A review by angelamichelle
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit

4.0

Okay first, the structure: There’s a parallel essay running through the whole book. Literally. One line of text along the bottom of each page from beginning to end. The chapters themselves are a chiasmus. For the first and last chapters are both called “Apricots.” The same themes, factoids, stories, and anecdotes pop up repeatedly, in somewhat different lights, as part of ongoing musings about memory, story, truth, progress, perspective. It’s a memoir, sort of. More essays relating to what could have been a memoir.

I admire this book, and Solnit. Such a deep thinker with such a range of sources. But I’m a narrative girl and by the end of the book my attention flagged during the endless loops and detours.