This anti-memoir from celebrated novelist Lydia Millet explores the pain and joy of being a parent, child, and human at a moment when the richness of the planet's life is deeply threatened.
Marries her comprehensive understanding of our environmental crisis with her command as a deeply emotive narrator, to extraordinary effect. Modernity has created a fissure between humankind and the natural world, as Millet illuminates; her book is an attempt to bridge that divide, a work of spiritual grounding and radical realignment ... The book unspools in lyrical vignettes, a densely concentrated but propulsive form that allows Millet to move nimbly from one anecdote or idea to the next ... A lot of ground to cover. But Millet weaves these disparate threads together expertly, reinforcing how all of these elements — our individual memories, our ancestral identities, the future of human and nonhuman life — are fundamentally inextricable, whether we care to recognize it or not ... Potent ... This is a book that stays with you.
The book is a collection of musings — some autobiographical — about our relationship with a natural world that is rapidly disappearing. It’s a fascinating book that proves that Millet’s narrative brilliance isn’t just confined to fiction ... Millet’s book has a fascinating structure — it’s essentially a collection of vignettes, essays in miniature that connect with one another in surprising ways ... This is a beautiful book, at once a love letter to life on Earth and an impassioned plea to save what we have left of it.
Seems to be addressed to a particular audience with the hope of inspiring collective action ... But in writing about climate change, Millet’s use of the 'we' voice creates a chafing tension in the reader ... Her choice to use 'we' throughout most of her book becomes problematic when it collectivizes a history that has played out differently for disparate Americans ... Yet the book shines during Millet’s brilliant discussions of the limits of language, especially as it functions as a means of provoking empathy and inspiring action. There are tremendous passages about the role of storytellers in bringing about change ... But a lot of distancing takes place through much of the first two sections of the memoir. Millet picks topics up only to drop them as they raise difficult questions she’s unwilling, or unable, to engage with.
