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Summary: The Autobiographical Equivalent of "Seinfeld" ....
Review: . . . because it fills up space but is really about nothing in particular. Not nearly as funny as "Seinfeld." So "interior that I felt I was party to a psychotherapy session.
Rating:
Summary: The Autobiographical Equivalent of "Seinfeld" ....
Review: . . . because it fills up space but is really about nothing in particular. Not nearly as funny as "Seinfeld." So "interior that I felt I was party to a psychotherapy session.
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Summary: RANDOM...
Review: although a very interesting book, Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood" is very (and I mean very) random and boring. It seems to hop from one part of her childhood to the next, just boring the reader to death with what she did as a kid. There are some instances in the book that are amusing, but as a whole, it bored me to death. Therefore I recommend this book to someone who has alot of time on their hands, for they're going to need every precious second of it in order to get through this work.
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Summary: RANDOM...
Review: although a very interesting book, Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood" is very (and I mean very) random and boring. It seems to hop from one part of her childhood to the next, just boring the reader to death with what she did as a kid. There are some instances in the book that are amusing, but as a whole, it bored me to death. Therefore I recommend this book to someone who has alot of time on their hands, for they're going to need every precious second of it in order to get through this work.
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Summary: A childhood we all somehow shared.
Review: Anne Dillard knows herself, and her reader very well. In this fine book, she recalls memories of childhood that we all can relate to, from the idiosyncracies of our parents, to the newness of our siblings. She captures the nervousness of love, and the inevitability of change. Simply the finest book I have read in some time.
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Summary: It should never end
Review: Annie Dillard does what no other author has for me--she made me wish that her story would never end. I was immersed in her marvelous tale to the point of savoring every phrase. In a mere 250 words, she captures the essence of childhood. This book is a gift to any thinking person--it's pure poetry of thought. Well-crafted doesn't begin to describe Dillard's prose--she is a master.
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Summary: Annie Dillard revisits her childhood.
Review: Annie Dillard is among my favorite writers. With the exceptions of "Tickets for a Prayer Wheel" (which is now apparently out of print) and "The Living," I have read all of her books. Some, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," "Teaching a Stone to Talk," and "For the Time Being," I have read more than once, and will read again. I recommend all of Dillard's books, especially these three. Annie Dillard is a fine writer."An American Childhood" is not one of my favorite Dillard books, but it is worth reading. In this memoir, Dillard revisits her childhood. We see young Annie as an inquisitive, bookish girl, hanging out in the library, and studying, among other things, her parents and grandparents, rainwater with her microscope, a long-buried coin, insects, and a robin's nest. "One took note," Dillard writes, "one took notes." We also witness young Annie pondering the mysteries of life and death, subjects she will be writing books about later as an adult. Apparently Dillard was blessed with a happy childhood, for there is not an unhappy memory to be found here. Still, her writing in this memoir is honest, poetic, and insightful. G. Merritt
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Summary: An American Childhood Review
Review: Annie Dillard is an American author who writes contemporary short stories, poetry, literary criticism, and autobiography. In her book, "An American Childhood" she tells what life was like for her and for her family in the 1950's. She describes her neighborhood as a "great humming silence of the empty neighborhoods, abandoned everywhere across continental America-"(21). Her stories are important to any individuals interested in American life in the 1950's. The book is very confusing to read. Annie jumps back and forth from childhood to present then back to childhood. In the beginning she opens with a sentence which is very hard to followfor people that don't know what is going on in her mind or in the world around her; "When everything else has gone from my brain-the President's name, the state capitals, the neighborhoods where I lived, and then my own name and what it was soon earth I sought, and then at length the faces of my friends, and finally the faces of my family-when all this has dissolved, what will be left, I believe, is topology: the dreaming memory of land as it lay this way and that"(3). A sentence like this overwhelms me and makes me want to give up on the reading before I even start to get into the book. One of Washington Post's writers, Charles Treauheart, describes Dillard's writing as "memories of childhood are like her observations of nature: they feed her acrobatic thinking, and drive the free verse of her prose". I seem to prefer narrative style rather than poetic. Her description is very poetic, leaving the reader to be lost in a sentence. Most of her sentences left me puzzled like, "Jo Ann Sheely and the Catholic schoolchildren carried brown-and-tan workbooks which they filled, I knew, with gibberish they not only had to memorize, they had to believe" (46). While with other sentences I easily understood, "The boys held their workbooks tightly"(47). The area of the country that this book is focused on proves to be interesting. I am a West Coast girl who likes to learn about what is happening or did happen on the east. I know very little about Pennsylvania. Dillard describes Pennsylvania as "Wild grapevines tangled the treetops and shut out the sun. Few songbirds lived in the deep woods" (5). Even though I have not seen the land I know from her description that it is beautiful and I can picture myself their. This type of book reaches certain kinds of people. The kind of people who are into poetic writing and also for a person who likes images rather than a story. These types of books concentrates on fleeting images. They are also not very structured for those who like to have a book that has a distinct beginning, middle and an end. Finally the style of her family in how their life is interesting. She talks about her father as being gone often "motoring down the river,"(112). She describes her mom as energetic, intelligent, with games "She dearly loved to fluster people by throwing out a game's rules at whim-when she was getting bored, losing in a dull sort of way, and when everybody else was taking it too seriously"(173). She had a sister who she does not get mentioned often in her book. This book would be a good one to read for someone who likes images rather than a story. For me I prefer a narrative that tells a good story.
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Summary: Insightful and amusing picture of growing up in the 1950's
Review: Annie Dillard's ability to observe and interpret everyday occurences and then communicate the most extraordinary lessons is amazing. This book causes you to step back into a time when you saw the world like only a child can. It makes you grieve the loss of that perspective.
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Summary: This book is the most worthless peice of crap
Review: Did they make a movie for this book? I can't stand to read it!!! Why aren't there Cliff Notes for it??
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