Community Reviews
[a:Annie Dillard|5209|Annie Dillard|https:images.gr-assets.com/authors/1240154705p2/5209.jpg] kept popping up on lists of essayists. I can recall [a:Ken Liu|2917920|Ken Liu|https:images.gr-assets.com/authors/1400610835p2/2917920.jpg] recommending this book, and it also appears on Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction books. It had a lot to recommend it, but found it to be all over the place and hard for me to follow. Dillard's observations of nature are perhaps more lyrical, but also more cluttered than, say, [a:Edward O. Wilson|31624|Edward O. Wilson|https:images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227367019p2/31624.jpg]'s. From the praise the book has received, I chalk it up to the fact that Dillard is simply writing over my head. But at times, it seems like she was hallucinating.
There are some fascinating parts, but she flits from topic to topic like a butterfly to flowers, and I couldn't keep up. One moment she is describing the Virginia wilderness, and in the next, she's describing the Uncertainty Principle.
One thing that comes through clearly is Dillard's joy in nature its wonders. She is like a child exploring the countryside, leaving no stone unturned. There is a verve to her writing that kept me reading, despite everything.
There are some fascinating parts, but she flits from topic to topic like a butterfly to flowers, and I couldn't keep up. One moment she is describing the Virginia wilderness, and in the next, she's describing the Uncertainty Principle.
One thing that comes through clearly is Dillard's joy in nature its wonders. She is like a child exploring the countryside, leaving no stone unturned. There is a verve to her writing that kept me reading, despite everything.
word of advice: consider reading this book a single chapter a sitting... put it down, come back to it later. It may be under 300pgs but spread it over a whole season and you'll absorb more of it.
For a near 200 pages I was under its spell, but then strangely I wanted to be done with it. I grew weary and anxious from the seemingly increasing heavy leaning on the biblical. I get the desire to want to assimilate all that you're reading and learning into the task at hand, such as writing this book... but it begins to batter you with her attempt at finding-god-through-nature obsession. I was relieved to read in the afterward this: "I'm afraid I suffered youths drawback, too: a love of grand sentences, and fancied a grand sentence was not quite done until it was overdone."
Still, a beautiful book, an intelligent mind at work... just don't "hit the wall" by trying to read too much to fast.
For a near 200 pages I was under its spell, but then strangely I wanted to be done with it. I grew weary and anxious from the seemingly increasing heavy leaning on the biblical. I get the desire to want to assimilate all that you're reading and learning into the task at hand, such as writing this book... but it begins to batter you with her attempt at finding-god-through-nature obsession. I was relieved to read in the afterward this: "I'm afraid I suffered youths drawback, too: a love of grand sentences, and fancied a grand sentence was not quite done until it was overdone."
Still, a beautiful book, an intelligent mind at work... just don't "hit the wall" by trying to read too much to fast.
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