About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory
by Barry Lopez
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Biography & Autobiography. Nature. Nonfiction. HTML:The acclaimed National Book Award winner gives us a collection of spellbinding new essays that, read together, form a jigsaw-puzzle portrait of an extraordinary man.With the publication of his best-selling Of Wolves and Men, and with the astonishing originality of Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez established himself as that rare writer whose every book is an event, for both critics and his devoted readership. Now, in About This Life, he takes show more us on a literal and figurative journey across the terrain of autobiography, assembling essays of great wisdom and insight. Here is far-flung travel (the beauty of remote Hokkaido Island, the over-explored Galápagos, enigmatic Bonaire); a naturalist's contention (Why does our society inevitably strip political power from people with intimate knowledge of the land small-scale farmers, Native Americans, Eskimos, cowboys?); and pure adventure (a dizzying series of around-the-world journeys with air freight everything from penguins to pianos). And here, too, are seven exquisite memory pieces hauntingly lyrical yet unsentimental recollections that represent Lopez's most personal work to date, and which will be read as classics of the personal essay for years to come.
In writing about nature and people from around the world, by exploring the questions of our age, and, above all, by sharing a new openness about himself, Barry Lopez gives us a book that is at once vastly erudite yet intimate: a magically written and provocative work by a major American writer at the top of his form. show less
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This collection of seventeen essays runs the gamut of both topics and places, with subjects as diverse as taking rides with cargo planes to see how consumer items travel from country to country, to reflections on American landscapes and how it informs us as a people.
Between Arctic Dreams and now About this Life, I believe I can safely say I've been reading Barry Lopez almost all year (2015). His is a dense, thoughtful, descriptive prose that you want to savor and ruminate upon when you're not reading, maybe even write a journal response or recommend it to a friend so you can discuss it. Whatever his subject, he makes it come alive and provokes you to think deeply about it, whether he's talking about the way in which looking through a show more camera lens changes the way we perceive things or why he stops his car to bury road kill. A really diverse collection that would be an excellent introduction to Lopez's writing. show less
Between Arctic Dreams and now About this Life, I believe I can safely say I've been reading Barry Lopez almost all year (2015). His is a dense, thoughtful, descriptive prose that you want to savor and ruminate upon when you're not reading, maybe even write a journal response or recommend it to a friend so you can discuss it. Whatever his subject, he makes it come alive and provokes you to think deeply about it, whether he's talking about the way in which looking through a show more camera lens changes the way we perceive things or why he stops his car to bury road kill. A really diverse collection that would be an excellent introduction to Lopez's writing. show less
Telling his story beginning with his three year old memories is truly amazing.
And, it just gets better - Barry Lopez leads readers into being more totally aware of the vibrating awareness of life,
into seeing, feeling, touching ... the god in humans and nature.
As well, his words open deeper channels: "No one can fathom what happens between a human being and written language."
The book also contains fewer of his trademark violent episodes, though why the horror of Packard and the kitten were included
is a real unredeeming mystery.
And, it just gets better - Barry Lopez leads readers into being more totally aware of the vibrating awareness of life,
into seeing, feeling, touching ... the god in humans and nature.
As well, his words open deeper channels: "No one can fathom what happens between a human being and written language."
The book also contains fewer of his trademark violent episodes, though why the horror of Packard and the kitten were included
is a real unredeeming mystery.
A collection of essays. I didn't like most. The ones I did like were on airplane travel, firing of ceramics, and a few short essays toward the end .. one about a woman he doesn't know who asks him to murder her husband.
The writing style is a bit new-agey, a bit wandering, and a bit abstract. He is being spiritual and drawing random links to things in most of these, but none of them too solid. I felt this collection wasn't a very good one. Too inconsistent in their quality.
The writing style is a bit new-agey, a bit wandering, and a bit abstract. He is being spiritual and drawing random links to things in most of these, but none of them too solid. I felt this collection wasn't a very good one. Too inconsistent in their quality.
Lopez, Barry. About this Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory. Knopf, 1998. Fabulous essays. Lopez lives the life that I wish I lived---travelling the world, seeing and doing interesting things.... ``Flight'', an essay in this book, is one of the best pieces of nonfiction I've ever read.
Superb essays observing the minute details of life.
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Author Information
43+ Works 7,579 Members
Barry Lopez, the author of 13 books, lives in western Oregon. (Bowker Author Biography)
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory
- Original publication date
- 1998
- Dedication
- For Mary Holstun Lopez, for Adrian Bernard Lopez and John Edward Brennan, for Sidney Van Sheck and Dana Emery, and for my brother, Dennis Holstun Lopez
- First words
- I was born east of the heights of New Rochelle in the watershed of New York's Mamaroneck River in the winter of 1945.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Yes," he said, "I noticed."
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- 440
- Popularity
- 69,337
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.89)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 1
