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suebrownreads's review
3.0
Some of this book I really enjoyed. Some was hard to get through. It almost seemed like a collection of essays. Many paragraphs within chapters seemed completely unrelated, and I mean completely unrelated. There was no real common thread to tie the whole book together. As a lover of nature and someone who has spent much time in the outdoors, I did enjoy many of her scientific examinations and explanations. I did have a hard time making myself finish the book, which is why it took me more than a a year to read. I am sure this book is meant to be artistic, philosophical, and revolutionary, but I prefer something more direct with a better flow of subject and character. Yes, I am aware that she won a Pulitzer prize for this book. So who am I to criticize, but I am not the only one. Some of the top reviewers of the time criticized her for the same things, and I have to agree. Did I say that some of this book I found beautiful? Well, some of it was just beautiful!
radagast_the_brown's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.5
the afterward sections make this book — the context helps me see what she was seeing. definitely dated, but still setting the stage for the future nature writing to come.
grayjay's review
4.0
In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard describes her observations of plants, insects, and animals and waxes poetic about their meaning.
Her observations are compared to quotations by other nature writers and the texts of various religions. She has a fluid, poetic style of verse, that ranges into mystical and ecstatic.
Sections that stood out to me were her observations of the mantis egg sack, her discovery of the frog on the riverbank, sucked hollow by a giant water bug, and her intense stalking of muskrats.
There is a general focus on violence and destruction in nature, from the musings on locust swarms, to her tomcat slashing her chest to ribbons, to the long section on the lives of parasitic insects.
Her observations are compared to quotations by other nature writers and the texts of various religions. She has a fluid, poetic style of verse, that ranges into mystical and ecstatic.
Sections that stood out to me were her observations of the mantis egg sack, her discovery of the frog on the riverbank, sucked hollow by a giant water bug, and her intense stalking of muskrats.
There is a general focus on violence and destruction in nature, from the musings on locust swarms, to her tomcat slashing her chest to ribbons, to the long section on the lives of parasitic insects.
mlm7's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
3.5
Some parts were really beautiful, but the metaphysical parts and the constant quoting sometimes lost me
mtnlaurel's review
5.0
Probably gonna re-read this book at least once a year for the rest of my life
nbynw's review
5.0
Written at age 27. wow. I wish I had even a small amount of her observational skills. That and I wish I lived closer to nature, or could see the world that I do live near in a whole new way.