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jaimcham's review
4.0
And I would say to you who does not listen
That time is both longer and shorter
Than I ever imagined:
Land becomes sea, sea becomes land,
Ice into desert, desert into salt marsh,
Salt marsh into birds and fish, animals and people,
Everything forgotten and remembered and forgotten again
A slow, enigmatic book about grief and impermanence, focusing on a stretch of land where Ice Age people once lived that's now swallowed up by the North Sea. It's about her late husband, but also about time folding in on itself -- how layers of living things pass through a place for only a moment, yet leave traces that surface thousands of years later. I found it all totally overwhelming and deeply comforting.
harrythesequel's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
balletbookworm's review
3.0
Middling, for me. Time Song is a book that tries to do many things - an anthropological exploration of Doggerland, a memoir of the author’s fascination with artifacts and anthropology of older human culture, and a collection of poems (Time Songs) inspired by paleontologic and anthropologic scientific works - and doesn’t quite grasp any of them. The drawn maps weren’t easy to read or orient. Nice sentence-level writing, though.
kelbi's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating book. Taken me a while to read it but there is a lot of substance in it. Doggerland is a very interesting place which apparently was only discovered/named a few years ago. Connected the U.K. with the Continent and Scandinavia
emilyvalentin526's review against another edition
needed to return to library
it was good though!
it was good though!
sianami's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Simply loved this combination of memoir, travel writing, and science/archaeology. The interweaving of art, poetry, the author's reflections on grief and love, with the archaeology and history of Doggerland creates one beautiful cohesive whole.
colittle's review against another edition
Was found in the history section of local library. Wasn’t particularly history-focused.
thomcat's review
3.0
Doggerland once connected the Rhine to the Thames. This poetic exploration of history glimpses the people, flora and fauna over millennia as this land sunk into the sea.
This book is the result of very personal research into the subject. It isn't scientific or comprehensive. The author's goal seems to be collecting thoughts, stories and artifacts into a narrative of a this lost land. I suspect this results in a stronger resolution for the author than the reader.
Not a lot has been written about this area. I added this book to my reading list when I first heard of it. It captures the people better than the land, and the included maps are insufficient. While the art accompanying Blackburn's Time Song poems may have spoken to her, it didn't to me.
This book is the result of very personal research into the subject. It isn't scientific or comprehensive. The author's goal seems to be collecting thoughts, stories and artifacts into a narrative of a this lost land. I suspect this results in a stronger resolution for the author than the reader.
Not a lot has been written about this area. I added this book to my reading list when I first heard of it. It captures the people better than the land, and the included maps are insufficient. While the art accompanying Blackburn's Time Song poems may have spoken to her, it didn't to me.
steve97886's review against another edition
1.0
DNF - not sure who this will appeal too. Not sure what it is about the boomer generation that puts me off any books written by them, I can’t relate to any of the self-indulgent rambling.