Review by Lois Harris

book: No Sanctuary Here
author: Lee Hall Delfausse

A Sequel to Snow Sanctuary
The Peppertree Press, LLC 2022  252 pp
Reviewed by Lois Harris

NWTO Life Member Lee Hall Delfausse has written a sequel to her well-received first book published in 2018. While the story stands alone as well, it continues to follow Lia, an Olympic-caliber skier, as she recovers from injury and finds herself facing competing and difficult life choices. Set in the 70s with the turmoil surrounding the baby boomer generation and the war in Vietnam, the main character encounters several individuals who try to sway her into choosing one over the other.

We find Lia working in the District of Columbia while rehabbing an ankle injury. Following a brief trip home, she undertakes a beautifully described journey to the West Coast to enroll at Berkeley. The travelogue-like narrative is interspersed with apt and interesting quotes as Lia tries to come to grips with the sometimes not totally truthful or straightforward people who are trying to influence her.

She experiences an eventful journey that forces her to grow up and to choose her own path. The travelers and groups she meets along the way seem to represent archetypes of that era–the wounded Vietnam veteran, the CIA agent, the draft dodger, the Weathermen, the SDS, FBI, and police, not to mention John Kerry; and all play their part in her tale.

This book would be worth the read just to get the reading list of all the books and poems cited or discussed.  Paraphrasing Robert Frost, Lia remarks, “I shall be telling this with a sigh, ‘Somewhere ages and ages hence’ means someday, down the road, when I’m old and telling stories about my past, I’ll sigh and say that I took the road less travelled by and that’s what ‘made all the difference’ in how my life turned out.”

Many of her peers in this generation can remember where and how some of the headlines of that era affected us and how our own journeys brought us to where we are. It is a not-so-nostalgic reminder of the challenges that divisive politics and points of view can and did create. The younger members of NWTO have the opportunity for a first-hand look into the not-so-distant past. It is an engrossing read, and as Lil Peltz-Petow wrote in the cover notes:  “ I went to bed worrying about Lia’s coming-of-age choices and woke up still thinking about them. I couldn’t put the book down.”

The discussion questions at the end of the book make this a popular choice for book clubs. The questions also encourage you to delve into the thematic and symbolic substance of the book, e.g., are the other female characters positive influences or not?  

You can obtain this book on Amazon, although why not ask for it at your local bookstore?