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A review by clairewords
Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie
4.0
The second volume of essays by Kathleen Jamie that I've read, more encounters with birds on lonely, wind-windswept islands that have long been abandoned by humans, though traces remain of their earlier occupation.
In her trademark poetic style, she travels with experts from whom she gleans bits of information, fascinating trivia, or alarming statistics that tell of a significant drop in population of certain species, but mostly she continues her mission of acute observation, of trying to see in the simplest terms something of the lives and patterns of behaviour of these majestical winged creatures (The Gannetry), who make those long migrations each year and return to these islands to continue their heritage.
We learn more of her beginnings, of the archeological dig, where she developed a fascination for uncovering secrets hidden beneath (The Woman in the Field), we accompany her on a boat to the arctic(Aurora), to witness giant icebergs on the move, the green lights of the aurora overhead, a visit to a museum in Norway where ancient whalebones will be cleaned, restored, preserved, the sadness of their demise emitting an odour even after all these years of inhabiting a dusty dry interior (The Hvalsalen).
She muses on Pathologies in a science lab, a lunar eclipse, three attempts to visit St Kilda, Neolithic caves and the passage of time in her own life, marked by the growth of children into adolescence on the cusp of young adulthood.
In her trademark poetic style, she travels with experts from whom she gleans bits of information, fascinating trivia, or alarming statistics that tell of a significant drop in population of certain species, but mostly she continues her mission of acute observation, of trying to see in the simplest terms something of the lives and patterns of behaviour of these majestical winged creatures (The Gannetry), who make those long migrations each year and return to these islands to continue their heritage.
We learn more of her beginnings, of the archeological dig, where she developed a fascination for uncovering secrets hidden beneath (The Woman in the Field), we accompany her on a boat to the arctic(Aurora), to witness giant icebergs on the move, the green lights of the aurora overhead, a visit to a museum in Norway where ancient whalebones will be cleaned, restored, preserved, the sadness of their demise emitting an odour even after all these years of inhabiting a dusty dry interior (The Hvalsalen).
She muses on Pathologies in a science lab, a lunar eclipse, three attempts to visit St Kilda, Neolithic caves and the passage of time in her own life, marked by the growth of children into adolescence on the cusp of young adulthood.