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A Field Guide to Getting Lost Paperback – June 27, 2006
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From the award-winning author of Orwell's Roses, a stimulating exploration of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown
Written as a series of autobiographical essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Rebecca Solnit's life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves, or losing ourselves. While deeply personal, her own stories link up to larger stories, from captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo. The result is a distinctive, stimulating voyage of discovery.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateJune 27, 2006
- Dimensions5.35 x 0.58 x 8.35 inches
- ISBN-109780143037248
- ISBN-13978-0143037248
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Solnit has been compared to both Annie Dillard and Susan Sontag . . . her own work resembles a richly conceived character, capable of sudden turns and sharp twists, changing direction from book to book and page to page in ways that, in retrospect, are nevertheless consistent with what she's done before. [A Field Guide to Getting Lost] has something close to perfect pitch, an intermezzo in an increasingly impressive career."
—The Nation
"An altogether sublime collection. . . she sees in the act of embracing the unknown a gateway to self-transcendence."
—Maria Popova, Brainpickings.org
"This indespensable California writer's most personal book yet, alive as ever to the subtle nuances of the natural world, but newly responsive to the promptings of her own heart and history."
—San Fransisco Chronicle
"This meditation on the pleasures and terrors of getting lost is . . . a series of peregrinations, leading the reader to unexpected vistas."
—The New Yorker
"An ode to losing yourself and finding out what's on the other side of familiarity. For Ms. Solnit . . . getting lost is more than a matter of merely physical circumstances. It's a state of mind to be embraced and explored, a gateway to discovering more about yourself in relation to the rest of the world."
—The Dallas Morning News
From the Back Cover
The New Yorker
"This indispensable California writer s most personal book yet."
San Francisco Chronicle
"An intriguing amalgam of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, natural lore, cultural history, and art criticism . . . a book to set you wandering down strangely fruitful trails of thought."
Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 0143037242
- Publisher : Penguin Books; Reprint edition (June 27, 2006)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780143037248
- ISBN-13 : 978-0143037248
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.35 x 0.58 x 8.35 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #32,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #45 in Travelogues & Travel Essays
- #116 in Author Biographies
- #1,144 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of seventeen books about environment, landscape, community, art, politics, hope, and memory, including the updated and reissued Hope in the Dark, three atlases, of San Francisco in 2010, New Orleans in 2013, and New York forthcoming in October; 2014's Men Explain Things to Me; 2013's The Faraway Nearby; A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster; A Field Guide to Getting Lost; Wanderlust: A History of Walking; and River of Shadows, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (for which she received a Guggenheim, the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and the Lannan Literary Award). A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a columnist at Harper's and frequent contributor to the Guardian newspaper.
She encourages you to shop at Indiebound, your local independent bookstore, Powells.com, Barnes & Noble online and kind of has some large problems with how Amazon operates these days. Though she's grateful if you're buying her books here or anywhere....
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers praise the writing style as gorgeous, moving, and magical. They describe the book as an amazing, life-changing read with poignant observations about life. Readers appreciate the storytelling as interesting and enriching. The pacing is described as lovely.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers praise the writing style as gorgeous, moving, and magical. They find the author's prose entrancing, inviting, and rich in imagery. The author is described as intelligent and clearly caring about the reader. The reflective essays on multiple subjects are considered an art form and thought-provoking.
"...doesn't follow formulas but gets you there even better -- and who loves language. She expresses herself really well...." Read more
"...Nevertheless, A Field Guide to Getting Lost is a philosophical treatise on the idea of flux--the essence of the middle, and the spaces between..." Read more
"...is my first foray into the writing of Rebecca Solnit – poignant and beautiful, and full of appreciation for the natural world and our ephemeral..." Read more
"Solnit's prose is gorgeous, moving, and magical in the way that it flows on the pages as it leads the reader to her deepest thoughts...." Read more
Customers enjoy the storytelling in the book. They find the writing poignant and beautiful. The narrative weaves together various stories and experiences, taking readers on memorable journeys.
"...It's fascinating and intriguing, but at times comes across disjointed...." Read more
"...This is my first foray into the writing of Rebecca Solnit – poignant and beautiful, and full of appreciation for the natural world and our ephemeral..." Read more
"...All agreed there were lovely passages...." Read more
"Solnit's prose is gorgeous, moving, and magical in the way that it flows on the pages as it leads the reader to her deepest thoughts...." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and inspirational. They say it's one of their favorite books. Readers appreciate the author's writing style and find the prose enjoyable.
