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Summary: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Review: I am a junior AP engilsh student. I have just recently read this book. I have also just recently read Walden,in comparison, Pilgrim held my attention much more and used beautiful images, metaphors and similes. Dillard's style is very unique, she omits her feelings, filling you with scientific facts and luminating stories. Though at times Dillard does tend to jump around a bit, and fill the reader with one more scientific fact than they need, I feel that it did get boring at times. Dillard also goes into great detail about bugs,spiders,etc., so if you are interested in that type of pleasure reading, its a great book. If you aren't into bugs,spiders,snakes, and muskats, and how Dillard finds them amusing, this probably wouldn't be your pick. ---Stephanie Allen --Jr AP Language and Compostion-- Class of 2002
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Summary: Our Earth: A Bruised, Brilliant Beauty
Review: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard, is a delightfully updated version of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. Both stories revolve around a body of water, either Tinker Creek or Walden Pond. Both transcendental writers are on a solo journey of questioning and thinking. Both stories have passages that are difficult to understand. And both writers have an annoying habit of casually tossing in Latin! However, Dillard's book comes alive with fresh literary techniques that the sometimes-stuffy Walden lacks. PaTC is full of unusual similes, such as comparing floodwater to dirty lace and algae to bright gelatin. Dillard also frequently ends a section with a word or phrase, and then begins the next section with the same word or phrase. She also has a knack for coming full circle at the end of chapters which gives a pleasant sense of completion in the midst of so much information. Dillard is truly a master of transitions, too. Dillard's finest literary technique is her ability to write telegraphic sentences. These short fragments are sometimes quite comical. Clipped sentences like, "So." create a whimsical, playful tone. In parts of my book, I marked, "...beautiful description..." and in other parts, I wrote, "Ugh!" PaTC definitely showcases the extremes of nature - amazing beauty and gnawed imperfection. When these two extremes are observed side-by-side, we observe that our intricate world is teeming with flaws. Dillard frequently questions the Creator, but manages to end the book in a state of "exultant praise." Praise for PaTC is well-deserved. Despite some of its challenging passages and strange observations. it is worth the time to read. Dillard's unique energy will rub off on you as you patiently wait to "experience the present" or see "color patches!"
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Summary: An all-together rewarding experience
Review: I am a junior AP student and have just completed reading Pilgrim and Tinker Creek. I found this book to be challenging, but in a reasonable manner unlike Thoreau's Walden. Dillard is most certainly an observer as well as a master of self-expression. Her careful and well-planned descriptions captivate the reader. With a consistent, honest tone Dillard puts her self on display. She boldly writes her truth. Pilgrim is 276 pages of beautiful metaphors, profound discoveries, intense searching, truthful questioning and simplistic observations. This book is not for everyone. I found it to be a sort of meditation. I was able to loose myself in Dillard's poetic stream of consciousness. I would certainly recommend this book, however it takes patience, concentration and requires much thought.
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Summary: Dillard -- boldly honest
Review: This is the best book I ever read. Annie Dillard has opened my eyes to nature so that I can "see" all of the things I had been missing before. Her attention to detail is simple yet profound. Many nature writers are either angry or sappy. Dillard is boldly honest. Her writing draws you into her world and makes you want to see life the way she sees it.
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Summary: Exquisitely magical, and brilliantly worded...
Review: ...if I were a writer of purple prose, this review would be longer. All I can say is that it is my favorite nonfiction book and that this book, above any other, taught me the wonder and beauty of nature. Magic at its best.--Yasmine Galenorn--author of "Embracing The Moon".
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Summary: The harsh miracle of life
Review: Einstein once said that there are two ways of living: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is. 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' is a window into a world in which everything is miraculous.Dillard took a great deal of trouble writing this, surely her best work. She wrote, while recovering from a serious bout of pneumonia, by distilling some 22 journals into the final manuscript. Her sense of mortality shows, but the resulting prose is effortless and at times miraculous in itself. Like Thoreau, on whom she had written a thesis, Dillard spent a year in a hut in the woods of a 'rather tamed valley' in order to 'see what I could see' and to seek some answers to some of life's important questions. Whereas Thoreau saw nature as the answer ('in the preservation of the wild is the salvation of the world'), Dillard sees nature as the problem. Why is it so cruel, so gruesome, so seemingly heartless - and yet so beautiful, so alive? As she meditates on the image of a frog, eaten from the inside out by a giant water bug, she asks herself, What kind of God made this kind of world? There are no easy or conventional answers, for 'our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery'. The author's aim, if she cannot understand the mystery of horror and beauty that is life, is at least to see it as it really is: 'We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that,choir the proper praise'. Like the bear who went over the mountain, Dillard claims, all she could see was more of the same. The trick however is not what you see, but the way you see it. Having read this book I for one will never see the other side of the mountain in the same light again. It is now forever more ambiguous, more beautiful and, yes, more holy.
