A Field Guide to Getting Lost A Field Guide to Getting Lost

A Field Guide to Getting Lost

    • 3.8 • 42 Ratings
    • $7.99

Publisher Description

“An intriguing amalgam of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, natural lore, cultural history, and art criticism.” —Los Angeles Times

From the award-winning author of Orwell's Roses, a stimulating exploration of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown

Written as a series of autobiographical essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Rebecca Solnit's life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves, or losing ourselves. While deeply personal, her own stories link up to larger stories, from captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo. The result is a distinctive, stimulating voyage of discovery.

GENRE
Biographies & Memoirs
RELEASED
2005
July 7
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
224
Pages
PUBLISHER
Penguin Publishing Group
SELLER
PENGUIN GROUP USA, INC.
SIZE
2.1
MB

Customer Reviews

Nedatsea ,

Magnificent

This book is like reading poetry, philosophy, and a bit of Chicken Soup for the Soul, altogether. I picked it up because I thought the title clever, but was soon drawn into Rebecca Solnit’s richly crafted prose, her wonder and her humor, and just could not put it down — except for the moments after finishing each chapter, when I would set down the book and marvel at its effect on me. Like a kind of spell or pleasant drug, it burrows deep into the psyche, extracts glimpses of thought and memory, flashes of insight you had and forgot until that moment, polishes them off and presents them anew. It’s a wonderful book, my best read of the year. Originally I started with the ebook, but before I was half finished it I bought the hardcover so I’d have a copy to thumb through whenever the mood struck me. It’s that kind of book. Read it.

Clark02176 ,

Audiobook version

This book is a perfect example of why authors should never read their own books. I really love Rebecca Solnit’s writing, but she reads like a Victorian swooning on the divan — breathy, limpid, and monotone except for a sudden dip at the end of every sentence. I couldn’t take it. I’ll go back to reading her work in print.

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