zicariofsilverkeep's review
3.0
This type of book and it's contents are not my usual cup of tea but overall it was alright. I didn't know that birding was a thing until I read this book so there's that.
senordustin's review
2.0
The first essay about climate change and the complicated human response to it is pretty great... The rest is offensively self indulgent and boring.
alexmjjohnson's review
3.0
Franzen is clearly intelligent and a great writer, but man is this heavy on birds and climate change. Not that it was bad, just required some tolerance for the exhaustion of those topics I was not expecting.
jakeyjake's review
4.0
I've said it before, but so far I enjoy Franzen the Essayist more than Franzen the Novelist. Come at me if you must.
Favorites from this collection:
The Essay in Dark Times
XING PED
The End of the End of the Earth
Favorite phrase from that essay: "manfully accepted his fate"
Favorites from this collection:
The Essay in Dark Times
XING PED
The End of the End of the Earth
Favorite phrase from that essay: "manfully accepted his fate"
gvenezia's review
3.0
The Unlikely Hope of Bird Conservation in Dark Times
I wouldn't have picked up this collection based on an other Franzen essay collection I recently finished. However, I was pulled in by the prospect of this collection’s organization around my current favorite themes: birding and climate change.
In Freedom, Franzen proved himself adept at reproducing a troubling and complex portrayal of the tradeoffs in climate change activism: Walter Berglund's main subplot concerns the conservation of the cerulean warbler's Appalachian habitat in the face of Big Coal, rooted Appalachian natives, young idealists, NY Times Op-Ed backlash, and the ever-widening influence of capital. So I had high hopes.
Thankfully, the essays on birding and climate change matched and even exceeded my expectations: they do something remarkable and unique due to the confluence of Franzen's literary prowess, no-nonsense realism, and obsessive birding. Nothing I've read comes close to these essays in tone and subject-matter.
The opening essay takes a more general and meta view than any of the others. Franzen frames the essay by focusing on the essay itself in two ways. One, he assesses it as an increasingly unique and vital form in our tweet-frenzied world of digital natives; two, he recounts his own entrance and maturation in the form. Franzen deftly weaves analysis, meta-commentary, political events, travelogue, memoir, and argument into a coherent whole. While his comments about say birding in East Africa or the Trump-Clinton presidential election results are brief, Franzen somehow avoids cliche, hot takes, and underdeveloped comments.
Gradually, Franzen focuses his attention on one of his earlier essays on climate change. Franzen herein makes a strong case against the fad of using global climate change as a trump card to minimize all other conservation concerns. Instead, we would get more done and feel better by making small, practical changes—like setting up local bird conservation parks. Indeed, while the Audubon Society has co-opted the climate change narrative for their PR efforts, Franzen shares that biggest threat to birds is much more mundane: habitat destruction and house cats.
This reframing of the issue gave me a glimmer of pragmatic hope even as we plan for the end of the earth (at least as we know it). Franzen doesn't deny climate change, but rather his "only hope is that we can accept the reality [of climate change] in time to prepare for it humanely.” And to foster this humane outlook on climate change, “love is a better motivator than guilt.” So one way of reading the collection's title is to say that Franzen wants to end the apocalyptic tone and singular focus on the “end of the earth."
All of the other birding essays embody this ethos of love and practicality by focusing on how passionate, local, specialized, and contextualized conservation efforts have made a difference in the lives of at-risk bird species and the environments they depend on. Plus, there are many beautiful literary descriptions of the birds. I also learned that birds are often some of the most resilient species when it comes to climate change and environment change, so even small actions can have large positive benefits. Among the books that are pessimistic about the effects of climate change on our future (Franzen thinks there’s little hope of avoiding a change of 6° C), this collection left me with the most hope.
But the rest of the collection did not inspire strong positive feelings. How to Be Alone fails in part because the only through line is an old-fashioned notion of privacy that few readers will recognize or resonate with today. Nothing much else holds the essays together; beyond concerns of privacy, many essays seem unmarked by Franzen's particular perspective and insights.
The End of the End of the Earth purports more cohesion, but ultimately fails in the same way. The solid birding and climate change essays alternate with a random collection of perfectly fine but perfectly unremarkable essays. There are weird, tweet-level inclusions like Franzen’s 10 rules for novelists; a short, uninspired reflection on the aftermath of 9/11; and a shallow criticism of cryptic, unintuitive road signs like ‘PED XING’. These would be interesting topics of conversation among friends or acquaintances, but they don’t hold up to readers’ expectation for the essay format—especially after the poignant birding and climate change essays that precede them.
So my high hopes for Franzen the essayist were dashed once again. Going forward, I'll either be more selective or simply stick to Franzen the fiction writer.
Birding and climate change essays: 4/5 (5/5 for readers like me)
The rest: 1.5/5
I wouldn't have picked up this collection based on an other Franzen essay collection I recently finished. However, I was pulled in by the prospect of this collection’s organization around my current favorite themes: birding and climate change.
