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kathleenguthriewoods's review against another edition
4.0
Take your time with this. Allow Doerr's gorgeous descriptions to sink into you.
wanderingmole's review against another edition
4.0
βIn a sense, this year, our predicament has been the same as Rome's: to reconcile the new life with the old life, to tunnel an exit back into the future.β
β"Habitualization," a Russian army-commissar-turned-literary-critic named Viktor Shklovsky wrote in 1917, "devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war." What he argued is that, over time, we stop perceiving familiar things words, friends, apartments- as they truly are. To eat a banana for the thousandth time is nothing like eating a banana for the first time. To have sex with somebody for the thousandth time is nothing like having sex with that person for the first time. The easier an experience, or the more entrenched, or the more familiar, the fainter our sensation of it becomes. This is true of chocolate and marriages and hometowns and narrative structures. Complexities wane, miracles become unremarkable, and if we're not careful, pretty soon we're gazing out at our lives as if through a burlap sack. In the Tom Andrews Studio I open my journal and stare out at the trunk of the umbrella pine and do my best to fight off the atrophy that comes from seeing things too frequently. I try to shape a few sentences around this tiny corner of Rome; I try to force my eye to slow down. A good journal entry, like a good song, or sketch, or photograph, ought to break up the habitual and lift away the film that forms over the eye, the finger, the tongue, the heart. A good journal entry ought be a love letter to the world.
Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar. Only then can routine experience-buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello become new all over again.β
β"Habitualization," a Russian army-commissar-turned-literary-critic named Viktor Shklovsky wrote in 1917, "devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war." What he argued is that, over time, we stop perceiving familiar things words, friends, apartments- as they truly are. To eat a banana for the thousandth time is nothing like eating a banana for the first time. To have sex with somebody for the thousandth time is nothing like having sex with that person for the first time. The easier an experience, or the more entrenched, or the more familiar, the fainter our sensation of it becomes. This is true of chocolate and marriages and hometowns and narrative structures. Complexities wane, miracles become unremarkable, and if we're not careful, pretty soon we're gazing out at our lives as if through a burlap sack. In the Tom Andrews Studio I open my journal and stare out at the trunk of the umbrella pine and do my best to fight off the atrophy that comes from seeing things too frequently. I try to shape a few sentences around this tiny corner of Rome; I try to force my eye to slow down. A good journal entry, like a good song, or sketch, or photograph, ought to break up the habitual and lift away the film that forms over the eye, the finger, the tongue, the heart. A good journal entry ought be a love letter to the world.
Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar. Only then can routine experience-buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello become new all over again.β
francosteen's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
freckleduck's review against another edition
3.0
I really felt that this book, was an interesting mix of experience and reflection. I loved most the stories about family and how the author was able to be reflective about nature and the world around him to really focus on the relocation and place and how much effort he had to put in but the joy and memories made even the challenges. I found this book ultimately inspiring and an ode to the importance of taking changes.
bellaliss's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.5
Anthony Doerr writes thoughtfully and beautifully about his time in Rome with his family - which includes young twins. Gentle observations about the city with thoughtful philosophical ruminations on life.
dr_tree's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Anthony Doerr is such a beautiful writer and his reflections on parenting, awe, culture, and time are spot on. Can see some of the inspirations contained in All the Light we Cannot See here.