Spending the past pandemic year-and-a-half stuck inside a small east Vancouver apartment really didn’t faze author Stephen Altschuler. In the late 1970s, Altschuler opted for a stretch of self-imposed exile from the world of people that was much longer and much lonelier.
“I spent three years living in a cabin that was 12 by 16, and the only convenience was that the outhouse was attached,” he said. “After a while, that small space started looking like a whole universe to me.”
Altschuler’s introspective journeys through the New Hampshire woods — and through his own searching psyche — are the subject of his poetic memoir “Into the Woods … and Beyond” (Sacajawea Press, $14.99) released earlier this year.
Altschuler said he grew up deeply introspective and prone to anxiety and depression. When he was in high school, the one pursuit that seemed to fit his introverted personality and bring out the best in him was that game of individual concentration and momentary perfection: golf.