Outlier opinion here. Despite the sea of four and five star reviews, I have to admit I really didn’t like this book. It took me several days to finishOutlier opinion here. Despite the sea of four and five star reviews, I have to admit I really didn’t like this book. It took me several days to finish because I found the author so annoying. I’m not normally one to criticize an author for their privilege, especially not in a mental health or sobriety memoir—I figure we’re probably all just stumbling along trying to do the best we can in this life—but in this one, it just stuck out like a sore thumb. All the mentions of her Ivy League education, her hip and influential acquaintances, her jaunts to Europe and her six figure income really grated after awhile.
And she just didn’t seem like a person I would enjoy getting to know. She mentions deleting photos of friends who aren’t cool enough from her social media accounts and being surprised when she realized that weddings were about the bride and groom, not her. Pre-sobriety, she describes her life as one non stop party. The thing is, I knew people like that in college, and I found them incredibly boring and shallow. I remember one girl who, like the author, had gotten sober, and who apologized to me for making fun of my geeky self behind my back. But since I barely knew this girl and had no idea what she said—we hung out in completely different circles—her “apology” was just as thoughtless as whatever it was she’d said beforehand.
But a lot of readers have said they found Levy relatable and this book inspiring, so obviously YMMV. If this book sounds interesting, you might just love it.
On a more constructive note, I think it would have worked better for me as a chronological memoir rather than a collection of “hip” essays. The format led to a lot of repetition and a confusing timeline. There was also information that wasn’t mentioned until the second half that should have been brought up earlier. For example, Levy writes about her obsession with being seen as cool and popular and fitting in leading to her creation of her party girl persona. She became the person who was always down for a good time: drinking and partying to the point of blacking out, puking in public, going to the hospital, unintended hookups, etc. It sounded so miserable that I couldn’t understand why she kept doing it. But then she mentioned, over half way through the book, that she never felt like she fit in as a child because of being half-French (neither French enough for France nor American enough for America) and also Jewish. That started to make more sense to me, but it’s mentioned in just one essay.
Honestly, I wish Levy success in her sobriety and I think she’s probably a more thoughtful person than comes across in this book. I would read about her future life journeys, especially if she can work through her need to sound hip all the time. I would have rounded my rating up to three stars if she hadn’t ended her book with an earnest essay about a pricey manifestation workshop. ...more
Did I like this book? Yes and no. The author describes a difficult period of her life, where she essentially had to drop out of her daily routines (anDid I like this book? Yes and no. The author describes a difficult period of her life, where she essentially had to drop out of her daily routines (and job), and cobbled her memoir about this onto a previously started project about winter. The result is a bit odd and unsatisfying, but still worth the read.
To begin with the good stuff, she is a good writer and there were some very poetic descriptions and flashes of insight that resonated with me. The writing flowed well and I was never tempted to DNF. I especially liked the descriptions of nature.
However, the book as a whole just didn’t gel for me. There’s a part about going to Norway which clearly happened before the other events (she’s pregnant on the Norway trip and her son is school aged in the rest of it), so it doesn’t quite fit in. And a couple chapters seem more like the “my wacky experiences as part of my research project” genre that was so popular a while ago than true memoir.
I don’t want to be petty, but at times the author just rubbed me the wrong way. She starts the book with an account of her husband getting appendicitis at her birthday and almost dying, and she comes across as so dismissive about it, I was a bit taken aback.
And despite the whole book being about winter, it was clear she hasn’t really experienced a real one. I snorted at her awe of her Finnish friend going outside when it’s cold and snowy for months on end. I’m from Michigan originally, so for me that’s normal.
I think I can sum up my mixed feelings with my reaction to the chapter where, after years of mild English winters, her son finally gets to experience snow. He has a blast the first day and then refuses to go back outside, announcing that one day of snow is enough. On the one hand, it’s a good point about expectations versus reality, etc. But also, it’s the opposite of her whole winter/wintering topic; whether it’s a season or a metaphor, one day is not enough.
