Reviews

Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram

lee_noel's review

inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

An interesting exploration of the nuanced, changing human relationship with “nature” as something that encompasses us, rather than a separate, inanimate backdrop to human activity. It questions the ubiquity of the “Western” perspective without (excessively) exoticizing indigenous or “Eastern” perspectives. 

oystersmilin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

breadandmushrooms's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

2.5

sarah_dietrich's review

1.0

Got half-way through then quit. I was looking for a pop-science book on how people can reconnect with nature, and Abram is an ecologist so I thought this would fit the bill. Instead I got:
- Laboured, purple prose that obscured meaning
- Anti-science rhetoric
- Anti-literature rhetoric
- Opinions stated as facts
- Self-indulgent smugness

joshualeggs's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

grubnubble's review against another edition

inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

2.75

There are non fiction authors who, when straying from their subject and talking about themselves, enrich their books with stories of their experiences. I am left wanting more of their perspective. While there are personal tangents in this particular book, they feel self congratulatory and ultimately detract from the core message. Still, there is some wonderful and poetic prose in it.

samiamb's review against another edition

Great book, but others held my attention more during the brief rental period from the library. I will return to it eventually. 

oisin175's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

An excellent look into an animist mindset. I loved both the biographic elements that illustrated his points and his relation of his own struggles with maintaining an animist mindset in a materialist culture. I also thought the discussion of how both mainstream and new age cultures essentially reject the inhabiting of the natural world by humans. I would highly recommend this book, though it will take several read throughs to fully grasp.

embiguity's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.0

kdraw333's review

1.0

I'm all for poetic and personal writing in creative non-fiction (I loved what I've read by Philip Hoare for instance) and I can see that the author wants us to feel as much as think about the natural world, but unfortunately I felt the writing here was getting in the way by calling too much attention to itself. Maybe I was hoping for it to get more academic? It seemed to promise an examination of humanity's relationship with nature, which I thought would draw from historical, literary, anthropological research in a more rigorous way. But this feels more like a stream-of-consciousness love letter based on anecdotal, subjective experiences that just didn't hold my interest. I'm sure the author is a lovely person and I'd love to see what other books are on his bookshelf.