"...So I picked up the present wonderfully-titled book -- and I haven't put it down since I picked it up...." Read more
"...Solnit, though, disagrees. In her stunning collection of essays that make up A Field Guide to Getting Lost, for Solnit, loss is a transformative..." Read more
"...Her thoughts are reason enough to read this book: the prose is a cherry on top...." Read more
"...this book, it has great quotes and is very inspirational and a fabulous read! A must for your book collection!" Read more
Customers enjoy the book's pacing. They find some parts interesting, like the description of the desert. The exploration of boundaries is described as physical, emotional, psychological, and real. Readers appreciate the prose as gorgeous, moving, and magical.
"...a person can get lost, both physically and psychologically, the power of wandering and of deliberately shedding or simply losing one’s sense of place..." Read more
"Solnit's prose is gorgeous, moving, and magical in the way that it flows on the pages as it leads the reader to her deepest thoughts...." Read more
"Pieces, fragments and almost painfully open deep dives into the past, but also a great number of highlighted passages that I'll hopefully revisit,..." Read more
"...confusing, but if you just keep reading, it pulls you in and carries you along. Loved this book!" Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2013Solnit is a recent discovery for me: I'd heard of her, recently read an essay -- on Detroit, in Harper's, the reasons Detroit fascinates her fascinate me as well. So I picked up the present wonderfully-titled book -- and I haven't put it down since I picked it up. There are writers who deliver in-formula -- you always know where you are, and where you're going, they can be very good but you can put them down and come back to them easily, a lot of what you are reading is the formula. Solnit by contrast weaves, and she makes you want to stay with her as her stories develop -- by the end I understood the tapestry, and her strong and fundamental point, but along the way I caught only glimpses, she lets you discover alongside her, as she rediscovers them herself. I believe any reader, male or female or old or young or of whatever nationality or ethnicity, will enjoy this book. Anyone who ever has been in a family, or been without one -- has had a childhood, remembers the 60s or doesn't -- is not afraid of text which doesn't follow formulas but gets you there even better -- and who loves language. She expresses herself really well. 5 stars here, then, for all of that -- I'm going to read her other books.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2015The social perception of loss is denotatively and connotatively negative. It's a word we associate with the agonies of death, the frustrations of deprivation, and the erosion of what was into what is not.
To lose is to succumb to the fate that awaits us all--the diminutive sense of depletion and reduction. Solnit, though, disagrees. In her stunning collection of essays that make up A Field Guide to Getting Lost, for Solnit, loss is a transformative force, rather than a negative one--a powerful impetus for change that moves into the world of the liminal--the spaces between moments rather than the spaces that constitute moments.
Relying on notable figures ranging in discipline and trade from Henry Thoreau, Conquistador Cabeza de Vaca, and Parisian performance artist and judo extraordinaire Yves Klein to pull her through from a state of solidity to that of the fluid, that of the blue itself--Solnit walks us through landscapes and worlds that are altogether foreign and exotic, to strangely convey the most familiar landscape of all--change.
Solnit alternates between the constant imagery of the solid, the grounded, the ideas that allow us to plant ourselves in the constant--only to transition into that of the "blue"--that of the ethereal and atmospheric, that of the liminal. Every other essay is titled: "The Blue of Distance" allowing for discussion of the philosophical means of the color blue as an aesthetic principle and metaphor of fluidity--the intent of which is to bring us into the space between relinquishment and acquisition--giving and taking.
More than a simple collection of essays, where Solnit succeeds is in the connection to the personal. We create ourselves through our association with others, picking and choosing tidbits of cultural ephemera we deem appropriate to absorb into our own lives--to make our own--making Solnit's viewpoint wholly relatable. She almost takes the form of overt autobiography. Association with Solnit's points becomes inherent.
Although, the collection seems sporadic at times--the essays jump and move and transition like a child hopping from puddle to puddle mid-rain storm--hence the exploratory milieu, making the readability erratic. A singular essay can cover topics ranging in breadth from her own home life, the world of the Conquistador and pre-colonial United States, to the diminishing microbes of our environment, and the death of the desert tortoise. It's fascinating and intriguing, but at times comes across disjointed.
