Customer Rating: Summary: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Comment: This was the first book of Nature Writing I had ever read as a freshman in college. It is now one of my favorites. I love Dillard's intricacies, scientific observations, detail and metaphysical tangents that weave their way about the book like so many spiderwebs. I've read most of her other nonfiction which keeps in the same tone and wonder. Customer Rating: Summary: Utterly pointless Comment: I found this book on Amazon.com. I am an avid Barbara Kingsolver fan and thought I would try one of the books that was linked to Kingsolver's books. I chose this book for the bookclub I am hosting for twelve members this coming month.
The book is utterly pointless. The writing is sometimes interesting and there are a few good thoughts, but mostly it is the disjointed and uneducated thoughts of a crazy person living on the edge of society.
I have not finished the book and wish I had not subjected the other readers in my club to the "story". I cannot recommend this book. Customer Rating: Summary: Loved it! Comment: Don Miller mentions it as one of those books that you read a paragraph of and then put away and ponder. Intense writing and thinking. Stream of consciousness type of stuff. Makes me want to spend more time outdoors watching and thinking. Customer Rating: Summary: pilgrim at tinker creek Comment: I found this book boring...I KNOW it was a Pulitzer prize winner. But, to
me, oh, so boring...
Annie Dillard is an excellent writer of course, and I loved her little
book, The Writing Life.
Customer Rating: Summary: The result of relentless observation Comment: I first read this book in High School. I was impressed but 8 years later re-read the book to my younger sister for a class she was taking. She wasn't getting much from the book. But as I read it to her, I realized how supreme this book is among American Lit.
Dillard's book is the result of relentless observation. Chapter by chapter she radiates a worshipful view of the natural world. Those who miss the point will complain there is "too much description" all the while missing her acute observation and beautiful prose. I have read that she wrote 15 hours a day. It seems likely since the book seems to reflect an obsessed mind.
Also great is An American Childhood. I think she is the second greatest American writer ever after Cather.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "mystery, death, beauty, violence."
