An American Childhood

Rating:
Summary: As graceful a book as I have read
Review: Dillards' "An American Childhood" sings with vision:
of the eye and the soul. She describes growing
up in Pittsburgh in a loving family and reminds
us of the many ways we come awake (if we are
lucky and wise) as we cross through childhood.
Never preachy and often funny, she explores
class and religious differences, the discovery of the
natural world, of oneself and of the people in
one's family. Each chapter is short and complete
in itself, so picking it up for a short read is easy
and satisfying: a refreshing break every time. One
chapter begins, "The interior life is often stupid."
This book never is

Rating:
Summary: As graceful a book as I have read
Review: Dillards' "An American Childhood" sings with vision:
of the eye and the soul. She describes growing
up in Pittsburgh in a loving family and reminds
us of the many ways we come awake (if we are
lucky and wise) as we cross through childhood.
Never preachy and often funny, she explores
class and religious differences, the discovery of the
natural world, of oneself and of the people in
one's family. Each chapter is short and complete
in itself, so picking it up for a short read is easy
and satisfying: a refreshing break every time. One
chapter begins, "The interior life is often stupid."
This book never is

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Pointless
Review: I am in the process of a painful reading through Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood." Had it been my own will, i would have stopped after the first few pages; yet, i haven't been able to, since it is an assigned reading project for school. I am a freshman in an advance-placement english course, but I can honestly proclaim that her accounts are nowhere near comprehendiblity. On a more positive note, I'll give her literary piece the honorary note that it does contain sophisticated use of vocabulary, as well as profoundly described visual memories, even if they are memories of the least bit interesting and sapid to the common human mind frame.

Rating:
Summary: I am a teenager, and I understand
Review: I can't comprehend how someone could miss the truth, insight, and charm of this book. I am fifteen years old and an aspiring writer. In the weeks before I read Dillard's chapters on adolescence, I was feeling the painful confusion of it more than I ever have before. Dillard voiced my feelings perfectly when I couldn't state them myself. Her childhood memories support the concept of entering various states of consciousness throughout one's life. This is brilliant work.

Rating:
Summary: A pity about the AP abuse.
Review: I feel bad for the teenagers forced to read Dillard. Obviously their schools have made placement mistakes. The sophmoriphic and shallow reviews demonstrate that these young 'scholars' haven't yet developed the sensetivity their exhalted class suggests. Criticize Dillard, but do so on the merits of her work. She writes with breath stealing imagery and astonishing fluidity, not in a Dickens-like arch. It seems horribly unfair to both students and author to have to shove such beauty down the unwilling. Readers should consider themselves guests in a magical and all-too-familiar world. We are invited to look, touch, taste, and most enjoyably sit and listen for a spell.

Rating:
Summary: "An American Childhood" That Lacks Climax
Review: I feel sympathy for the author because of her lack of enthusiasm. This is a classic tale of a girls childhood and the hardships she experiences throughout her life. Her life continues as a normal childs would and has no turning point.While reading this novel you will notice that the author talks about her family on every page. This novel has its interesting moments however, this does not exist throughout the whole novel.

Rating:
Summary: A boring book -It fatigued me!
Review: I had to read this book for a reading group. I had tried several years ago to listen to it on audio-tape, but hated it then. At that time I attibuted its tedium to the reader. It wasn't the reader's fault, it's the book!! It's dull and says little. I agree with several of the earlier reviewers that it lacked cohesion and interest. I must admit that I never finished the book - after l50 pages of extreme boredom, I gave up. (I was beginning to think I lost my love for books-- I started another novel soon after and found that I could get absorbed easily.) I only wish Amazon let me give it zero stars. My heart goes out to that high schooler. Couldn't his teacher have found something better? I'm around the same age as the author, I should've identified in some way, but found it as dull as the high school student did. The other reviewers were very generous with their stars.

Rating:
Summary: Anne Dillard is a good writer, but I could barely finish it.
Review: I had to read this book, as an assignment. I found it extremely boring. I could barely finish it. I think Anne Dillard is a really great author, with a large vocabulary, but I think the story would be more entertaining if it was less descriptive of unimportant details. Maybe she should try writing fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Too Descriptive and pointless
Review: If I didn't have to read this for an assignment, It would have been placed on the shelf to eternally collect dust. The only time it would be picked up is to be dusted off and placed back. The scenes were extremely detailed. I did not enjoy reading numerous pages describing a rock collection, or descriptive ideas of what a library looks like to a child. It was a very boring book, I used it to put me to sleep at night.

Rating:
Summary: An American Childhood
Review: If I have ever read a book that I truly, truly didn't like, this would have to be it. The book is filled with overbearing descriptions that have little to do with the actual book, and the author rambles on and on about points that just weren't interesting to me. Also, for me, when I read a book, I read it to escape reality, not to bury myself deeper in it, which this book did. I didn't find the plot of it very interesting. I was bored by the time she was ten years old--the characters seemed flat and she jumped from point to point without connecting them. It seemed like just a jumble of random ideas pasted into chapters in a book. Even my English teacher did not like this book, nor did any of my friends. I do not recommend this book.