Unevenly brilliant. ( )

My copy has this inscription: First opened after a November lunch. To Brenda 1987, DH. ( )

This is the first Annie Dillard book I've ever read, and I found it quite deserving of my time. Being a collection of short stories, it's naturally difficult to sum the book up in a review. Expeditions and Encounters is probably about as appropriate a summation as can be provided.

There are two stories in particular that have made themselves most comfortable among the familiar furniture of my mind: "An Expedition to the Pole" and "Total Eclipse". I won't attempt to sketch either of these, as any attempt short of simply copying and pasting the essays in their entirety would be inadequate. I would like to provide this one quote, however, from "Total Eclipse":

All those things for which we have no words are lost. The mind—the culture—has two little tools, grammar and lexicon: a decorated sand bucket and a matching shovel. With these we bluster about the continents and do all the world's work. With these we try to save our very lives.

Taken out of context, that passage loses a lot of significance, but it still holds some water. The book's full of stuff like that, and I very much look forward to reading Dillard's other works. ( )

Supremely enjoyable, especially the title story.

All of her writing is so rich and deep. Similar to the way I feel about Buechner's writing, I could re-read it hundreds of times and get someting different out of it every time. This is my favorite of what I've read of hers so far, probbaly because I like the short essay style of these chapters and can finish them faster than her other books which take me longer to digest. ( )