Maine coast, Sarton finds the utter solitude she needs for writing, and yet she does not escape periods of acute loneliness. She wrestles with the question: which is her greater need, Time for work or time for people?…

[Her] observations prove her theory of edging her way to the larger truths by dealing with smaller insights born of...