In sum, I would characterize this book as well written, but a bit of a mess. Lots of people seem to love it, so I will give the author the benefit of a doubt. I think a lot of the issues I had came from her change in focus on her project....more
This book contains one exceptional essay that I would highly recommend to everyone, "The Sacred and the Superfund." As for the rest of it, although I This book contains one exceptional essay that I would highly recommend to everyone, "The Sacred and the Superfund." As for the rest of it, although I love the author's core message--that we need to find a relationship to the land based on reciprocity and gratitude, rather than exploitation--I have to admit, I found the book a bit of a struggle to get through. The author has a flowery, repetitive, overly polished writing style that simply did not appeal to me. I would read a couple of essays, find my mind wandering, and then put the book down for a couple of weeks. Then I would find myself thinking about something the author said, decide to give the book another try, read a couple of essays, etc. Clearly I am in the minority here, as this book has some crazy high ratings overall. ...more
This is one of those books it's a bit hard for me to rate, because although it wasn't a bad book by any means, it simply wasn't what I was expecting aThis is one of those books it's a bit hard for me to rate, because although it wasn't a bad book by any means, it simply wasn't what I was expecting and so I feel a bit disgruntled about that. Since I found it in the nature section of (sadly going out of business) Book World, and the cover has birds all over it and states "A Year of Observation," I thought that birds would be the main topic. As it turns out, the book is only tangentially about birds: the author tags along with a birder for several trips around Toronto, briefly describes a bird that they find per chapter, and uses that as a launching point for a digression about her own life and regrets and existential dilemmas, etc. For what it's worth, her little essays are elegantly written and contain the occasional poignant insight (along with the occasional self-indulgent meandering). As I said, it's not a bad book. I would recommend it to fans of literary essays. But not necessarily to bird nerds, as they might end up disappointed, as I was, by how few birds Maclear actually sees. ...more
This was one of those books that was hard to rate, because although I didn't like it, I have to concede that it was well-written and it would probablyThis was one of those books that was hard to rate, because although I didn't like it, I have to concede that it was well-written and it would probably be enjoyed by a different reader. I've been reading a lot of "nature writing" lately, and I can definitely say that I have a preference for a more down-to-earth, factual approach, with some narrative and humor sprinkled in. It seems that I do not like intellectual, philosophical, poetic musings about nature, such as this book.
I happen to love swamps, bogs and the human imagination, but I didn't learn anything about swamps or bogs in this book (it is a collection of creative essays), nor did I feel inspired to run out and visit one, and although I feel more acquainted with the author's imagination, I thought her essays seemed rather contrived and...odd. I guess that's it in a nutshell: her thought processes seemed kind of odd to me. The essays were a series of extended metaphors about human nature, based upon the author's experiences, using bogs and swamps as a starting point, but I didn't really feel that bogs and swamps were the true topic, just the start off point for her musings.
Maybe it's just better to judge for yourself. Here are a couple of examples of what I found bizarre.
The author sees a mink and thinks:
"Covered with dark fur, its chin dabbed with white, it reminded me of what theologians say about the life of the personality being horizontal, craving community; and that of the soul, vertical, needing solitude. This mink, going from what alder to another, manages both landscapes, traces with its lustrous back a pattern of swell and subsides, evokes an image of Muslims prostrating themselves and standing, Catholics kneeling and rising, pale inchworms arching and stretching along my forearm."
Personally, when I see a mink, I think, "Hey, cool! A mink!!" And...that's about it. So maybe that's why I found that passage bizarre, pretentious and actually, it has nothing to do with actual minks at all.
One more example. The author's legs sink into the mud and she thinks:
"No wonder the Puritans hated swamps. Think of it this way: in sex, the more a man disappears inside a woman, the more she feels his presence. But if you're prudish about such things and used to banishing what you don't like, you can't stand a damp and slippery world where the banished keeps growing, where what's buried is so deeply felt."
Okay then! Once again, she's not really writing about swamps at all in that passage. Also, I'm pretty sure that the Puritans and other early settlers, as with people today, disliked and drained wetlands so they could farm them and slap houses all over them, and they objected to the bugs, not because they're too sexy! Overall, I was really disappointed; based on the topic, I was really expecting to love this book, as I can see by the other reviews that many other readers do....more
A good used bookstore find, this is a slender collection of nature essays and observations about birds. The author takes the approach of a scholar ratA good used bookstore find, this is a slender collection of nature essays and observations about birds. The author takes the approach of a scholar rather than a birder--lots of classical references and philosophical musings. A bit dry at times, but definitely worth the read....more
This book consists of a series of essays about the author's musings on her experiences in nature. As she explains in the introduction, she had recentlThis book consists of a series of essays about the author's musings on her experiences in nature. As she explains in the introduction, she had recently lost several people who were close to her, and so the tone of the book tends to be rather melancholy and bittersweet. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I didn't love it.
What I liked: The writing is very dense, poetic and lyrical.
What I didn't like: The writing is very dense, poetic and lyrical.
To be honest, this is not my favorite writing style. I prefer a more direct and down to earth approach, and a bit of narrative and/or humor is always welcome. Although I do enjoy a beautiful turn of phrase or an image that continues to resonate with me after I have stopped reading, (and this book has both of those in spades), this sort of writing can also seem a bit pretentious and overly self-aware. Some of the essays in particular felt a bit overly polished and forced. I loved some of her images, such as the description of kayaking in a snow squall or a young heron learning how to be patient enough to catch a fish. Other essays fell flat for me--like the overly-long description of geese flying over a winter field, and the author's extended discussion of how she was trying to impose the order of her own world view on their movements....more
Ehrlich writes poetically and conjures up a marvelous sense of place, but I never warmed up to this collection of essays about her time spent on a ranEhrlich writes poetically and conjures up a marvelous sense of place, but I never warmed up to this collection of essays about her time spent on a ranch in Wyoming. I think there was just a bit too much disconnect between the lyrical (and occasionally pretentious) writing and the harsh landscape and hardscrabble lives that she described. Worth a read but definitely not my favorite in the genre....more
Emily Kestrel
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