pilgrim at tinker creek
I found this book boring...I KNOW it was a Pulitzer prize winner. But, to
me, oh, so boring...

Annie Dillard is an excellent writer of course, and I loved her little
book, The Writing Life.

The result of relentless observation
I first read this book in High School. I was impressed but 8 years later re-read the book to my younger sister for a class she was taking. She wasn't getting much from the book. But as I read it to her, I realized how supreme this book is among American Lit.

Dillard's book is the result of relentless observation. Chapter by chapter she radiates a worshipful view of the natural world. Those who miss the point will complain there is "too much description" all the while missing her acute observation and beautiful prose. I have read that she wrote 15 hours a day. It seems likely since the book seems to reflect an obsessed mind.

Also great is An American Childhood. I think she is the second greatest American writer ever after Cather.

An ode to nature better appreciated in small doses
Annie Dillard was way ahead of her time in the spend-time-doing-something-interesting-and-then-write-about-it genre en vogue these days due to its use by Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and Barbara Kingsolver (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). The place Dillard writes about is the backcountry near Roanoke, Virginia, with its many wonders of nature, especially insects, birds, fish, and small mammals. She sets out on daily pilgrimages, a predator stalking prey (for observational purposes only) wandering in the wilderness, where she observes plants and wildlife. Back inside, she reads and reflects (and writes). Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is filled with the details of her outdoor experiences, enhanced by famous quotes as well as thoughts and facts on religion, philosophy, and even evolution. The writing is really good: flowery, descriptive and detailed. But you can have too much of a good thing. It only took a few chapters for me to consider relegating the book, with its prolifically poetic prose, to the "Do Not Finish" pile. The thought of learning more about on an egg-laying praying mantis, the quest for a muskrat, or the water bug that ate the frog was enough (though barely) incentive to continue. Great stuff, but reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is liable to cause fancy prose overload, so is better taken in small doses. Similarly good: The Good Rain by Timothy Egan, Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson (both preachy, but fact-filled), The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

A pretty hollow imitation of Walden
Apparently, Ms. Dillard fancied herself being Henry David Thoreau -- she even named her pet goldfish Ellery Channing (Channing was Thoreau's lifelong friend). Structurally this book is organized similar to Walden, and it is Walden that Ms. Dillard tried to emulate.

The book starts with a bloody, filthy and delirious little episode with a tom cat. Fortunately, the whole book is much more forgiving. There is no doubt that Ms. Dillard is well-read, as she gives us excerpts from Fabre, Edwin Way Teale, Marius von Senden, etc., stories about different animals, the Eskimos and facts about sciences (even Quantum Mechanics), which are quite fascinating to read. It is also no question that she has a flowering pen, her vivid descriptions of nature and events are scattered throughout the book and I especially enjoy the chapters "Flood" and "Stalking".

However, to think that this book is merely an observation of the natural environment and the flora and fauna in it would be a mistake. For one thing, there are actually not that many narratives of first-person observations. The book consists of three main themes: 1. description of the natural environment; 2. anecdotes and stories from other sources; 3. the author's own reflection about theology and spirituality. The first theme probably only occupies one third of the book.

In the end, what we have here is vastly different from Walden. Reading Walden gives one delight, hope, and a sense of liberation -- from the everyday quiet desperation. I don't get much of these from "Tinker Creek". Yes, Ms. Dillard is a keen observer and writes very well, but her main focus is not nature, but instead her religious ruminations. It is very much different from Walden, or Desert Solitaire, or many other books in this genre: in the other books the authors do offer some opinions and reflections, but they are mainly description of natural phenomena, the opinions and reflections are sparkles that give them life, an upshot so to speak. In "Pilgrim", the relationship is reversed; the narratives of nature comes second to, and is dictated by, the author's theological pondering. The book on a whole gives me the impression of a theological discourse rather than a nature book. I also get the feeling that the author is more inward looking, in a sense she is more self-absorbed, often delirious, and sometimes narcissistic. It is really a book about a "pilgrim"; that she happens to be at Tinker Creek is largely coincidental, and probably irrelevant.

Another thread that keeps popping up in the book is her thoughts about a "creator" -- I don't mean to make this a "evolution vs. creationism" debate, but since this is in the book itself and carries much weight, I figured I have every right to comment on it. This is permeated throughout the book, but most strongly in "Fecundity". It is interesting that Ms. Dillard does not actually reject evolution; in fact, she gives us many scientific facts about biology (especially entomology), ecology, etc., one is inclined to believe that she actually accepts it. She goes on to say how "wasteful" nature is in creating a lot of things and then discarding them (which is true and she made a good case by giving us a lot of interesting facts), but then wonders how a creator can be so inefficient. Well, maybe the answer is right at your fingertips, Ms. Dillard, perhaps you should just do away with that first assumption, like Laplace did.

I may be harsh in giving it 3 stars (I would give it 3.5 if I could), but my expectations were much higher (probably it had something to do with the Pulitzer Price).

Five Stars--Seen Clearly
Find time to read "Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek". Annie Dillard writes about seeing--Seeing--and writes so beautifully about life seen clearly and meaningfully. It's an exquisite book that merges her observations on life in the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountain Valley, and her experiences teaching the young, and her own surprising lessons in learning to See.

Dillard is a brilliant writer whose prose is as agile and weighted and sonorous as poetry. Frankly, surprise, it often IS poetry--and essential.

To the Amazon readers who didn't appreciate Pilgrim, "if at first you do not see, blink, and look again." This can be a life changing book; we don't want to live like cockroaches, do we? And to the reviewer who said the cat described on page one scratched the waking author: Well, no. The cat left bloody footprints on her because he was a tom cat who'd been out fighting or loving (or both) furiously and passionately and savagely. So, hey, let's wake up and re-read this one together. "What are we missing?" may be the perfect place to start.