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toniclark's review
4.0
Multilayered, complex, and brilliant. What I love most are Solnit’s meditations on the nature of stories and storytelling, the effects of the stories we hear and the stories we tell, the stories we believe about ourselves, in shaping our lives. And how we are continually transformed, becoming newer, maybe wiser, other selves. But of course, these musings are informed and enriched by the many stories she weaves together in this marvelous collection.
ericfheiman's review against another edition
3.0
(3.5 stars) This is an ambitious book, even for a writer as consistently innovative as Solnit. She is that rare writer that brings a rich, narrative poetry to what are essentially philosophical musings. There are numerous noteworthy passages here, most memorably about the struggle caring for her Alzheimer's-stricken mother. But the Russian doll structure doesn't always work, and there are times when Solnit's prose drifts into a less convincing metaphysical ether. The Faraway Nearby doesn't quite reach the high bar Solnit sets up for herself, but it's a worthwhile journey that surely rewards upon rereading.
bluestarfish's review against another edition
5.0
Exquisite prose once again in this memoir-of-sorts which has much to do with storytelling and telling stories and what that tells about us and who we are. She is so good at providing you with tools to think about your own experience through her own storytelling. We see mounds of apricots, travel to Iceland and into darkness/light, talk about mothers, explore empathy and much much more. It's always such a treat to read Rebecca Solnit's work as I come away with so much from it. [2014]
"Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds. This is the title of a short scientific report from 2006... but the title is a sentence, and the sentence reads like the ballad of one line or a history compressed to its bare essentials. There are two protagonists in it, a sleeper and a drinker, a giver and a taker, and what are tears to the former are food for the latter. The story tells us everything we ever wanted a story to tell. There is difference. There is contact. You can feed on sorrow. Your tears are delicious. Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds."
"Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds. This is the title of a short scientific report from 2006... but the title is a sentence, and the sentence reads like the ballad of one line or a history compressed to its bare essentials. There are two protagonists in it, a sleeper and a drinker, a giver and a taker, and what are tears to the former are food for the latter. The story tells us everything we ever wanted a story to tell. There is difference. There is contact. You can feed on sorrow. Your tears are delicious. Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds."
ja3m3's review against another edition
I am choosing to not finish this book. I read the first story Apricots and it was brilliant. It is the story of a daughter dealing with her mother's Alzheimer, but for me the story hit to close to home, so I am putting it aside for right now and may read it when I can objectively deal with the subject matter.
cmcarr's review against another edition
4.0
This was the best book that I have read in a while. I had never read Rebecca Solnit, but I've already lined up a few of her other books to read. The Faraway Nearby felt like a really good book for this time--thinking about the stories we tell and how we draw meaning from experiences. The book is at times deeply personal about the journey of understanding, and at other times almost academic in the way she draws connections across literature and folklore. There's a chapter that is essentially written across the bottom of the pages about moths feeding on the tears of sleeping birds. It's a bit challenging to read it the way it is laid out, but I found it to be one of the most enjoyable and thought provoking parts of the book. Enjoy!
thrilled's review against another edition
4.0
if ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.
meghan111's review against another edition
3.0
Intricate, masterful writing - essays about Alzheimer's, apricots, Frankenstein, Iceland, Che Guevara, Inuit cannibalism contain interwoven threads that gradually become more about stories and empathy and narrative. Solnit can use language and metaphor in a really rich, precise way.
"The bigness of the world is redemption. Despair compresses you into a small space, and a depression is literally a hollow in the ground. To dig deeper into the self, to go underground, is sometimes necessary, but so is the other route of getting out of yourself, into the larger world, into the openness in which you need not clutch your story and your troubles so tightly to your chest."
anxiousyogi24's review against another edition
3.0
The writing is beautiful but I wasn’t captivated by this book. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be. It is definitely a slow read, a book to be savored.
susanbrooks's review against another edition
5.0
I love her brilliant mind. Observer, connector of threads, teller of stories. Intriguing and nourishing.