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alyssapusateri's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
honeyvoiced's review
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
mariebrunelm's review
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
This collection of essays, which I bought half for the author and half for the cover let's be honest, stems from Mary Oliver's deep-rooted love for the natural world. She casts a wonder-filled gaze around here and notices the minutiae of animal & vegetal life with a delight that is quite communicative, and interlaces her observations with thoughts on creativity in general and writing in particular. Some essays are dedicated to writers she admires (Emerson, Poe, Wordsworth, Whitman), blending the factual with her personal reading of their works. I think Mary Oliver could write about almost anything and make it an enjoyable experience, but I did have a hard time with her descriptions of animal pain & death and her reverence for a writer who married his 13-year-old cousin.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty
Minor: Child abuse
rebekahvldz's review
medium-paced
3.0
Definitely not my favorite from Mary Oliver. Felt like she never really got inside this form of writing the way she could poetry. Seemingly random collection of essays and reviews of authors with the uniting theme being transcendentalism.
I skipped a lot of the first section as I was put off by her narrowing in on sexual aspects in and with nature.
The fourth section was the most enjoyable- I particularly loved "Bird" and "Ropes" which leads me to believe that Oliver is at her best when she is sentimental and humanizing herself. I also loved the sparse insights about the changing landscape of Provincetown and found myself wishing for more of that.
I'm still not sure what to make of section three. The way she wrote about her favorite authors was so detached and formal that it felt out of place for someone so passionate and prosaic, especially amongst essays adoring and admiring nature. You can even note the difference between her tone in "My Friend Whitman" from section one to "Some Thoughts on Whitman" in section three. The former was one of my favorites from this collection and had she employed that storytelling voice instead of conducting an academic-sounding survey, I would have believed her and enjoyed the book much more.
In short, I am just a little confused at this collection and a lot underwhelmed.
I skipped a lot of the first section as I was put off by her narrowing in on sexual aspects in and with nature.
The fourth section was the most enjoyable- I particularly loved "Bird" and "Ropes" which leads me to believe that Oliver is at her best when she is sentimental and humanizing herself. I also loved the sparse insights about the changing landscape of Provincetown and found myself wishing for more of that.
I'm still not sure what to make of section three. The way she wrote about her favorite authors was so detached and formal that it felt out of place for someone so passionate and prosaic, especially amongst essays adoring and admiring nature. You can even note the difference between her tone in "My Friend Whitman" from section one to "Some Thoughts on Whitman" in section three. The former was one of my favorites from this collection and had she employed that storytelling voice instead of conducting an academic-sounding survey, I would have believed her and enjoyed the book much more.
In short, I am just a little confused at this collection and a lot underwhelmed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
arsenic_'s review
2.5
While I have grown to love Oliver's poetry, there were moments in this book that I could not overlook. I found it hard to believe her posture of reverence towards nature could co-exist with the ways that she interacted with many of the animals she wrote about. This book was hard to get through for me, and left me with a bit of a distaste for Oliver's approach to animals, literary history, and politics. I think I will stick to reading her nature poetry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty
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