Read Recently “The Writing Life” by Annie Dillard
Title: The Writing Life
Author: Annie Dillard
Origins: I’m a huge admirer of Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and a huge fan of books about writing. I’d bought this one twice, in hardcover, at two separate book sales without realizing the duplication.
Synopsis: Really a collection of seven memoir essays/philosophical treatises on Dillard’s approach to her art. Like much of her work, the product of a well-read, thoughtful yet tightly held mind. Dillard does not give specific advice or even open her own process up for examination. Instead she invites you to watch her think. Although she doesn’t say so, her thoughts are still being born when they alight on the page. Even then as I read and reread, I understood whom Annie Dillard was at the moment she wrote these words but the hallways ahead and behind were dark. It may be because Dillard is a private person and doesn’t give of herself in her prose. Or, more interestingly, it may be because she finds solutions less illuminating than process.
Verdict: Useful yet erratic. In seven chapters, Dillard’s got 3 classics, 2 forgetables, one hardly-there and a concluding story about the death of friend that goes nowhere and seems inserted by an overzealous junior editor at Dillard’s publishing house. But at a a modest 111 pages, 3 diamonds of seven are plenty. Chapters 1,3 and 5 if you’re curious. The others are bunting.
This is a book you’ll read with the pen if you enjoy underlining quotes, books to look up later and graceful turns of phrase you can later repeat to friends. All the Dillard I’ve read contains an average of three priceless sentences per page in prose thick and shimmering as a leopard’s pelt. Its luscious to read again then repeat out loud, even if no one’s there to listen.
Will you walk away with five tips on how to be a better writer? No. The Writing Life is Annie Dillard’s dispassionate look at what works for her, inspiring, but ultimately there as reference, not counsel, support group or best friend.