The Writing Life

Vastly Disappointing

I have only Audible to thank for their generous policy of allowing for returns on this book. It was everything but- what I had hoped to hear as an aspiring author. Annie Dillard has a marvelous way with words but in describing her own life as a writer, gives only the depressing, discouraging, almost demented portrayal of your worst day ever -over and over again. If you’re looking for inspiration, I advise you look elsewhere!

6 people found this helpful

Loved Annie Dillard

I always love memoirs ... and this book is kind of a memoir ... it's well written and exciting .. if you are like me fascinated with the life of writers and artists this book will give you a glimpse of what's it like to be a writer (an excellent book would be my reading life for par conroy ... i loved that one)

12 people found this helpful

How Odd--How Poorly Written?!?

If you can weed through the flowery language, the endless adjectives and adjectives, you might find something here. I, however, feel that this was a waste of time. This had more the feel of a "reality check," which, okay, writers sure as hell need from time to time, but there was little wisdom offered in its place.
This is a very short work, not a lot of money, but still. The only thing worse than a waste of money is a waste of time. Save both of yours; go for a longer, more in-depth work for real education, real inspiration, real guidance.
Avoid the adjective/adverb exhaustion

16 people found this helpful

A good place to start

If you've considered listening to Annie Dillard, I consider this a classic. I've owned this book in print form for a dozen or so years and have thought a lot about the content and how the content comes to all of us (the life of a writer). Be ready for great insights coming from small observances as well as fantastic stories that are commentaries on all of our lives. This is a writing to be pondered so let it sink in a little at a time.

10 people found this helpful

"Colorless to the Point of Sensory Deprivation"

A few (and I mean a few) worthwhile insights on the craft, but dry, dry, dry. Self absorbed and precious too, even conceded. She leaves out much of what the reader entering this book will want from it and includes most of what they will not.

Then you have deal-breakers such as the following: "It should surprise no one that the life of the writer--such as it is--is colorless to the point of sensory deprivation. Many writers do little else but sit in small rooms recalling the real world. This explains why so many books describe the author's childhood. A writer's childhood may well have been the occasion of his only firsthand experience."

...Really?

Ask yourself: how many writers, like Dillard, are privileged enough to be able to winter in seaside cabins in order to devote all their time to writing? How many writers, working in ANY genre, do not honour the real world as an irreplaceable and primary source, regardless how much or not they intend to reflect it? This is just one example of Dillard at her least self-scrutinizing and, for that fact, least wise. (Wisdom ostensibly being the book's offering.)

For a work whose focus boomerangs so frequently back to a writer's insecurities and uncertainties, "The Writing Life" is remarkably sure of itself, seemingly unaware that it's a shining example of why writers need such character flaws in the first place.

(Oh, and the narrator, by the way, does Dillard justice to a fault. Robotically monotonous and irritating from start to finish.)

6 people found this helpful

Reads like a poem

This is written in the spirit of a long-form poem, as an ode to (and lamentation of) the creative life. There's some good information here—not presented as a to-do list, but rather as a story, where we learn from the example of the author and her life as a writer. The narrator is absolutely excellent, with her voice inflections worthy of a poetry performance.

6 people found this helpful

Not for me

Since I've enjoyed books on writing by Anne Lamott and Stephen King, I thought I would like this short audiobook by Annie Dillard. I lasted only through the first hour, and then had to stop. It was tedious, uninteresting information presented with an unpleasant air of complete self-satisfaction.

2 people found this helpful

inspiring

this reader did a terrible job. this is a book about writing not a horror story. however the metaphors used and the beauty of the language is spectacular I recommend reading it you're on your own and not listening to the audible version

2 people found this helpful

Depressing view on the craft of writing

I bought this book looking for some motivation to write, but the tone of the book is very depressing. I feel as if she hates writing. This book was the opposite of what I was looking for and would not recommend.

Entertaining Read

Riveting and poignant description of the life of a writer. Brimming with many metaphors and descriptions of the difficulty and apparent impossibilities which come with the territory.