In Freedom, Franzen proved himself adept at reproducing a troubling and complex portrayal of the tradeoffs in climate change activism: Walter Berglund's main subplot concerns the conservation of the cerulean warbler's Appalachian habitat in the face of Big Coal, rooted Appalachian natives, young idealists, NY Times Op-Ed backlash, and the ever-widening influence of capital. So I had high hopes.
Thankfully, the essays on birding and climate change matched and even exceeded my expectations: they do something remarkable and unique due to the confluence of Franzen's literary prowess, no-nonsense realism, and obsessive birding. Nothing I've read comes close to these essays in tone and subject-matter.
The opening essay takes a more general and meta view than any of the others. Franzen frames the essay by focusing on the essay itself in two ways. One, he assesses it as an increasingly unique and vital form in our tweet-frenzied world of digital natives; two, he recounts his own entrance and maturation in the form. Franzen deftly weaves analysis, meta-commentary, political events, travelogue, memoir, and argument into a coherent whole. While his comments about say birding in East Africa or the Trump-Clinton presidential election results are brief, Franzen somehow avoids cliche, hot takes, and underdeveloped comments.
Gradually, Franzen focuses his attention on one of his earlier essays on climate change. Franzen herein makes a strong case against the fad of using global climate change as a trump card to minimize all other conservation concerns. Instead, we would get more done and feel better by making small, practical changes—like setting up local bird conservation parks. Indeed, while the Audubon Society has co-opted the climate change narrative for their PR efforts, Franzen shares that biggest threat to birds is much more mundane: habitat destruction and house cats.
This reframing of the issue gave me a glimmer of pragmatic hope even as we plan for the end of the earth (at least as we know it). Franzen doesn't deny climate change, but rather his "only hope is that we can accept the reality [of climate change] in time to prepare for it humanely.” And to foster this humane outlook on climate change, “love is a better motivator than guilt.” So one way of reading the collection's title is to say that Franzen wants to end the apocalyptic tone and singular focus on the “end of the earth."
All of the other birding essays embody this ethos of love and practicality by focusing on how passionate, local, specialized, and contextualized conservation efforts have made a difference in the lives of at-risk bird species and the environments they depend on. Plus, there are many beautiful literary descriptions of the birds. I also learned that birds are often some of the most resilient species when it comes to climate change and environment change, so even small actions can have large positive benefits. Among the books that are pessimistic about the effects of climate change on our future (Franzen thinks there’s little hope of avoiding a change of 6° C), this collection left me with the most hope.
But the rest of the collection did not inspire strong positive feelings. How to Be Alone fails in part because the only through line is an old-fashioned notion of privacy that few readers will recognize or resonate with today. Nothing much else holds the essays together; beyond concerns of privacy, many essays seem unmarked by Franzen's particular perspective and insights.
The End of the End of the Earth purports more cohesion, but ultimately fails in the same way. The solid birding and climate change essays alternate with a random collection of perfectly fine but perfectly unremarkable essays. There are weird, tweet-level inclusions like Franzen’s 10 rules for novelists; a short, uninspired reflection on the aftermath of 9/11; and a shallow criticism of cryptic, unintuitive road signs like ‘PED XING’. These would be interesting topics of conversation among friends or acquaintances, but they don’t hold up to readers’ expectation for the essay format—especially after the poignant birding and climate change essays that precede them.
So my high hopes for Franzen the essayist were dashed once again. Going forward, I'll either be more selective or simply stick to Franzen the fiction writer.
Birding and climate change essays: 4/5 (5/5 for readers like me)
The rest: 1.5/5
sangloup's review
4.0
Extreme Book Nerd Challenge 2021 - Category #49
Challenge Topic: A book from the nonfiction 800's
814.54 Franzen
I don't usually listen to/read about personal politcal opinions. However, I found this book in the New Audio book section and it sounded interesting.
The narrator was very pleasant to listen to and I really enjoyed some of the stories told about bird watching. All the stories I believe centered around how the birds are slowing disappearing due to climate change, but more so due to bird hunting and basic human interference and disregard of the habitats.
This Author had a lot to say and it was interesting. There was one essay about Edith Wharton and her writing. I enjoyed it, but not sure how it fit in with all the others. I did enjoy listening to his take on her writing though.
Challenge Topic: A book from the nonfiction 800's
814.54 Franzen
I don't usually listen to/read about personal politcal opinions. However, I found this book in the New Audio book section and it sounded interesting.
The narrator was very pleasant to listen to and I really enjoyed some of the stories told about bird watching. All the stories I believe centered around how the birds are slowing disappearing due to climate change, but more so due to bird hunting and basic human interference and disregard of the habitats.
This Author had a lot to say and it was interesting. There was one essay about Edith Wharton and her writing. I enjoyed it, but not sure how it fit in with all the others. I did enjoy listening to his take on her writing though.