All the Strange Hours: The Excavation of a Life

This was the third time that I've read this collection of essays... prose that in many passages still read like poetry. Still 5-stars

I originally read this nearly 10 years ago, and over the course of the past several months have read two to three pages at a time until a sprint over the past week to finish. 10 years can make a difference in one's perspective, and I increased my original 4-stars to 5-stars.
Insightful, thoughtful, and contemplative... but never pedantic or dogmatic... Eiseley's essays here are easily read and understood, and his personal experiences in print lead one to think that he must have been an interesting person to have known.
It was interesting to see mention of the Philadelphia's Main Line and 30th Street Station, show more the first area in which I lived in 1984-86 and the second that I passed through (albeit underground) on my way to university classes in the Center City area. show less

In All the Strange Hours, Eiseley turns his considerable powers of reflection and discovery on his own life to weave a compelling story, related with the modesty, grace, and keen eye for a telling anecdote that distinguish his work. His story begins with his childhood experiences as a sickly afterthought, weighed down by the loveless union of his parents. From there he traces the odyssey that led to his search for early postglacial man—and into inspiriting philosophical territory—culminating in his uneasy achievement of world renown. Eiseley crafts an absorbing self-portrait of a man who has thought deeply about his place in society as well as humanity’s place in the natural world. - from publisher

cogent, insightful