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First Sentence
When you write, you lav out a line of words. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
When you write, you lav out a line of words. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Matt Johnson
Format:Paperback
It seems some reviewers were hoping The Writing Life would be something akin to Fiction for Dummies. Trust me, it's not. Instead, Annie Dillard, through anecdote, illustration and abundant imagination, reveals a little of the writing world that she so uniquely inhabits.
If you are new to Annie, prepare to be marvellously impressed. There are times when a single Annie Dillard sentence is so beautifully constructed that you'll wonder why you should ever bother picking up a book by another author again. As a writer, she is all sweet angles and breathtaking runs, like a star striker at football. Think Pele in paragraph form.
Intended more as a discourse on writing and the creative process of the craft, this is a great book for anyone who has ever wished to pick up a pen and leave so much as a few scribbled sentences for family, friends and/or posterity. Equally, it's for everyone who just loves reading and enjoys the opportunity to witness one of our greatest living writers take her talents out for a bit of a ramble. Annie, by this bloke, is always as good as it gets.
If you are new to Annie, prepare to be marvellously impressed. There are times when a single Annie Dillard sentence is so beautifully constructed that you'll wonder why you should ever bother picking up a book by another author again. As a writer, she is all sweet angles and breathtaking runs, like a star striker at football. Think Pele in paragraph form.
Intended more as a discourse on writing and the creative process of the craft, this is a great book for anyone who has ever wished to pick up a pen and leave so much as a few scribbled sentences for family, friends and/or posterity. Equally, it's for everyone who just loves reading and enjoys the opportunity to witness one of our greatest living writers take her talents out for a bit of a ramble. Annie, by this bloke, is always as good as it gets.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
It is one thing to write a letter to a friend or jot a note to a colleague, quite another to compose a work for publication. Annie Dillard effectively captures the struggles of writing for the public, of trying to share a vision or communicate ideas through the medium of language. This book consists of numerous short vignettes to demonstrate what the writing life is like. Like many other writers, I instantly identified with a number of things Dillard struggles with and her hopes for communication. For example, I laughed when she drew an analogy between a starfish that loses an arm through autoamputation and part of a book-in-progress that seems to severe itself of its own accord. Through this and many other examples, Dillard captures what it is often like to be a writer. Some of the idiosyncracies reported are unique to Dillard's mental landscape (which, as much as I love to share it, still often strikes me as really weird), which is why I give the book four stars instead of five.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, for me, was like having a relaxing conversation with a friend about the pains and joys of writing. I identified with every sentence -- from starting over again on a writing project, to disliking the beginning of a work but loving the middle, to growing in this craft, etc... It is an addiction, and addictions are not easy to explain, so I understand the negative reviews of this book as well. Writing is an unexplainable yet enjoyable frustration. Annie Dillard's metaphores trying to explain the positive and negative aspects of writing -- from painting, to reeling in a log and fighting the forces of nature, to flying -- they are clear-cut, percise views of what writing is all about. This book is great for writers who just enjoy what writng is: annoying, aggrevating, frustrating, sole-searching, creative, self-understanding fun. Read this book. Relax. Enjoy The Writing Life.
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4.1 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Literary Jewel Box
This is best enjoyed like a literary jewel box, full of multi-faceted views and anecdotes. Annie Dillard is breathtakingly honest about her personal struggles and obsession with... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Calypso
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, fulfilling, but not an instruction manual
Annie Dillard, author of several fiction and non-fiction books, has been recommended to me numerous times by many authors, the first of which was Deirdre McCloskey in her... Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2009 by Mr. SD Halliday
2.0 out of 5 stars
Annie Dillard: The Writing Life
If like me, you thought this title held real pragmatic promise for aspiring writers, you may be disappointed, as I was, to reach the end but feeling not much the wiser for doing... Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2003 by Ian Jupp
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry is abundant, sincerity is lacking
My title just about sums it up. Annie Dillard uses very cute metaphors and word choice to convey her relationship with writing, but the whole thing fails to ring true. Read more
Published on 24 Dec 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOnderful!
I have read this book at least three times now -- and will read it again yet. An inspiring and poetic piece of work. I am an author myself, and to Annie Dillard I say: Thank you! Read more
Published on 22 Feb 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMBROSIAL FEAST FOR TEACHERS OF WRITING
How did I miss this one when it first appeared? Lyrical, inspiring, full of sound advice and graspable metaphors, this book is a must on any writer/writing teacher's shelf. Read more
Published on 22 July 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars
A most poetic mirror of the process of creative writing.
This brief, beautiful confession of the pshyche of writing is both inspiring intellectually and deeply satisfying artistically. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 1997
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