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Summary: a classic
Review: this is annie dillard at her very best--the book that gave the writer her reputation
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Summary: Teetering on the precipice
Review: Dillard's problem is that she is a self-avowed "Anchorite", but she is indeed anchored in more than one place. This is strongly evident in her writing pattern - the words and their placement. Here is someone - correct me if I'm wrong - with high intelligence, encouraged as a child to develop a strong curiosity about the natural world, but still attended sunday-school without fail. Her religious paradigm is colored deeply by questions largely focused on what is "fair" in nature. The descriptive text is well-made, and Dillard's wit is tight - her observing eye keen; all of which makes for good reading. But it is this conflict between observed nature, and the pre-packaged but deeply-rooted mythos, that keeps Dillard teetering on the precipice. Her faith pulls her back again and again. The words of praise for her god that pepper the book seem strangely disconnected from the rest of the writ, and I can't follow her there. So there's a level of disappointment on my part. I want to see what pulls her back from the cliff's edge, but I can't see it from my perspective, (here at the bottom of the abyss). The natural world is indeed full of wonders. And not too little of this book focuses on those that Annie reads about and discovers first-hand for herself. People have been writing about parasites with some level of knowledge for hundreds of years, but Dillard puts it so personally - it is affecting - and her affectation is communicated so well. That must be a part of the equation, as much as the actual observations themselves. I give her high marks for that. In case you miss it, there is a profound level of separation from the world of people in this book. I could find only one instance of actual conversation with another person, near the book's center. This is, I believe, intentional, but it is only a half-truth, in that although humanity is abandoned, its tools are not, and pursuing this environment with the intent of writing a book takes one full circle. From my perspective, I look at this story of a year's passage, and wonder why the truth seems so difficult for the author to claim. The tale of killing a bee with an echo should be more than enough to convince one that, although a grasshopper can change to a locust, the mechanism to change wine to blood is not there through ceremony. You have to drink it, my friend. And the body will do the rest. Ultimately we have no pilgrim here. Though in the mind, Dillard attempts to journey, in truth, she never actually leaves the station. I therefore give four stars, because there's room for improvement, and it is not too late to begin the journey. You have the eyes, Annie. Oh what strange manner of temples you could feast them on! Do I recommend this book? How could I not? In fact, I challenge you to read it!
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Summary: Swoon of Ecstasy
Review: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek should not be taught in schools, sold to anyone under age 40, nor even spoken of when anyone under age 30 is around. In times past when the books with the real connection to the mysteries were read, it was only by the advanced initiates for the lesser mysteries and the greater mysteries were reserved for the masters. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek speaks of the greater mysteries. Is it any wonder that her words are so poorly understood? Still its easy to see why school teachers are drawn to share such a wonderful book. Dillard's lyrical writing is painfully beautiful. But she is dealing with the deep mysteries. Most students at high school and college are more suited for Harry Potter and Anne Rice. Alas, we live in a time when the mysteries are revealed to all; still few of us can even begin to truly understand them. One of my favorite writers says that if she reads more then two sentences of Dillard's works she falls into a swoon of ecstasy from the beauty of the writing. Let those who will, find her on there own, or from the overheard whispers of those who love her.
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Summary: The Profound Road Home
Review: We live in a time when shallow amusement and mindless pursuit of personal recognition blot out the eternal spinning of the fierce beauty of the cosmos behind the fenced carnival of our lives. Our days on earth have become short and unimportant. We worry, plot and fill our existence with dreams of tomorrows that never quite fulfill us, even when they turn out exactly the way we dream them. The fortunate have family, home and status, but in the end even those things must pale in the empty knowledge of our own mortality and the certainty that everything shall go on and that who and what we were will be utterly forgotten. Many of us harbor some vague inkling of lives that once had meaning. When we least expect it we almost get a glimpse of that lost and forgotten natural paradise behind the shimmering backdrop of our everyday lives. Perhaps it happens just after we stoop to retrieve our morning newspaper from the front step or when we lift our eyes from the line of slow moving traffic on that endless commute home to sense for an instant something hidden and forgotten behind the suburban landscape or city skyline. In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard reminds us with great clarity that we are all vessels for wonder. Much can be made of Annie's prose poetry and poetic prose. Quotes abound in the many enthusiastic reviews to be found here, all praising her power to convey deep meaning through words. Though not a religious person, I am much reminded of the 23rd Psalm when I re-read this wonderful book. The words of Pilgrim restore the soul and lead us to calming still waters-they anoint us with immense and endless yearning and refresh us in remembering a natural world too often drowned out by honking horns and the ubiquitous TV. Dillard's Pilgrim is a deep and calming meditation. For those readers seeking light diversion or a clever story, look elsewhere. For those who hunger for meaning and enlightenment, who find beauty in nature and who have never forgotten the sublime wonderment of childhood or the thrill of transcendent experience, this book will transport you. I have no quarrel with Thoreau, but for me, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek outshines Walden. Read it!
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