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dullshimmer's review against another edition
4.0
In many ways it is hard to explain or review this work by Annie Dillard without actually experiencing it. In some ways it is a challenging read, it is not structured like many of the books we read. It is woven together with a handful of themes. Through these themes Dillard seems to be exploring our relationship to God. Is there a God? What is He like? Do we have meaning and purpose? If there is a God and we do have meaning how do we account for the suffering, pain, and evil in the world?
These are the kind of questions Dillard seems to be wrestling with in this book. While the journey she takes you on is interesting down to the unique way she structures her work. It is not a journey that has an ending in this work. While she may be seeking answers, she isn't too interested in giving answers. It is a good book to get you thinking and reflecting on the world we are in and on God.
These are the kind of questions Dillard seems to be wrestling with in this book. While the journey she takes you on is interesting down to the unique way she structures her work. It is not a journey that has an ending in this work. While she may be seeking answers, she isn't too interested in giving answers. It is a good book to get you thinking and reflecting on the world we are in and on God.
bush42's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
she is... such a good writer. stunning work. her connection with teilhard is engrossing. i want to love everything i can about this world and never, ever die.
makennadykstra's review against another edition
3.5
with love, probably the least captivating book by dillard i’ve read, but still very engrossing & enlightening! she relies on statistics & ratios to approach the massiveness of death, which easily could’ve been trite but somehow wasn’t? the fundamental project of this text relies on conceptualizing God & people’s relations with / attempts to cognize God throughout various histories, religions, places, etc. sometimes i subbed “God” for various values God represents; sometimes i appreciated the theology as a way of being in& of the world without the self as ego; it was a time! as always, she remains a master of metaphor & poeticism: ‘this feeble & creased life’
jonscott9's review against another edition
4.0
So many people I know (or have known) read this in our university days, so of course I picked it up 20 years onward. And, damn, just too many gorgeous little passages to quote any as if above the others. As this read went on, I wondered how Dillard would wrap it up. She didn't do so tidily, of course; the way this ends is as profoundly simple and existential as the rest of this book. Truly, there are a couple dozen poignant, almost-staggering questions posed in this book that made me glad I was sitting down at the time.
Chock-full of esoteric information and compelling narrative, mostly from decades and centuries ago, Dillard moves among naturalist and literary ponderings, anthropology and archaeology, with great ease and greater wit.
So much stories and morsels throughout this tome could be just as easily read as scattershot and oddly packaged. I find Dillard binds them all together in clever, perceptive ways. Everything that has been still is and always will be.
Everything from terra cotta warriors to newborn babies being swaddled by nurses, from the famous to the everyday person, gets some time in the light here. There's a lot of reliance on the thoughts and writings of Simone Weil. Among holy books, Dillard is as apt to quote from ancient texts as the Torah, Buddhist teachings or the Qur'an as the Bible. This is among the litany of reasons I appreciate her. She contextualizes perspectives, places and people and frames them in ways that honor their times and cultures, their nuances and contradictions. Her topics and characters always contain multitudes.
Particularly poignant are those passages about ancient and more modern-day China, Israel and Palestine, given current states of these lands and peoples. Also gripping are the late-in-book vignettes about a schoolgirl in the Northeast who goes missing during a trip to a forest. I believe Dillard makes her something of a literary sister to the young girl, her face disfigured by a fire, who is central to Dillard's brief masterpiece, Holy the Firm.
Chock-full of esoteric information and compelling narrative, mostly from decades and centuries ago, Dillard moves among naturalist and literary ponderings, anthropology and archaeology, with great ease and greater wit.
So much stories and morsels throughout this tome could be just as easily read as scattershot and oddly packaged. I find Dillard binds them all together in clever, perceptive ways. Everything that has been still is and always will be.
Everything from terra cotta warriors to newborn babies being swaddled by nurses, from the famous to the everyday person, gets some time in the light here. There's a lot of reliance on the thoughts and writings of Simone Weil. Among holy books, Dillard is as apt to quote from ancient texts as the Torah, Buddhist teachings or the Qur'an as the Bible. This is among the litany of reasons I appreciate her. She contextualizes perspectives, places and people and frames them in ways that honor their times and cultures, their nuances and contradictions. Her topics and characters always contain multitudes.
Particularly poignant are those passages about ancient and more modern-day China, Israel and Palestine, given current states of these lands and peoples. Also gripping are the late-in-book vignettes about a schoolgirl in the Northeast who goes missing during a trip to a forest. I believe Dillard makes her something of a literary sister to the young girl, her face disfigured by a fire, who is central to Dillard's brief masterpiece, Holy the Firm.
octophile's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first Annie Dillard book I have ever read. I read it in a single sitting and decided I would read the rest of her books.
jwilding's review against another edition
5.0
Beyond me.
"They found that Bride Sabbath, whose light sanctifies the week, was akin to the Shekinah, that weeping and wandering woman who figures as God's presence in the world, exiled here in suffering until redemption brings the world to God."
