About This Life - Softcover

Lopez, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099546159 ISBN 13: 9780099546153

Publisher: Vintage, 2009

Synopsis

Once, when asked for advice on how to become a writer, Lopez found himself replying: "Read. Find out what you truly believe. Get away from the familiar." This collection of essays stems directly from that philosophy. Here is far-flung travel (the beauty of remote Hokkaido Island, the over-explored Galįpagos, enigmatic Bonaire); a naturalist's concerns (for endangered communities as well as their land) and pure adventure. Here, too, are seven exquisite memory pieces; beautiful, meditative recollections that will stand as classic examples of the personal essay.

About this title

Review:

"Read. Find out what you truly believe. Get away from the familiar." This advice, given to a father whose daughter wants to learn to write, is the organising principle behind Barry Lopez's latest collection of essays and also the central theme behind his life as a writer. Author of 12 acclaimed books of nature writing, including the National Book Award-winning Arctic Dreams, Lopez is one of the most eloquent masters of the nearly lost art of paying attention. In this volume, a travelogue of journeys both inward and outward, he brings the same careful scrutiny to bear on the mystery of his own life and its interactions with the natural world.

Lopez has always been interested in tearing down artificial divides between nature and culture, landscape and identity, and nowhere does he do so more powerfully than in About This Life. These essays cover ground from the remote (in the group of travel essays entitled "Out of Country") to the familiar ("Indwelling"), the personal to the archetypal ("Remembrance" and "An Opening Quartet"). Whether he's joyriding around the world with air cargo, performing burials for animals found dead by the side of the road, or lamenting the commodification of the American landscape, Lopez writes with a surgeon's precision, a musician's ear, and a painter's eye for beauty found in unexpected places.

Review:

"The narrative sings with conviction .... I enjoyed this rich book hugely." - The New York Times Book Review

"Lopez crosses disciplines the way he conquers continents." - The Wall Street Journal

"Contemplative and poetic, sometimes even mystical.-- Lopez feels a deep spiritual connection to the natural world." - San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0099546159
• ISBN 13: 9780099546153
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 275