Generally, we think of a pilgrim as one who leaves his or her home in search of enlightenment or spiritual awakening. In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard does the opposite. She stays put in her cabin by the banks of Tinker Creek in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, and lets the natural world come to her. This reverse pilgrimage results in a book that is filled with an impassioned wonder.
Dillard is a consummate observer. She looks at the natural world and sees things that others might miss: the death of a frog sucked dry by a giant water bug, the fall of a mockingbird as it steps off the eaves of her house. In fact, much of the book is about how we see, or don’t see. As Dillard says “There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.” The key though is to put yourself in the frame of mind of actually looking. Dillard goes on to note “[W]ho gets excited by a mere penny?” In many ways, the rest of the book is about ways of looking at the natural world and ways of being open to the flashes of insight that come when and where they will, not necessarily on our schedules.
Dillard has read widely across disciplines, and her book introduces readers to a host of other writers from scientists and naturalists to theologians. She is captivated by facts and information, and readers who enjoy knowing details of the lives of insects and the ways of muskrats will find an ample compilation of this sort of knowledge here. But these details are always included in support of the broader story, an inner pilgrimage that Dillard relates in lyrical and masterful prose. Annie Dillard’s writing style is at the opposite end of the nature writing spectrum from the sparse, rocky writing of Edward Abbey. But both writers share a passion for the natural world and for how the journeys that we make there can change our lives.
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This is a wonderful book and made my Mum, my sister and I fans of Annie Dillard. So imagine our dismay when we found that her fiction is so stonking bad! Why, oh, why can’t her lyrical writing in this non-fiction journey cross over to the fictional journeys she has chosen to write?
Wow, I had to read this book for summer reading and I was pumped for it. It sounded like a good book until I read the first line. Easily in the top three worst books Ive ever read.
Hi, Charlie. Sorry that you did not enjoy the book. The first rule of reading is never apologize for your reading tastes, and I think that a corollary is that it is ok not to like a book, even one that others like. No book is going to appeal to all readers, and sometimes you find that a book you really liked at one point in your life is no longer particularly interesting or that one you did not like earlier now has something to say to you. There are so many things to read that I think you should not spend too much time reading things you do not like (unless of course they are required reading). Happy reading!