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28th out of 33 books
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2 voters
Winter: Five Windows on the Season
by
Adam Gopnik
A taste for winter, a love of winter — �a mind for winter” — is for many a part of the modern human condition. International bestselling author Adam Gopnik does for this storied season what he did for the City of Light in the New York Times bestseller Paris to the Moon. Here he tells the story of winter in five parts: Romantic Winter, Radical Winter, Recuperative Winter, R...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
September 27th 2011
by House of Anansi Press
(first published August 1st 2011)
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Loved it, although the lecture focusing on hockey is a bit much for a non-fan. Hoping to be able to hear Gopnik (who grew up in Montreal) read these Massey lectures when he does so on the CBC in November (via the internet?) I like the last lecture, about winter and memory, best, and it ends so:
"'I wish I had a river I could skate away on,'" Joni Mitchell tells us, lost in Los Angeles as she longs for snows once known. Ou sont les neiges d'antan? Where are the old snows? Inside us, where they rem...more
"'I wish I had a river I could skate away on,'" Joni Mitchell tells us, lost in Los Angeles as she longs for snows once known. Ou sont les neiges d'antan? Where are the old snows? Inside us, where they rem...more
As the crush of September/October came - with back-to-school, travels, disruptions because of labour disputes, Thanksgiving, etc - it was a pleasure to sit back once in a while and reflect on the oncoming season of snow and ice.
-Page 178
"Ice wine, as every drinker knows, is sweetness made from stress. That's not news, or not exactly. All good wine takes its essential sugar from the stress of its circumstances: pinot noir, the grape of the cold country of Champagne, gets flabby and soupy as the c...more
-Page 178
"Ice wine, as every drinker knows, is sweetness made from stress. That's not news, or not exactly. All good wine takes its essential sugar from the stress of its circumstances: pinot noir, the grape of the cold country of Champagne, gets flabby and soupy as the c...more
Gopnik uses the five lectures in the book to look at winter from five different angles, or through five different "windows," as the book's subtitle puts it. He starts with "Romantic Winter/The Season in Sight," which is about the winter as both "sweet" and "scary," "picturesque" and "sublime." Then he talks about polar exploration in "Radical Winter/The Season in Space." In "Recuperative Winter/The Season in Spirit" he talks about Christmas as a secular holiday and the things that have shaped it...more
I strongly recommend Adam Gopnik’s “Winter” I had the pleasure of listening to him read the book, actually its a series of lectures, on Canadian Broadcast Corporation Radio designated as the annual George Massey Lectures some years ago. Looking out at the snow on the local mountains here in Canada I recognize, as does Mr Gopnik, that Winter (often experienced here for a good deal of the year) is something that we must deal with both on a mental and physical level and be reconciled with it as thi...more
I bought this book hoping it would point me towards a few new (to me) winter legends and folktales, but it didn’t. I don’t mind though, because it was a wonderful read anyway. It’s in the form of five lectures about winter, including chapters about the wonderful heroic madness of the men who chased the permanent winter of the Poles, the history of Christmas (our modern image of Santa apparently comes from a cartoon character supporting the Union in the US Civil War), the Romantic notion of the b...more
I was surprised by how much I liked this book; it's the kind I usually don't. Gopnik writes like an obnoxious undergrad -- this painting reminds me of Goethe, reflects capitalism, is just like Joni Mitchell, why yes, I am well read! -- but makes it work. There's real wisdom behind the allusions and most have a real function. His points about winter are genuinely insightful. I had never thought before about his points on "winter cities" and urban planning in the cold, but I think they were very s...more
This book was written in conjunction with five 2011 Massey Lectures broadcast in Canada by the CBC. I was happy to receive it as a "First Read." The author, Adam Gopnik, is a staff writer at "The New Yorker" and an essayist.
In this book, the author looks at winter from five themes--romantic, radical, recuperative, recreational, and remembering winter. The beginning of the book was densely filled with ideas of artists, writers, and intellectuals. Other winter observations were lighter such as the...more
In this book, the author looks at winter from five themes--romantic, radical, recuperative, recreational, and remembering winter. The beginning of the book was densely filled with ideas of artists, writers, and intellectuals. Other winter observations were lighter such as the...more
I chose to read this collection of Massey Lectures broadcast on CBC Radio to satisfy the Keyword Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader’s Block. I also thought that with some insight on this frigid season, I could learn to dislike it a little less.
The five windows or views of winter that Gopnik considers are: Romantic Winter, Radical Winter, Recuperative Winter, Recreational Winter, and Remembering Winter.
This book is a fascinating mix of history, art, science, religion, popular culture, and philo...more
The five windows or views of winter that Gopnik considers are: Romantic Winter, Radical Winter, Recuperative Winter, Recreational Winter, and Remembering Winter.
This book is a fascinating mix of history, art, science, religion, popular culture, and philo...more
Not really what I had hoped it would be...the first topic was interesting and directly related to winter (the Romanticizing of the season) but the other topics weren't as much about a winter as about people and philosophy and the activities that grew out of the season, which is of course a fine topic but not what piques my interest in the season. Winter is a very well-written collection of essays, but the subjects weren't really what I'm interested in.
A series of essays, originally delivered as lectures, by a Canadian who knows winter. Stimulating thought pieces on how winter entered into Romantic writing and painting, differentiating nationalities, the irrational fascination with reaching the poles, winter sports, and how modern buildings and central heating have changed our view of winter. The blending in of how artists and writers express winter is excellent.
