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Loading... Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)by Annie Dillard
  
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This is a tough one because I expected to like it, since the other books I have read by Annie Dillard, especially An American Childhood, were really good. But I was never able to figure out where this was going. It seemed to come from a young mind struggling for comprehension about what life is supposed to be, a critique of nature with philosophical and religious overtones. Densely packed, with lots of obscure references and words that sent me scrambling to Google to unlock, but when I did I rarely found a word or a phrase that added to the story - it would turn out to be just a word or just a phrase that adding nothing clever or insightful. I believe that this could lose a third of its pages and nothing would change. And it won a Pulitzer Prize - no idea how that happened. Probably 2.5 stars, if that was allowed. And yes, I read it to the very end. (  ) Cantsaywhy | Sep 4, 2023 |  2023 - ‘70’s Immersion Reading Challenge Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (1974), 1st Edition, hardcover, 271 pages. Paid $4.99 for used 1974 1st edition hardcover (no jacket) from Thriftbooks.com on 11/1/2022. MissysBookshelf | Aug 27, 2023 | I've read Dillard's essay "Living Like Weasels," and am excited about finally owning and reading a copy of this award-winning title. (  ) rebwaring | Aug 14, 2023 | Deep and interesting, both the biology and the personal. ( ) mykl-s | Aug 5, 2023 | Dillard writes about a corner of Appalachia close to my personal wilderness between the Roanoke valley and the West Virginia line; a place that has been developed since her writing "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek". Her observations of the minute violence and beauty of the creek's nature are poignant; philosophically, she is an heir of Thoreau and Wordsworth in her attempt, through language, to reconnect the human experience with our natural surroundings. Some of the criticism of the book mentioned in the epilogue says that "Pilgrim" is overwritten; Dillard does overuse some language devices (like alliteration), but she writes with truth and feeling; she really hits her stride towards the end of the book when the religious allusions become explicit. (  ) jonbrammer | Jul 1, 2023 | no reviews | add a review
Is contained inHas as a student's study guideAwardsNotable Lists
Biography & Autobiography.
Nonfiction.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "beauty tangled in a rapture with violence." Her personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot in the Virginia region through which Tinker Creek runs. In the summer, Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)508.9755792Natural sciences and mathematics General Science Natural historyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.19)
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Group Read- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
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