An American Childhood

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Other Reviews

"A remarkable work...an exceptionally interesting account.""--New York Times""Loving and lyrical, nostalgic without being wistful, this is a book about the capacity for joy." -- "Los Angeles Times""["An American Childhood"] combines the child's sense of wonder with the adult's intelligence and is written in some of the finest prose that exists in contemporary America. It is a special sort of memoir that is entirely successful...This new book is [Annie Dillard's] best, a joyous ode to her own happy childhood." -- "Newark Star-Ledger""The reader who can't find something to whoop about is not alive. "An American Childhood" is perhaps the best American autobiography since Russell Baker's "Growing Up."" -- "Philadelphia Inquirer""By turns wry, provocative and sometimes breathtaking...This is a work marked by exquisite insight." -- "Boston Globe""Every paragraph Dillard writes is full of information, presenting the mundane with inventive freshness and offering exotic surprises as dessert...[Annie Dillard] is one of nature's prize wonders herself--an example of sentient homo sapiens pushing the limits of the creative imagination. She deserves our close attentions." -- "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"""An American Childhood" shimmers with the same rich detail, the same keen and often wry observations as her first book ["Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"]." -- "Charlotte Observer""A vivid and thoughtful evocation of particular personal experiences that have an exuberantly timeless appeal." -- "Chicago Sun-Times"""An American Childhood" does all this so consummately with Annie Dillard's 50s childhood in Pittsburgh that it more than takes the reader's breath away. It consumes you as you consume it, so that, whenyou have put down this book, you're a different person, one who has virtually experiences another childhood." -- "Chicago Tribune"