Findings: Essays on the Natural and Unnatural World
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Jamie, Kathleen, PUBLISHER: Graywolf Press, "A book of unparalleled beauty, sharpness of observation, wit, delicacy, strength of vision ong>andong> rare exactness of language." --"The Daily Telegraph" "I had noticed, more than noticed, the cobwebs, ong>andong> the shoaling ong>lightong>, ong>andong> the way the doctor listened, ong>andong> the flecked tweed of her skirt, ong>andong> the speckled bird ong>andong> the sickle-cell man's slim feet. Isn't that a kind of prayer? The care ong>andong> maintenance of the web of our noticing, the paying heed?" During her husbong>andong>'s hospital stay for a life-threatening illness, Kathleen Jamie didn't pray, but she did find herself paying very close attention to the world around her. In "Findings," she shares her direct, uncluttered observations of the natural ong>andong> unnatural world--seen from her kitchen window, on the streets of Edinburgh, in hospital corridors, in the Outer Hebrides. What she finds: an awe-inspiring salmon run that turns out to have been reengineered so that no salmon can possibly reach the top of the falls. A disembodied doll head, caught with the carcass of a whale on a remote islong>andong>, where crofters once combed for driftwood. She wonders "if durability is still a virtue, when we have invented plastic." "Findings" received resounding praise on publication in the United Kingdom. John Berger named it his favorite book of , "because it finds without disturbing the found. ong>Andong> this takes courage ong>andong> delicacy" ("The Guardian").