book data
314 ratings,
4.06
average rating, 94 reviews
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published
2007
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
binding
Hardcover, 240 pages
isbn
0374106622
(isbn13: 9780374106621)
description
In At Large and At Small, Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favorite genres, the familiar essay—a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized ...more
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| SciFi and Fantasy...: What I'm Also Reading in January 2009 | 58 | 317 | 01/31/2009 12:54PM | |
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avg 4.06
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in September, 2007
So, last week I went out for sushi with my parents. I had just read the essay from this collection where Fadiman talks about being a night owl; my mom is a major night owl, so, thinking she'd appreciate it, I recommended the book to her. Turns out she knows Fadiman: they went to Harvard together, lived in Dunster House together, used to fly back on the same planes from Boston to where they lived in L.A. My mom wrinkled her nose as she told me this. She and Anne were not bestest buddies, apparent...more
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Read in January, 2008
Over the last several years, I must have given close to a dozen copies of Anne Fadiman's previous essay collection, "Ex Libris", to various friends. It's the kind of book you just have to share with others. It didn't seem possible that another collection could match the perfection of the first, but this one comes pretty close.
Essays in the first collection focused on topics related to books and reading; the author's lifelong passion for reading shone through on every page a...more
Essays in the first collection focused on topics related to books and reading; the author's lifelong passion for reading shone through on every page a...more
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Read in October, 2007
I heard Anne Fadiman read from this collection at Brookline Booksmith in August, 2007. She has a charming, thoughtful reading voice which is entirely consistent with her writing. This collection is one of familiar essays, a form she said she learned to love from reading Charles Lamb. One of the essays is about Lamb, and her love for his work has made me interested in reading him as well. I cannot remember the last time I was inspired in that way.
I'm a little unsure how this entirely ...more
I'm a little unsure how this entirely ...more
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Read in January, 2009
A good collection of essays on topics that vary from ice cream to why we should read. A more serious collection than found in her other title, Ex Libris, but still enjoyable.
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This is a lovely book (a collection of essays, so easy to read because I just read an essay every other evening to relax). When I finished I couldn't help but think that part of the trouble with teaching secondary students to write the personal essay is not that they haven't had experiences worth writing about. It's really two other things: first, we don't teach them about the additional inquiry that should accompany such writing. This book is a great example of how beneficial such inquiry is to...more
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04/17/09
Catherine
marked it as to-read
recommended to Catherine by:
Second Pass 041409
From Second Pass: "Anne Fadiman, former editor of The American Scholar, reminds us that the “familiar essay” is a genre worthy of readers’ attention—and even devotion. Falling somewhere between the “critical” and the “personal” essay, the familiar essay is “equal measures heart and brain.” (As Fadiman explains in the preface to her latest essay collection, At Large and At Small, the genre’s heyday was the early nineteenth century. “The familiar essayist didn’t spea...more
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Read in February, 2009
Anne Fadiman's essays are enjoyable, but I think this collection on assorted topics did not sustain my attention as completely as Ex-Libris, with its more narrow and bookish focus, did. Her familiar essays have enough of her personality to know I share some of her sensibilities (say on technology), but not all (on late nights). That said I appreciated her thoughts about coffee, moving, Charles Lamb, Samuel Coleridge, ice cream, and the flag, even if many of the details of her essays are alread...more
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Read in November, 2008
I was not familiar with the familiar essay until I read this book. Anne Fadiman provides a concise definition of the familiar essay in comparison to personal and critical essays in her introduction. Personal essays are "more heart than brain." Critical essays are "more brain than heart." Familiar essays are "equal measures of both." (pg. xi)
Fadiman provides such a fine collection of familiar essays that I feel inspired to attempt to write one, but fear ...more
Fadiman provides such a fine collection of familiar essays that I feel inspired to attempt to write one, but fear ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
everybody
I thoroughly enjoyed these essays. I really love the essay form and particularly these type that incorporate the personal life of the essayist with real world information. I was afraid to read this book because Ex Libris, her previous book of essays, is one of my favorite books, and I also thought her non-fiction book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down was excellent. As a vegan I was worried that her essays on butterfly capture and ice cream would disturb me. Turns out it was "no prob...more
