ombudsman's review
3.0
“Here is one experience of refraction through layers. Think of the hour before the sun goes down and the light glows with unaccountable beauty, so golden and warm. Suddenly, everyone on the city street is for a moment transfigured, resurrected as an angel version of herself; even the indifferent office buildings appear as though newly arisen in the heavenly city, their mute concrete blocks suddenly rendered as soft and effulgent as the shingled feathers of Gabriel's wing, and every passerby with her shopping bags glows like Mary when, eyes cast down, she receives the news that God will condescend to an earthly form through her mortal body- all because the sun, as it slips down toward the horizon, is shining through the zillions and zillions of zooming atoms that constitute the layers of earthly atmosphere and pollution.”
rainyreadss's review
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.25
A book of clouds. A book which weaves words together into something fully fleshed (or not, depending). A balancing act between the academic and the personal virtues & vices of reading, of writing. Reading is a place for consciousness to expand. As readers, we are always changing. There’s an art to revisiting a text and seeing it in a new light. “The real is what is to be wondered at” (13). Eisendrath makes a passionate plea for the pastoral and romantic throughout these pages, guiding the reader by the hand (and thought) on a journey of whimsical academia. Like the clouds, the content of this little novel can trickle on or race past, depending on many factors, but especially the reader’s own interest and knowledge of the reference materials. My only real quip is that the images throughout feel like afterthoughts, small and so dark they’re difficult to see; I’d have preferred more writing or the white space of the unfilled page.
jiscoo's review
3.0
a book of footnotes, fragments with very little connective tissue. I may have enjoyed it more if I were more familiar with arcadia or renaissance-era literature more generally
lubepizza's review
5.0
It took me a minute to figure out what this book was about, and it turns out to be about nothing and everything all at once. Eisendrath is incredible in the way she weaves the English language and even moreso how she weaves her writing with others'. A surprising and extraordinary work.