"When the liturgy ended, most men removed their prayer shawls and phylacteries, and left; a few lingered to study. Later, if the boy saw a book left open on a bench, he spread a prayer shawl to cover its open pages. In his world, people respected books. When a book wore out, they buried it like a person."
"The omnipotence of God makes no sense if it requires the all-causingness of God. Good people quit God altogether at this point, and throw the baby out with the bath, perhaps because they last looked into God in their childhoods, and have not changed their views of divinity since. It is not the tooth fairy."
"Scratching under a suburb of St. Louis, archaeologists recently found thirteen settlements, one on top of the other, some of which lasted longer than St. Louis has. Excavating the Combe Grenal cave in France, paleontologist found sixty different layers of human occupation."
"At what number do other individuals blur for me?"
"Ecstasy, I think, is a soul's response to the waves holiness makes as it nears."
"They found that Bride Sabbath, whose light sanctifies the week, was akin to the Shekinah, that weeping and wandering woman who figures as God's presence in the world, exiled here in suffering until redemption brings the world to God."
"When the liturgy ended, most men removed their prayer shawls and phylacteries, and left; a few lingered to study. Later, if the boy saw a book left open on a bench, he spread a prayer shawl to cover its open pages. In his world, people respected books. When a book wore out, they buried it like a person."
"The omnipotence of God makes no sense if it requires the all-causingness of God. Good people quit God altogether at this point, and throw the baby out with the bath, perhaps because they last looked into God in their childhoods, and have not changed their views of divinity since. It is not the tooth fairy."
"Scratching under a suburb of St. Louis, archaeologists recently found thirteen settlements, one on top of the other, some of which lasted longer than St. Louis has. Excavating the Combe Grenal cave in France, paleontologist found sixty different layers of human occupation."
"At what number do other individuals blur for me?"
"Ecstasy, I think, is a soul's response to the waves holiness makes as it nears."
bishop_504's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
This was another book that I read for a class.
Initially, I disliked this book. There was little in the way of an introduction, and I thought that the subject matter was unnecessarily depressing. However, as I continued reading, I understood that this sad but true subject- infants born with severe physical disability- had sparked this huge conversation within the author. Throughout the book the author tries to answer the questions that are posed in the first couple pages. What are humans? Why are we what we are? Does it mean something that we are here? What is religion? Is there one true religion? Is there God? Is God all powerful? If God is all powerful, why do bad things happen? In that vein, what is morality? It was fascinating to see how one idea blended into the next as well as the various sources that Dillard used to try to make sense of our place, both in this universe and outside it.
Not only were the questions raised interesting in themselves, the way that Dillard explored these ideas was extremely effective. Each chapter is divided into headings, and each heading picks up more-or-less where the last chapter’s heading did. So each heading was not only connected to its own chapter, but also to sections of a story across every chapter of the book. This had to have been very difficult to write: making sure that each chapter was coherent without sacrificing the different questions or themes that each heading consistently discussed. Additionally, I believe that the headings help give the book rhythm and organization in what could have easily turned into an incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness disaster. I think the organization of the book could easily be glossed over as unimportant, but in my opinion, it is the thread that is holding the whole book together. This shows Dillard’s skill as an author, because she is able to weave together several paradoxical ideas into one compelling narrative.
Initially, I disliked this book. There was little in the way of an introduction, and I thought that the subject matter was unnecessarily depressing. However, as I continued reading, I understood that this sad but true subject- infants born with severe physical disability- had sparked this huge conversation within the author. Throughout the book the author tries to answer the questions that are posed in the first couple pages. What are humans? Why are we what we are? Does it mean something that we are here? What is religion? Is there one true religion? Is there God? Is God all powerful? If God is all powerful, why do bad things happen? In that vein, what is morality? It was fascinating to see how one idea blended into the next as well as the various sources that Dillard used to try to make sense of our place, both in this universe and outside it.
Not only were the questions raised interesting in themselves, the way that Dillard explored these ideas was extremely effective. Each chapter is divided into headings, and each heading picks up more-or-less where the last chapter’s heading did. So each heading was not only connected to its own chapter, but also to sections of a story across every chapter of the book. This had to have been very difficult to write: making sure that each chapter was coherent without sacrificing the different questions or themes that each heading consistently discussed. Additionally, I believe that the headings help give the book rhythm and organization in what could have easily turned into an incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness disaster. I think the organization of the book could easily be glossed over as unimportant, but in my opinion, it is the thread that is holding the whole book together. This shows Dillard’s skill as an author, because she is able to weave together several paradoxical ideas into one compelling narrative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
gadicohen93's review against another edition
4.0
This was a deep if thin book — like sunlight dappled on your conscious. Beautiful prose that seems to float in the air. Appreciated the parts set in Tzfat, Israel.
alyssapusateri's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Genocide
kcrouth's review against another edition
4.0
Annie Dillard is one of my favorites. This book of reflections starts with what seems to be random pondering but quickly turns into a deep, profound and moving meditation on time, space, life, and the meaning thereof. Ms. Dillard's style is difficult for some, but well worth taking the time to savor. This is a great collection, i recommend it.