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I just finished At Large And At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman. Familiar essays were made popular by British gentlemen as they expounded on widely divergent areas of interest but have largely fallen out of favor in recent years. Since I have tended to favor essays by authors writing on a "theme" I was a bit unsure of how much I would like this book. The first essay did not give me much hope. The author talked about her early childhood obsession with butterfly collecting. In spi...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2007
I am giving this four out of five stars because 4/5 of the essays deserve 5 stars, if that makes sense. I highly recommend this selection of incredibly intelligent, interesting, and honest essays on a variety of eccentric topics. The first essay, in particular, which describes Ms. Fadiman's childhood obsession with collecting things from nature, including butterflies, is just stunning (lots of interesting references to Nabakov and lepidoptery). I also loved the essays on Charles Lambs' essays (m...more
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Read in January, 2009
A good essayist is hard to find. While I preferred Fadiman's earlier collection, Ex Libris, I certainly enjoyed this one as well. The essays in this book, ranging from musings on coffee to mini-biographies of writers who have inspired Fadiman, are little jewels, some more precious than others (Fadiman is at times a little too enamored of her Wonderful Life and Family). This is a book I'll likely pick up again in a year or two--Fadiman's style is well worth emulating.
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Read in December, 2008
recommends it for:
Luli, who also loves Fadiman
The essay "A Piece of Cotton" about the American Flag is wonder enough, but I like a good essay and enjoyed others too, particularly the one on essayist, Charles Lamb. Had to pass on "Collecting Nature," --too much killing involved. Fadiman, former editor of "The American Scholar," is also author of "Ex Libris" (essays on books and reading) and the fine "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down," which details the clash of American medical cultur...more
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Read in May, 2009
I liked the first few … all brother and butterflies and reminded me of Cat’s Eye. I found the Lamb and Coleridge stuff really interesting.
There’s an essay on US patriotism and the US flag. I had hoped, with Europeans appearing in many of the other essays, she might have set it in an international context; a sort of “what Europeans think when Americans start bickering about flag burning”. But it was a “September 11th made me and my liberal chums less ashamed to wave the...more
There’s an essay on US patriotism and the US flag. I had hoped, with Europeans appearing in many of the other essays, she might have set it in an international context; a sort of “what Europeans think when Americans start bickering about flag burning”. But it was a “September 11th made me and my liberal chums less ashamed to wave the...more
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Read in November, 2008
like many other reviewers, Fadiman's Ex Libris has been on my Favorites list for many years, and I've gifted several copies away to friends. It was with much anticipation that I settled myself down with this collection, and while I found it enjoyable, it failed to hook me as firmly as it's predecessor. Still good, but like so many other pleasures in life, the expectation probably (slightly) outweighed the actual reward.
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Anne Fadiman, in her role as an essayist, is my favorite author and this book was no exception. I love the familiar essay and she is spectacularly good at it! In this book, she discusses her love of Charles Lamb, her butterfly catching habit, coffee addictions throughout history, and the making of ice cream.
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Read in May, 2009
Anne Fadiman's essays are a pleasure to read. Conversational yet well-researched, she fluidly moves from the personal to the universal and back again. She writes about seemingly ordinary topics yet approaches them in with insightful intention and fresh perspectives. She does indeed revive the pleasure of "familiar essays."
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Aneesa by:
my bossrecommends it for: fans of the familiar essay
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Read in October, 2008
I love Anne Fadiman's essays! She covers everything from ice cream to the academy to polar exploration. Having just taking a workshop on writing, I especially appreciated her technique. In the introduction she explains what a familiar is exactly--somewhere between a very personal essay and a factual account. She describes the form as a conversation between the author and another person, rather than a formal exposition. It struck just the right note with me.
The book was also just the ...more
The book was also just the ...more
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With each of Fadiman's works (and, sadly, to date I'm afraid there are only three) I am more impressed. Anyone who loves words and the finding-of-joints that makes for good writing should keep her nearby.
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quotes from this book
"One of the convenient things about literature is that, despite copyrights [...] a book belongs to the reader as well as to the writer."
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