Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and thought-provoking
Review: I found this book to be an excellent read: not only is Ms. Solnit a clear-eyed and perceptive observer, but she's also a good researcher into the historical and personal dimensions of the places she visits, and she generally presents this material very well (although a few times I felt that the background information got between her and what she was seeing). Also, as a native Californian who grew up in the same rural-turning-into-suburban landscape as she did, I found her comments and comparisons very apt; I'm not sure that someone from a different background would find them as relevant, but the material is fascinating and the anecdotes well written. However, I was rather annoyed by the vehemence of her dislike for "New Age types" -- granted, some people who fall under that rubric are easy to scoff at, but in that case I wondered why such a gifted and perceptive writer was wasting her time on cheap shots. Maybe it's that she feels threatened by anyone who doesn't agree with her "political activism is the ONLY way to change the world" viewpoint, in which case I think she needs to examine her own biases! Otherwise, the book is a beautifully written description of the West of Ireland (as a recent visitor to many of the same places, I greatly enjoyed her perspective) as well as a meditation on the nature of travel itself, and I feel it's well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and thought-provoking
Review: I found this book to be an excellent read: not only is Ms. Solnit a clear-eyed and perceptive observer, but she's also a good researcher into the historical and personal dimensions of the places she visits, and she generally presents this material very well (although a few times I felt that the background information got between her and what she was seeing). Also, as a native Californian who grew up in the same rural-turning-into-suburban landscape as she did, I found her comments and comparisons very apt; I'm not sure that someone from a different background would find them as relevant, but the material is fascinating and the anecdotes well written. However, I was rather annoyed by the vehemence of her dislike for "New Age types" -- granted, some people who fall under that rubric are easy to scoff at, but in that case I wondered why such a gifted and perceptive writer was wasting her time on cheap shots. Maybe it's that she feels threatened by anyone who doesn't agree with her "political activism is the ONLY way to change the world" viewpoint, in which case I think she needs to examine her own biases! Otherwise, the book is a beautifully written description of the West of Ireland (as a recent visitor to many of the same places, I greatly enjoyed her perspective) as well as a meditation on the nature of travel itself, and I feel it's well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and visually rich but a bit academic
Review: Rebecca Solnit has a unique ability to bring the nuances of place to the reader's imagination. This account of Solnit's solitary walk across the west of Ireland is at times haunting, beautiful,and wistful, yet I felt it had a tendency to get a bit bogged down in the language of academia and deconstruction. Her interior journeys are as compelling as her geographical ones, however, and anyone who is interested in the landscape of this very unique part of the world will enjoy her tales of the Irish west's land and people.

Rating:
Summary: This is a wonderful book
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. For anyone who has ever been to Ireland or for that matter travelled anywhere at all this should be a marvelous book to read. I love the way she thinks and writes. If I were as well educated and as articulate as Rebecca Solnit, I would write as she does. In the book one minute I'm in Ireland and then back here in the Bay Area on Mount Burdell. I love the way one subject brings her to another and then on from there. She reminds one that we can be in many different places at once...not only the place where we actually are physically at the moment...but in all the places our minds, memories, hearts and souls have been (and have not actually been) and remember. I am going walking in the West of Ireland in two weeks and this is a book I shall carry with me and read for the third time while I'm there. Thank you Ms. Solnit for the gift of your intellect and your spirit.

Rating:
Summary: This is a wonderful book
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. For anyone who has ever been to Ireland or for that matter travelled anywhere at all this should be a marvelous book to read. I love the way she thinks and writes. If I were as well educated and as articulate as Rebecca Solnit, I would write as she does. In the book one minute I'm in Ireland and then back here in the Bay Area on Mount Burdell. I love the way one subject brings her to another and then on from there. She reminds one that we can be in many different places at once...not only the place where we actually are physically at the moment...but in all the places our minds, memories, hearts and souls have been (and have not actually been) and remember. I am going walking in the West of Ireland in two weeks and this is a book I shall carry with me and read for the third time while I'm there. Thank you Ms. Solnit for the gift of your intellect and your spirit.