Great review from Library Journal

Here's an excerpt from Derek Sanderson's review in Library Journal, and here's a link to the full review.

"The author tells the tale of his accident, its aftermath, and his sojourn in Vermont, in alternating vignettes, which build beautifully upon one another until readers come to learn about many of the pivotal events in his life. This particularly touching and personal memoir bears obvious comparison to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.VERDICT A deeply felt and moving journey into no longer taking life, or the world around us, for granted."  

                                                --Derek Sanderson, Library Journal

Essay published on Salon

Here's the link to my essay, adapted from The Point of Vanishing, about my two years in solitude.

Essay published in the Boston Globe

Here's a link to my essay about the anniversary of a personal trauma and the fraught question of commemoration.

Essay about skiing and solitude posted on Powell's Blog

For pub day for The Point of Vanishing, Powell's posted this essay I wrote about a memorable sign at Killington in Vermont.  Here's the link.

Interview in USA Today

Steven Petrow, the Digital Manners Columnist for USA Today, interviewed me for his column.  He gave me the chance to talk about an important topic: how to keep non-digital values alive in a digital age.  Here's the link.

Thoughtful review from The Jewish Week

Sandee Brawarsky has reviewed my book in the context of the reflective period of the High Holidays.  Here's the link.  And here's an excerpt.

His first book is an engrossing and deeply affecting memoir, “The Point of Vanishing” (Beacon Press). Alongside Axelrod, the reader also learns to see differently, both in looking and listening to the everyday, and in looking ahead to the future, to better days. With a sense of urgency and a poetic sensibility, he writes about being in nature, searching for meaning and purpose, learning about love and connection. While he speaks several times of being Jewish, he doesn’t turn to prayer, but his meditative passages, his deep noticing of life, feels prayerful. 
Read more at http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/books/chapters-introspection#lHOoyzP35S5UIr0B.99

My essay, "Into the Blind Spot," published by VQR

An essay I adapted from The Point of Vanishing is appearing in the Fall issue of VQR.  It focuses on the loss of vision to my right eye and on my early efforts to adjust to a world that suddenly looked and felt different.  Here's the link to their website.  The print version will be available October 1st. 

Interview about the point of vanishing featured on CarolineLeavittvillE

Had the honor of being interviewed by the very thoughtful Caroline Leavitt.  Here's the link!

Great review from the Sierra Club's magazine, Sierra.

Here's the link to the full Sierra review and here's an excerpt: 

"A refreshing and honest portrait of hermitage and self-reliance, The Point of Vanishing sidesteps the clichés of the lonely pilgrim narrative. Axelrod writes in muscular, sensory prose, braiding two narratives together: life in the woods and life before the woods. One thread is a two-year-long meditation compressed into whole days that seem to pass as slowly as seasons, while the other drives the reader from college to failed romance. Throughout, the reader is grounded in the scenes and scents of the forest–chopped cords of birch and maple, a nearby apple tree, and wildflowers in the summer." 

                                                                                          --Scott Donahue

Publishers Weekly selects The Point of Vanishing as one of "The Big Indie Books of Fall."

Publishers Weekly talked with booksellers around the country about their picks for Fall Indie titles "with huge potential."   And The Point of Vanishing made the list.  Let's hope they're right! 

Starred review from Booklist

Received word from Booklist that they've given The Point of Vanishing a starred review in their August issue!  Here's the link !  And here's an excerpt!

“This elegant, questioning memoir...achingly limns Axelrod’s two years living alone in a ramshackle cabin in the Vermont woods. His writing—whether describing an aspect of the wilderness around him or noting the “first lesson of solitude: everything really is your fault”—is lush and savory, exact in its intent to document just how Axelrod regained the ability to feel “that quiet of already belonging.” That he allows the reader to participate in this journey, from whatever distance, is more than a pleasure—it’s an honor. A Rockefeller grant had taken Axelrod for a year to Bologna, and there he met the hauntingly beautiful Milena, and the memoir flashes between his life in the woods, avoiding even looking in a mirror in his cabin, and the love he shared and ultimately lost with Milena. By their very nature, memoirs speak of the past. Axelrod so adroitly and wisely re-creates the youngster he was that readers forget the passing of time, hearing only the voice of sorrow, longing, and determination. This memoir is a keeper, touching and eloquent, full of hard lessons learned. Readers will hope for more from first-time-author Axelrod.”

—Eloise Kinney