Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Annie Dillard

Oct 2009 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“The book is a form of meditation, written with headlong urgency, about seeing. . . . There is an ambition about her book that I like. . . . It is the ambition to feel.” — Eudora Welty, New York Times Book Review

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley, where Annie Dillard set out to chronicle incidents of "beauty tangled in a rapture with violence."

Dillard's personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot in the Virginia region through which Tinker Creek runs. In the summer, she stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons.

Ratings and reviews

Feels like one very long creative essay. Includes a lot of insect level horror--if you want to be disgusted by insects and parasites, this might be for you. That is not me. If you want a reason not to move to Virginia, this might be for you. I don't need another reason, the humidity is enough. If you like itty bitty creatures, be wary; you may not like them after reading this.

If you are anyone under the age of 30 and value books that actually have a plot as well as main characters, do not read this book. If you are one of the helpless individuals who must read the book due to the merciless will of a teacher or professor as I was, I wish you luck on what may be one of the worst experiences of your career as a student.

Dillard describes the real world with piercing, merciless, beautiful poetry in every line. It's one of the best books I've ever read. It's only sweeter that many people lack the discernment to enjoy it.

About the author

Annie Dillard is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood, The Writing Life, The Living and The Maytrees. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and has received fellowship grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.