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mparisinou's review against another edition
4.0
Philosophical musings of a scientist in the form of literature. Lovely!
hschwab's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
vasha's review against another edition
5.0
Lovely, eloquent essays on the history of life on Earth and human evolution. Written in the 1940s and 50s. "The Flow of the River" is one of the most beautiful things I've ever read.
hopper's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
this book is not perfect. i’m fact, for over half of it i could hardly keep focused. i found the blend of scientific term and exploration mixed with creative nonfiction to be extremely unbalanced. however, the creative nonfiction was simply the greatest i have ever read. no other piece of work has brought to me a level of reflection as this. no work ever has made me drop a tear, until this. it was incredibly hard to get through, but on the other side, it is simply life changing.
shortcourt's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars. Despite the fact that it gave me more than one existential crisis, I loved this book.
monasterymonochrome's review against another edition
5.0
The prose in the first four chapters of this book is life-changing, which is the last thing I expected to say about a book of nature essays. But it's seriously some of the most beautiful and evocative yet seemingly effortless writing I've ever read. I found myself essentially highlighting entire pages of text and slamming the book down in awe and whispering a reverent "Holy shit" every thirty seconds.
Choice quotes, even though taken out of context they don't have nearly the same impact:
"I would never again excavate a fossil under conditions which led to so vivid an impression that I was already one myself. The truth is that we are all potential fossils still carrying within our bodies the crudities of former existences, the marks of a world in which living creatures flow with little more consistency than clouds from age to age."
"Moving with me, leaving its taste upon my mouth and spouting under me in dancing springs of sand, was the immense body of the continent itself, flowing like the river was flowing, grain by grain, mountain by mountain, down to the sea. I was streaming over ancient sea beds thrust aloft where giant reptiles had once sported; I was wearing down the face of time and trundling cloud-wreathed ranges into oblivion."
"Shape of sea water and carbon rings, yet simultaneously a perplexed professor on a village street, I look up across the moon and Venus - outward, outward into that blue-white glitter beyond the galaxy. And as I look and shiver I feel the voice in every fiber of my being: Have we come from elsewhere? By these our instruments shall we go home?"
Like, are you kidding me? How does one even begin to think in these terms and this language? It's honestly astonishing. The middle chapters of the book become a bit more scientific and straightforward, but the information Eiseley presents is fascinating (if, by now, slightly outdated) and he never manages to hide the fact that he has a way with words beyond many novelists. In the last three or four chapters, he returns predominantly to a more poetic, romantic style, allowing the book to come full circle. Eiseley certainly has an agenda, but his writing never comes across as overly preachy or manipulative, which I think is why I appreciate it so much. It's just beautiful and striking and mysterious, and that kind of makes his point for him.
Choice quotes, even though taken out of context they don't have nearly the same impact:
"I would never again excavate a fossil under conditions which led to so vivid an impression that I was already one myself. The truth is that we are all potential fossils still carrying within our bodies the crudities of former existences, the marks of a world in which living creatures flow with little more consistency than clouds from age to age."
"Moving with me, leaving its taste upon my mouth and spouting under me in dancing springs of sand, was the immense body of the continent itself, flowing like the river was flowing, grain by grain, mountain by mountain, down to the sea. I was streaming over ancient sea beds thrust aloft where giant reptiles had once sported; I was wearing down the face of time and trundling cloud-wreathed ranges into oblivion."
"Shape of sea water and carbon rings, yet simultaneously a perplexed professor on a village street, I look up across the moon and Venus - outward, outward into that blue-white glitter beyond the galaxy. And as I look and shiver I feel the voice in every fiber of my being: Have we come from elsewhere? By these our instruments shall we go home?"
Like, are you kidding me? How does one even begin to think in these terms and this language? It's honestly astonishing. The middle chapters of the book become a bit more scientific and straightforward, but the information Eiseley presents is fascinating (if, by now, slightly outdated) and he never manages to hide the fact that he has a way with words beyond many novelists. In the last three or four chapters, he returns predominantly to a more poetic, romantic style, allowing the book to come full circle. Eiseley certainly has an agenda, but his writing never comes across as overly preachy or manipulative, which I think is why I appreciate it so much. It's just beautiful and striking and mysterious, and that kind of makes his point for him.
pturnbull's review against another edition
4.0
The best of this is lyrical and profound. The worst is inauthentic and dated. Eiseley was a poet-naturalist whose immersion into nature resulted in gorgeous prose.