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Dec 20, 2008

Jesse rated it:

There are many fine sentences in this book. The plot is perfectly laid. The characters are well-drawn and the themes are profound. Nevertheless, there is something wrong with this book. It is possible that the author does not love her characters. Or maybe it is that she doesn't love the place, the northwest. It doesn't surprise me that she left the northwest after 5 years and moved back east. I think she doesn't understand what we, and those who lived here before us, really love here on Puget So More...

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Dec 07, 2011

Kate rated it:

"The Living is a vivid, populous, old-fashioned novel about the Pacific Northwest frontier.

"Bellingham Bay lies ninety miles north of Seattle, on the northwest coast of Washington State. A rough settlement founded in the 1850s became the town of Whatcom. The Living tells the rich and serious story of nineteenth century Whatcom.

"Here is the intimate, murderous tale of three men. Clare Fishburn believes that greatness lies in store for him. John Ireland S More...

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Oct 18, 2010

Mark rated it:

The Living is a beautiful and rugged story, beautifully told. Annie Dillard is a seer of emotion, of human interaction, and of natural beauty. She works by exposing the beauty of details and moments with finely crafted prose; the details fill the story like grains of sand and small stones fill a beach, blending to fill the broad vista of a human life as it is shaped by the changing times. This is one of the best books I have read.

“Hugh held the lantern aloft and saw it illumine the s More...

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Jul 21, 2010

Jean rated it:

Let's begin with what I learned from this book. Well, maybe what I was reminded of by this book, since I already knew that Americans are simply blind to their own history and refuse to learn from it. The problems and realities of the characters and the communities are made even more real by reading this book during this (our) time of economic downturn and immigrant phobias. We are reminded that nothing we are living through in these areas has not been lived through previously.
Some may fin More...

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Apr 12, 2010

Anabel rated it:

The Living attempts, in 436 pages, to chronicle the period from 1855 to 1897, spanning a large geographical area and what feels like hundreds of people across several generations of settlers and Native Americans. Naturally, a book of this magnitude finds itself in a delicate position: Dillard has a lot of ground to cover historically and politically, but she is also obliged to maintain detailed, fleshed-out characters since her narrative depends the lives of many individuals. Unfortunately, I’m More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Jenny rated it:

What I loved:

1) Again, I'm a sucker for a way-out-west pioneer story. Just love 'em. And the more settlement details the better.

2) Chocked full of historical tidbits of the Pacific Northwest. Made me want to move there right now (so what if I'm a few centuries late...)

3) The stark unromanticism of Dillard's story-telling. It made everything feel very authentically harsh and unforgiving---pretty apropo for the setting.

What I hated:

1) Like anot More...

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Aug 27, 2007

Jenwah rated it:

The only novel by Annie Dillard, and it's really amazing. A historic fiction of the settlement of Bellingham Bay. She writes the way it must have felt. Lonely, factual... a hollow accounting of the death of loved ones. Then it slowly comes alive, emotional.... one of the only "epics" that I've truly enjoyed.
Caveat: some long-winded rambling poetic passages that I need to read a few more times before I "get it". .... and some parts that are really violent.

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Nov 03, 2007

JoAnn rated it:

This was a book about the early settlers in the Puget Sound region of Washington and the hardships they endured, along with the Native-Americans. Ms. Dillard repeatedly made the point that many people died young, sometimes violently, sometimes very suddenly She wrote so that the reader had no warning of the sudden death of a character. She made me appreciate the transitory nature of life and the gift of life.

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May 29, 2007

Brian rated it:

I was hugely surprised at the struggle it was to finish this. Upon first reaing, "The Living" is a testament to Dillard's considerable abilities to write in an eipc style; that sense of the epic persists throughtout, leaving the reader at times quite outside the narrative. Characterization saves this one, though-- the individuals depicted become so real throughout their stories that they are hard to let go...

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Dec 12, 2008

Mom/Pat added it

This book describes life in Whatcom County, Washington, during the years 1853-1893. To quote one member of my book group, the land itself is the main character. If a reader wants a strongly character-driven novel, this is not the one. But the epic saga brings together the lives of individuals in several different families, who come to the northwest from different points of origin and with very different expectations and outcomes, and does so in a narrative that reveals much about settlers' More...