Nevertheless, A Field Guide to Getting Lost is a philosophical treatise on the idea of flux--the essence of the middle, and the spaces between places in which our bodies and psyches transition to worlds and climes that are foreign and beautiful. The book is a success in that it reminds us, yet again, that the only constant in life is change.
For more great book reviews, see bookguyreview.com
- Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2019Little did I know that this book would be the perfect follow up to Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, which I read last month. Together they’d form a beautiful Venn diagram made solely of different shades of blue. This is my first foray into the writing of Rebecca Solnit – poignant and beautiful, and full of appreciation for the natural world and our ephemeral place in it – and I’m now hooked. In this book Solnit explores the different ways in which a person can get lost, both physically and psychologically, the power of wandering and of deliberately shedding or simply losing one’s sense of place, and the inestimable value of the unknown. In addition to overlapping themes regarding the color blue, A Field Guide to Getting Lost and Bluets are poetic kindred in their heady interweaving of history, art, philosophy, and personal memoir. Just as with Bluets, I found frequently myself marking passages so that I might easily find them again later.
“There is a voluptuous pleasure in all that sadness, and I wonder where it comes from, because as we usually construe the world, sadness and pleasure should be far apart. Is it that the joy that comes from other people always risks sadness, because even when love doesn’t fail, mortality enters in; is it that there is a place where sadness and joy are not distinct, where all emotion lies together, a sort of ocean into which the tributary streams of distinct emotions go, a faraway deep inside; is it that such sadness is only the side effect of art that describes the depth of our lives, and to see that described in all its potential for loneliness and pain is beautiful?”
And one more because I can’t help myself:
“The places in which any significant event occurred become embedded with some of that emotion, and so to recover the memory of the place is to recover the emotion, and sometimes to revisit the place uncovers the emotion. Every love has its landscape. Thus place, which is always spoken of as though it only counts when you’re present, possesses you in its absence, takes on another life as a sense of place, a summoning in the imagination with all the atmospheric effect and association of a powerful emotion.”
- Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2018My book club read this book and discussed it last night. A couple of people liked it immensely, while others just couldn't get through it. All agreed there were lovely passages. A book that doesn't have a story arc, a character study, or even an essay format that begins somewhere and the end results from that beginning, is challenging. Many of us got lost in the reading and thought that was perhaps what the author intended.
As one person said, if someone asked me what it's about, I couldn't say.
Still, there's something to getting lost, and I appreciate that.
Top reviews from other countries
- CGGReviewed in Mexico on January 20, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique
Great read!
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in India on May 17, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Soulful and heartwarming
This book took me to many beautiful places in my own mind. There are many passages that just move you with the deep human-ess of it all. It's as much as about getting lost as it's about finding your lost self. Solnit's writing takes you out of the world and brings you home; not always in that order. It asks of you to dare to let go, embrace awareness and court adventure.
-
さくらReviewed in Japan on April 18, 2017
2.0 out of 5 stars 難しすぎた。
Wander Societyを読んだ後、その中に参考になる書籍として挙げられていたので購入したが、自分には難しくて途中でギブアップした。
自分の語彙の貧しさももちろんだが、考え方の根柢の部分をよく理解できていなかったかもしれない。
- PeterReviewed in Canada on June 1, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars A delight.
Now, really, I loved this book. I loved it so much I gave a speech about it. I told my friends and my family about it. This particular review comes on the back of my buying it for a friend and having it delivered to his home. It's an elegantly written thing, in my opinion, with well-researched, insightful observations about human existence and the notions of finding ones self. I love it. But not everyone does. The language is of a higher level than most. Some people I know have found it hard to follow. But for my part, I am hoping that senility sets in, such that I forgot every page of it, so that I can pick it up off the shelf and do it all over again. Brilliant.
- MorrowindReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Lost and found...
This is an extraordinary book, like something written by a visitor from a fourth dimension who can look at our every day world and see how things fit together,or don't, in a way that most of us never can. Because she talks about her life and lives are often episodic or peripatetic or just plain boring, there seems little substance to the book, like a beautiful wedding cake with no centre to it. But after a a while you realise that does not matter. The medium is the message. She has us looking so closely at the head of a pin that finally we see the Angels dancing on it. There is scarcely a sentence that does not resonate. Look for one to quote and you wind up quoting the whole book. I was lost but now I am found may not be the heart of the matter, but she does teach us to travel hopefully and in the end, we may find it was the journey that mattered most.