TURN TO STONE

A woman heals from heartbreak via her newfound obsession with the sport of rock climbing.

Weinstein is no stranger to risk and adventure, having traveled widely and rather daringly, frequently with her best friend, Leila, at her side. But following a particularly brutal breakup with a manipulative and violent boyfriend, she flees Brooklyn and its punk rock scene for refuge in the outdoors culture of the West Coast. She finds her way to climbing at the invitation of “dirtbag” campground buddies and quickly finds herself on the fringes of legendary climbers, drawn to the focus and persistence that the sport demands and the potential perilousness of its brushes with failure. She takes to the sport with urgency and desperation to escape the “sorrow and shame” chasing her. The vulnerability that Weinstein shows in early chapters that recount her breakup gives way to a collection of rocks and routes, climbing and romantic partners. At the heart of her story is a self-transformation facilitated by her confrontations with danger and death’s possibility while ascending the rock. She discusses a range of influences, desires, and expectations that she has tried for decades to reconcile: the caution and fear of her parents, her longing for a partner and family, and the comparative conventional success of her peers. Additional commentary on sociopolitical issues and occasional judgments about her new hobby’s participants pepper the text. The depth of her metamorphosis occasionally becomes muddied by the technical jargon and frequent marijuana use of her new sport, with moments of insight and understanding periodically poking out between vertical conquests and descriptions of otherworldly surroundings. While the less vertically inclined reader may leave thirsty for a more thorough and deliberate reflection, Weinstein nevertheless makes a case for stepping radically outside of one’s physical and philosophical comfort zones to find strength and purpose.

A spirited, if at times scattered, story of self-preservation and discovery.