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Apr 06, 2008

Susie rated it:

Interesting story, I like historical fiction. But the characters are none of them sympathetic - it's sort of a James Michener read all over again, looking at the people who've lived in a region over time and unpacking the history of that place. But I don't really love or care at all about any of the characters. I probably won't finish this one.

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Sep 04, 2009

Andrea rated it:

I'm very stingy with my 5-star reviews, and while I do have some minor issues with this book, I just have to include it. I've been reading Annie Dillard for about 20 years now, but just in snippets, I find her writing to be very concentrated, so I can only read a little at a time. But she turned out to be just a glorious novel writer. I admit to being somewhat of an epic junkie, so that aspect really drew me in. But her writing is in and of itself so beautiful and simple and complex, I was s More...

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Jan 31, 2012

Ann rated it:

Annie Dillard is one of my favorite authors, so I expected a lot from this book. I did not find what I was looking for.

The Living seemed a disjointed story with a revolving carousel of characters, only one of which seemed even partially well drawn, and that was the villain.

I found this in tone, a violent book, dark and without redemption. If I had not known, I would never have guessed Annie Dillard as the author. This perhaps says something about her ability as a w More...

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Mar 01, 2010

Barbara rated it:

Reviewing this book two books later I gave it 3 stars. If I had a choice I would give it 3 and a half. When Dillard is good she sets the bar so high that when she writes a thoroughly acceptable novel, it seems paler than her best work.

It would be most accurate to say that the style and story were a pleasure to read, carried along by the generations of families. It is possible my experience of the chapters/sections was exactly what Dillard intended, the earliest settlers being harde More...

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Jul 14, 2011

Diane rated it:

Whew... this was much more about the dying than about the living. I picked this up because it was about the settling of the Puget Sound area and I'll be vacationing there soon. I thought I might get some insight into the history of the Northwest. It IS informative in a Michener sort of way. There is a lot of effective descriptive writing about the moody beauty of this coast My friends tease me about liking stark, spare, dark novels but this was VERY stark. You just get interested in a cha More...

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Mar 15, 2009

Steve rated it:

This is a fascinating epic novel, a big book that paints in broad strokes. The author gallops along in her descriptions of events and people; she skips entire years; she describes people as one would describe dolls (the shapes of their heads and facial features). She describes many deaths, but the peculiarities and complications of life most fascinate her. Can one woman survive when just about everyone in her family dies in domestic tragedy? Can one man -- however twisted -- own another person's More...

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Aug 26, 2009

Nathan rated it:

Yeah, it's pretty much a masterpiece. I resisted "The Living" for years, while I read just about everything else by Annie Dillard, and I'm not sure why - I would pick it up at bookstores or the library and be turned off by the picture on the front of the old edition with the old bearded guys standing around felled trees; I thought "I'm going to be totally bored by a book about crusty old loggers." I'm not a huge fan of Dillard as an essayist anymore: I think her writing's b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2010

Grass_Roots rated it:

Dillard's finely crafted prose paints a stark yet beautiful picture of daily life and death in the still-wild landscape of 19th Century Washington State. As the growing infrastructure of "civilization" transforms the landscape of Bellingham Bay, men and women who struggled for survival there not long before are compelled to contemplate the profoundly altered meanings of life and mortality at the dawn of the industrial age. Dillard's vision captivated me and caused me to consider the de More...

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Feb 18, 2010

Matt rated it:

This book is beautifully written. The prose is as fine and as lovely as anything I've ever read. The book is majestic and magisterial, as formidable as the densely forested lands that the characters strive to master and tame.

And yet, well, put it this way: one character is said to have written a three-hundred page epic poem in which men battle polar bears and pack ice; although the poet is a rank amateur, I wish I could have read his no-doubt-inept poem rather than this finely wroug More...

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Sep 22, 2011

Liz rated it:

The title of this historical novel is a bit deceiving -- the book explores the settlement around the area of Puget Sound as it also addresses the fact that none of us gets out of this life alive. The good news is that each of us can learn to appreciate the wonder of the days we have on this remarkable earth and the joys and power of the natural world around us. Dillard takes us into the virgin forest of the north west and the struggles of the pioneers and their families. If you like historic More...

