Out of My Shoes

A multi-layered memoir of transformation Out of My Shoes weaves together events from the life of the narrator who grew up during the 1940's and '50's in a sheltered Southern California environment. While attending Vassar College Meredith marries an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy New York family. They move to Berkeley where she becomes a traditional faculty wife and mother. Eventually troubled by her life of privilege she leaves her marriage to pursue her interests in photography writing and social activism. When she meets Jayda a formerly homeless African-American woman poet their complex relationship with its racial and sensual tensions is at the heart of this mid-life creative awakening. Issues of class and race are intertwined in compelling stories both poignant and humorous as the narrator struggles to find a new identity.