Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Loitering: New and Collected Essaysby Charles D'Ambrosio
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. One of the few books I've read that requires a dictionary (not a bad thing!). Gave up about a third through. Just not my thing. ( ) Part of my reading practice is to keep a slip of paper or notebook to scribble thoughts or words to look up. For D'Ambrosio's collection of essays, I needed a big piece of paper for the latter. Beyond to often overly esoteric subject matter, D'Ambrosio sometimes seems to be writing for the purpose of displaying his otherworldly vocabulary. Funny enough, the last word I had to look up - pleonasm - rendered a definition that was almost on point for a one-word review: "the use of more words than necessary to denote mere sense." While all of that seems like I didn't like the book, the opposite is true. He is a keen observer of humans and human behavior, and extremely frank with his own history and pain. My favorite essay was the lead, dealing with his observations from the street during a volatile police call over a man barricaded in an apartment with a gun. I also quite enjoyed his essays dealing with literary topics and writers, save for the last one during which he went on a deep exegetical dive through a poem, plumbing farther than almost anyone would into the writing - and farther, I suspect, than any poet on their own work. On balance, a very enjoyable book. no reviews | add a review
AwardsDistinctions
"Charles D'Ambrosio's essay collection Orphans spawned something of a cult following. In the decade since the tiny limited-edition volume sold out its print run, its devotees have pressed it upon their friends, students, and colleagues, only to find themselves begging for their copy's safe return. For anyone familiar with D'Ambrosio's writing, this enthusiasm should come as no surprise. His work is exacting and emotionally generous, often as funny as it is devastating. Loitering gathers those eleven original essays with new and previously uncollected work so that a broader audience might discover one of our great living essayists. No matter his subject - Native American whaling, a Pentecostal "hell house," Mary Kay Letourneau, the work of J.D. Salinger, or, most often, his own family - D'Ambrosio approaches each piece with a singular voice and point of view; each essay, while unique and surprising, is unmistakably his own"-- No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresNo genres Melvil Decimal System (DDC)814.54Literature English (North America) American essays 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |