Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard
I selected this book for First Son's senior year of geography as he was studying North America. Kansas Dad believes Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is one of the most important (and beautifully written) books of nature essays by an American author, so it seemed a good choice. I'm pretty sure this is one of the books I did not read when it was assigned in college, so I read it just ahead of First Son.
Ms. Dillard wrote this collection of essays as she lived on Tinker Creek in Virginia, wandering the creek by day and night, through heat, rain, and winter cold, describing it through all four seasons and every kind of weather.
It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed book on a shelf continues to whisper to itself its own inexhaustible tale. (p. 69)
Her thoughts flow freely through the essays. They show clearly how becoming immersed in a real, physical landscape can allow it to become a part of you, and how you can be changed by it. As rare as such a life may have been in the 1970s when the book was first published, it is even more so today. Even those of us who live outside the cities find ourselves surrounded always by walls or separated from the world by metal and glass as we drive through the wind and weather.
Is this where we live, I thought, in this place at this moment, with the air so light and wild? (p. 218)
There are frequent references to a creator, but not in a particularly religious way.
I loved the slow pace and entrancing descriptions in the book, but First Son did not. I'm inclined to think most high schoolers will be more like First Son, but I will consider it as a geography book for my other kids. Perhaps I will choose to assign only one or two essays, rather than the whole book. I think it could work well that way.
I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I received a copy from a member of PaperBackSwap.com (affiliate link).
