Reviews

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard

ccaedi's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Annie Dillard writes beautifully. The title of "An American Childhood" is a bitter pill to swallow, though. The book's reflections are alternatingly universal: "Living, you stand under a waterfall... Can you breathe here? Here where the force is greatest?... Yes, you could learn to live like this." and wild demonstrations of wealth and class, which depict only the narrowest version of an American Childhood - often only tangentially acknowledged as her own: "The same old Pittsburgh families ran this church... When they collected money, I noted, they were especially serene. Collecting money was, after all, what they did during the week... I knew these people, didn't I? I knew their world, which was, in some sense, my world too, since I could not, outside of books, name another."

Still, for the human breaths and the wisdom of a woman looking back on her youth with a clarity I am only starting to guess at, this book feels like a humble gift. 

darbystouffer's review against another edition

4.0

This book has had me thinking about nostalgia and my childhood all week. She reminds me of feelings that I had when I was her age, she writes like a lady, but a lady who doesn't take herself too seriously. As she grew up, I liked her less and less. Her thirst for knowledge led her to believe that she knew everything. I can very much relate to this, sadly. But looking back with retrospect on her childhood, she provides a beautiful story peppered with insights into not just a child's soul, but all of humankind.

audragio's review against another edition

informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

3.5

waitenathan's review against another edition

3.0

Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is perhaps the best book I have ever read, and I'm slowly working my way through her other books. At first I was disappointed in this book, which seemed like random wanderings of a privileged childhood. At one point she talks about how opening an unknown book is like stepping on a landmine hoping it will go off and blow you to smithereens, but she writes that most books end up being duds. I feared this one was a dud, and much of it was. But every once in a while a scene or a line would come up and wallop me. It helped me understand my own kids a little better and start to reckon with my own tendency to live in the present and not consider my past. The end, as she ties together the threads of different points in her life, is essential reading. Also, I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator is marvelous.

cdlindwall's review against another edition

5.0

Whenever I come across a book I love this much, it's difficult to find anything to say. Any description I could give, any metaphor I could use, any sad cliched reaction ("Oh that was breathtaking") sounds pathetic in attempting to somehow convey how brilliant this book was and deserves to be recognized as.

But, with that being said, I will try:

Dillard makes me nostalgic for something I can't even quite put my finger on. She takes what would be the mundane in any less skilled writer's hands and weaves it into this profound illustration of what it means to be a child, to grow, to become aware, to live. Her prose allow for both the 12 year old, rambling, eager, spirited, aspect of Dillard to peer through, but with the keen wisdom of her current self so fondly looking back, reminiscing, smiling. She wants the reader to come, glimpse in at her story, laugh with her, remember with her. And this I do. But more importantly, her memoir has left me in a dizzy state of remembering my own stories, my own childhood, my own memories and hardships and realizations.

It was beautiful and tragic and alarmingly poetic. And I have nothing else to say except to quote Ms. Dillard with one of my favorite lines:

"Who could ever tire of this heart-stopping transition, of this breakthrough shift between seeing and knowing you see, between being and knowing you be? It drives you to a life of concentration, it does, a life in which effort draws you down so very deep that when you surface you twist up exhilerated with a yelp and a gasp."

virtamtuck's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

lianamathias's review against another edition

1.0

I tried for weeks. No story and too pretentious. I had to give up on this one.

seedwa's review against another edition

Very nicely written and reflective, however the focus on the munadane and the sentimental didn’t really hold my interest as someone who isn’t particularly sentimental. 

anitaofplaybooktag's review against another edition

2.0

Too boring and mundane for my taste. For those who like nostalgia, you might appreciate it, but there's literally no drama and no plot. Some beautiful descriptions of nature partially offset the tedium.

kristinreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5