I'm a huge fan of Adam Gopnik, especially Paris to the Moon, and have just picked up his Angels and Ages, which I am reading enthusiastically. This book, however, showed none of Gopnik's characteristic insight and wit. The subject, I think, is a bit too formless for Gopnik's approach. Typically, he moves inductively from well-researched and well-observed facts or well-considered specific literary works to surprising general theroies about them or about the world in general. Here, he has asked hi...more
Examining winter from five different "windows": romantic, radical (adventure), recuperative (Christmas), recreational (sport), and remembering (technology, global warming, and the season being mystically entangled in the modern mind).
I was more interested in the ideas at the beginning of each chapter than I was in the development of each window.
Awesome epigraph from Northrop Frye.
I was more interested in the ideas at the beginning of each chapter than I was in the development of each window.
Awesome epigraph from Northrop Frye.
I had read Adam's Gopnik's Paris to the Moon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I picked up this book - Winter - to celebrate the arrival of the season. I started it on December 21st. It is based - or perhaps actually is - the CBC Massey Lectures he gave in 2011. I enjoyed every page of the book: It is so well written, but effortless; filled with facts, but always pellucid. I was worried that the hockey section would bore me, yet I found his take on the sport fascinating.
"Sporting an impressive bibliography and thorough index, Adam Gopnik’s Winter is both lively and accessible." - W. M. Hagen, Oklahoma Baptist University
This book was reviewed in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our site: http://bit.ly/13fZQDa
This book was reviewed in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our site: http://bit.ly/13fZQDa
actually i haven't read this yet, but i listened to all 5 lectures on the CBC Ideas podcast. i shall reread the book. i love the way Gopnik approaches winter via various disciplines from art & literature to music to science. i love winter & it's good to see a whole book dedicated to the subjet.
You have to be interested in the topic to focus on all the strands he is trying to pull together here. It really is like getting a lecture from a beloved but slightly eccentric professor. And yet it is a great pleasure to follow along with the caliber of Gopnik's intellect.
I only picked it up because it was a CBC Massey Lecture (which I've really enjoyed), so I thought that even though I'm not really a literary kind of gal, that I'd still enjoy it. Well...I certainly got farther than that rumination on Night, but I did run out of steam on this book about two-thirds through. Just not my cup of tea. Interesting....just needed to be shorter for my attention span for this kind of book.
I found myself lost in a number of references the author makes in this book, however, those that I was aware of seemed just right and were perfect examples to put forward his idea. That's pretty much my only complaint with this book.
I really loved his idea that northern European winter was a symbol of the counter-enlightenment and his bit on Montreal and cities in winter agreed with everything I feel about the subject.
I really loved his idea that northern European winter was a symbol of the counter-enlightenment and his bit on Montreal and cities in winter agreed with everything I feel about the subject.
I usually make it a point to read the Massey Lecture each year and am usually rewarded by some thought provoking reading. This time I was disappointed. Although well written, there was nothing to make the mind think nor was it challenging. The two chapters on winter holidays specifically Christmas and winter sports specifically hockey saved it from being a complete waste of time.
This is more than simply a nod to the quarterly season of winter. This is an insightful, passionate, intelligent, well researched, eye opening, and fantastic literary accomplishment. Gopnik even goes so far as to intellectualize hockey! I need to read this at least twice more to absorb the layers of this dense text. Gopnik could not have written a more fitting 50th anniversary lecture to a season that so represents the Canadian soul.
Nice overview of 5 different ways to look at winter, as a social idea, and how it's changed throughout the last few centuries. Gopnik is very good at capturing some key components of the phenomenology of winter, and how we experience it in a multitude of ways, rather than just as "cold". Nice, conversational writing.
I always enjoy Gopnik's style and content...but the last lecture left my heart vacant as his non-theistic world view is depressing when compared to my own world view which gives much more hope to life.
Gopnik writes 5 essays in examination and enjoyment of winter. The essays break down to extreme winter (polar exploration), winter in verse and art, sentimental winter (Christmas), winter sports, and remembering winter. The essays are erudite and his references vary from Goethe, artist Caspar David Friedrich, Goffman, and many others. The academic mixes with passionate hockey in the sport chapter and the entire book makes it unusual but also readable and enjoyable. The difficulty in describing t...more
I liked this book a lot. It is idiosyncratic, erudite, and well-written, despite having been also given as a series of lectures. I learned a lot about winter from many perspectives, and was fascinated by the research tidbits that Gopnik shared. I found myself searching for photos of art and listening to music that Gopnik wrote about. In fact, I listened to the entire Four Season's by Vivaldi (not just Winter) as an accompaniment! Worth reading!
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How could I not love this? I did and want to read it every year to add to the enjoyment of my favorite season.
Great read! The topics on Winter fit into five chapters with titles like Romantic Winter, Radical Winter.
Liz
Liz
Pleasant reading with some interesting ideas about winter, especially in the first essay with its focus on paintings and romanticism.
I enjoyed the first three lectures, especially Romantic Winter, but the Recreational Winter focused heavily on ice hockey, so very Canadian biased.
my third book by adam gopnik. In this collection he shows how truly intelligent and well versed he is. My lack of familiarity with the works he cited was not a great hindrance though. I did have difficulty keeping up with him though. The essays are so well though out and written that it was not a good bedside read. Instead I would think it more of a classroom study in literature or something of the sort. But with that said it was still written in such a lyrical and relaxed style that I did enjoy...more
Ironically, I finished this book about winter in all its guises on a spring-like day...warm, sunshine, lovely. It's very much like reading a series of lectures delivered by a brilliant person, complete with tangents. Sometimes I have to admit that the intangible nature of much of the book sailed past me--it's a dizzying kaleidoscope of a book--but never felt that my time was anything but well spent.
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An American writer, essayist and commentator. He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker—to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism—and as the author of the essay collection Paris to the Moon, an account of the half-decade that Gopnik, wife Martha, and son Luke spent in the capital of France.
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Nov 01, 2011 10:06am