Teaching a Stone to Talk
Annie Dillard · 1982
Dillard's essay collection contains some of the finest individual essays in American literature. "Total Eclipse," "Living Like Weasels," "An Expedition to the Pole." A master at work.
The case against
"Total Eclipse" is as good as the American essay gets; the collection around it is a mixed bag of expedition pieces and two-page sketches that evaporate on contact. Dillard's style runs hot, every weasel and eclipse pressed for metaphysical juice, and when the material is thin the rhetoric keeps roaring anyway. You came for transcendence; sometimes you get throat-clearing in a sublime register.
Essays · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