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Jan 11, 2012

Larry rated it:

I am a fan of Annie Dillard. I first read A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek when I was a teenager and could still remember those earlier days when I spent time out in the wilds. Today it is the suburbs but back in the 1950s there were still fields and streams. But this book, The Living: A Novel, is a trip into the unknown for me. But, it turns out, a very enjoyable trip.

The name of the author and the cover with a rustic homestead first attracted me to this book and GR BookSwap made it availa More...

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Sep 24, 2011

Nelly rated it:

I picked up this book after seeing that Dillard had written a review of the book I had just finished reading--John Mathiessen's Shadow County, a book that is an intense, complex, and thoroughly satisfying read. I was about a third of the way through The Living and realized something was bothering me. It wasn't the quality of the writing. Dillard writes beautifully and eloquently and the story she tells is compelling, but there is a detachment from the characters that prevents the reader fr More...

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Jul 27, 2011

Katie rated it:

One of my very favorite things in the world is references to Seattle or Washington State in movies, TV, etc., so this whole novel was a complete treat for me. I had initially started reading Jonathan Evison’s West of Here, but I hated his writing, and it didn’t feel even remotely authentic. Why make up a town for your book when there is so much real history to write about? I ditched it pretty quickly in favor of this one, which had been on my to-read list for several months.

The novel More...

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Jan 12, 2011

Laia rated it:

Don't get my rating wrong: this is excellent writing and really in many ways an incredible book. I feel enriched for having read it.
But it was a hard read; mamoth-sized, packed with incredible sentences you had to put some real effort in to understand fully, and you might say a BIT depressing. So if you take the "enjoyability factor" into account, I can't say I more than liked it. If I was to rate it only on skill and depth of the writing, it's power to move you, I would give More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Jodi rated it:

I think it's only fair to begin by saying that I live in the area this book takes place, so my opinion is likely to be biased. That said, I thought this was an interesting novel that not only illuminated the ups and downs of life for the early settlers of Whatcom, but also made use of a variety of characters to help the reader understand the diversity of these people, and how their lives overlapped. The relationships between the local native tribes and the settlers, how they worked in tandem to More...

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Jun 18, 2010

Ryen rated it:

I began reading this book before taking a Survey of American Literature class and it definitely helped me establish a time and place for the history and influence events had on the literature we all know and love today. This book is slow going - much like the society and daily lives of its characters. I put it down for three months and picked it up again out of nagging curiosity but was met with no climax. The story is at times boring but what it represents on a historical level is what makes it More...

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Dec 26, 2008

David added it

I received this book in a mystery book swap. It turns out it is set in the Northwest around the turn of the century. So I am glad I had an imaginary return to the Puget Sound region even if it is about 100 years before I ever got there.

This really is a masterpiece. Each chapter is a little snippet of pioneer life and the reader gets close to each character and their contexts (even within the brief chapters). She emphasizes the challenges of settling and surviving in uncharted ter More...

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Sep 11, 2007

Jarrodtrainque added it

Listening to Lawrence Luckinbill read Annie Dillard's historical novel The Living takes a little getting used to. The very first sentence reveals a pronounced and distracting lisp, but don't let that dissuade you from continuing. Luckinbill's voice also exhibits a simple honesty, a gruffness that is perfectly suited to the steely pioneer spirit of Dillard's story. Surprisingly quickly, the vocal idiosyncrasy fades away, leaving only the emotional resonance of Luckenbill's obviously heartfelt con More...

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Apr 11, 2009

Megan rated it:

This first of a few books I put on hold after reading a list of Neko Case-approved books in Paste mag. YES I AM A FANGIRL, HUSH.

There's some lovely, lovely prose here and awesome, detailed characters. Worthwhile read, but a struggle for me to finish. The first part of the book, detailing the lives of settlers in Puget Sound and their relationship with the native tribes and their struggle to eke out a living... that was fantastic, but by the time Whatcom becomes a town, and the strugg More...

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Dec 22, 2008

cindy rated it:

annie dillard's prose style reminds me of great american writers like steinbeck and hemingway. it's simple, but striking and centers around one great tale that you find yourself sinking into, enraptured. better yet that this story was about the beginnings of the settling of the pacific northwest- the relevance just drew me in from the start. sometimes jumpy, certain time frames or life-altering events would be dealt with in one cursory sentence while other's were meticulously spelled out. i stil More...

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