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The Faraway Nearby (ALA Notable Books for Adults) Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 484 ratings

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A New York Times Notable Book

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

A personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy, from the author of
Orwell's Roses

Apricots. Her mother's disintegrating memory. An invitation to Iceland. Illness. These are Rebecca Solnit's raw materials, but
The Faraway Nearby goes beyond her own life, as she spirals out into the stories she heard and read—from fairy tales to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—that helped her navigate her difficult passge. Solnit takes us into the lives of others—an arctic cannibal, the young Che Guevara among the leprosy afflicted, a blues musician, an Icelandic artist and her labyrinth—to understand warmth and coldness, kindness and imagination, decay and transformation, making art and making self. This captivating, exquisitely written exploration of the forces that connect us and the way we tell our stories is a tour de force of association, a marvelous Russian doll of a book that is a fitting companion to Solnit's much-loved A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The catalyst for the latest spiraling inquiry by Lannan Literary Award–winning creative nonfiction master Solnit is her mother’s Alzheimer’s. Solnit considers memory and its mutations, contemplates the harvest of a backyard apricot tree, and celebrates the pleasures and revelations of reading and writing—“You have an intimacy with the far away and distance from the near at hand.” Drawing on intrepid research, she analyzes with verve and exceptional fluency in metaphor the pivotal roles stories play in our private and social lives, pondering the infinite resonance of fairy tales and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Working with a sequence of repeating motifs—apricots, mirrors, ice, flight, breath, wound, knot—Solnit chronicles her residency in Iceland at the Library of Water and offers surprising and stirring observations about chemical pollution and polar bears, Dutch still lifes and Che Guevara, symbiosis and butterflies, the “mesmerizing art” of spinning and Buddhism, and her own alarming “medical adventure.” Solnit’s ensouling facility with language and profound perception of “physical and psychic geography” shape her complexly evocative musings on how we extract meaning from inheritance, feeling, place, and experience. --Donna Seaman

From Bookforum

Her most intimate work to date, The Faraway Nearby traces a difficult times in Solnit's life, as she endured her mother's descent into the fog of Alzheimer's, the death of a close friend, and her own struggle with breast cancer. Taking a cue from Buddhism, which "takes change as a given and suffering as the inevitable consequence of attachment and then asks what you are going to do about it," Solnit launches into an investigation of storytelling that helps her write her way toward something like solace.--Meehan Crist

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AFPVO5K
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (June 13, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 13, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4094 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 271 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 484 ratings

About the author

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Rebecca Solnit
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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

4.5 out of 5 stars
484 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers appreciate the author's creative use of words and phrases. They find the book insightful and thought-provoking, challenging readers to examine their own stories. Readers describe the book as a rich treat with wonderful and startling insights.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

44 customers mention "Writing quality"37 positive7 negative

Customers appreciate the writing quality of the book. They find the author's creative use of words and phrases to express abstract feelings and thoughts a true sense of artistry. The language is beautiful and the book is an easy read with deep thoughts. Readers describe the writing as an interesting experiment in cross-genre writing, sprinkled heavily with allusions to a broad variety of topics.

"...With a true sense of artistry, she lays words like breadcrumbs that lead us toward understanding...." Read more

"...and moving, personal and universal, captivating and inducing of intellectual challenge...." Read more

"...and analogies are both poignant and down-to-earth while still being lyrical...." Read more

"...This is a literate book for the reader who loves a well crafted work. It is thoughtful, insightful, and even funny...." Read more

27 customers mention "Insight"24 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the book's insights. They find the memoir engaging, challenging readers to examine their own stories. The interweaving of concepts, explanations, and histories connects into a mesmerizing story. Readers appreciate the thought-provoking essays and consider the book informative, moving, and touching the delicate pulse of truth.

"...Gently, she challenges us as readers to examine our own stories, to recognize their power to nurture love or fear, forgiveness or spite, empathy or..." Read more

"...Ultimately, I found this book to be many things. It is informative and moving, personal and universal, captivating and inducing of intellectual..." Read more

"...It is thoughtful, insightful, and even funny. It challenges the reader to evaluate one's own internal script and to open for the constant change..." Read more

"...A master of description, a rare gift of literary ability to her readers, Rebecca Solnit walks above the realm of the average gifted author." Read more

22 customers mention "Thought provoking"22 positive0 negative

Customers find the book evocative and thought-provoking. They describe the thoughts as deep, heartfelt, and dream-like. The essays are poetic and captivating, weaving together personal and universal experiences.

"...us as readers to examine our own stories, to recognize their power to nurture love or fear, forgiveness or spite, empathy or anger, recovery or..." Read more

"...It is informative and moving, personal and universal, captivating and inducing of intellectual challenge...." Read more

"...It's by no means prosaic, but her insights and analogies are both poignant and down-to-earth while still being lyrical...." Read more

"...It is not only beautifully written, but the range of emotions, journeys, topics, ideas, events, questions, and understandings presented here is..." Read more

3 customers mention "Enjoyment"3 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book. They find it a rich treat with beautiful writing and wonderful insights.

"Rebecca Solnit's exquisite prose makes reading this book a rich treat...." Read more

"Dazzling and rich in language, life and soul. You're going to love every second and come out of every essay in a more vivid world." Read more

"Beautiful writing and many wonderful and sometimes startling insights make this book well worth reading." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2018
    I don’t usually read memoirs. At least, I haven’t in the past. This is my second one in a month, and I have to say I may be changing my mind. Though I have to say that this isn’t exactly a memoir. It is, but not really. When you read it, you’ll see what I mean.

    From stories of her mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s to her own brush with cancer, the author weaves an intimate narrative about personal trauma and family relationships in such a way that we see the beauty amid the chaos, the poetry in the pain. Solnit’s ability to connect seemingly random and disparate elements amazed me, as did her insight. She seems to see right to the heart of things, touching the delicate pulse of truth beneath layers of superfluous camouflage with surprising power and sensitivity. More than once I would have sworn she was speaking directly to me; her words were that apropos to my own experience, that synchronistic to my own journey. Each time I felt her at my shoulder and had to put the book down for a while, so that I might fully absorb the impact of her words.

    Throughout the book, Solnit demonstrates the importance in our lives of the stories we tell ourselves. With a true sense of artistry, she lays words like breadcrumbs that lead us toward understanding. Gently, she challenges us as readers to examine our own stories, to recognize their power to nurture love or fear, forgiveness or spite, empathy or anger, recovery or suffering. Her words coax us to believe that perhaps, if we are willing to see our stories for what they are and what they bring to our worlds, we can make new stories that bridge the extremes and lead to healing.

    This is not an easy read. Its subject matter is far too thought-provoking. The Faraway Nearby is more a book to savor slowly, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine, perhaps on a quiet balcony or in a comfortable nook. And when you’ve finished it and put it down, keep it handy. It reveals itself in layers as you go, and will likely offer different insights with each pass, so you’ll want to read it again and again.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2022
    This is a beautiful book, seemingly inspired by the loss of her mother, where Ms. Solnit takes on an idiosyncratic journey through disintegration and hints of rebirth. Framed by a pile of apricots from her mother’s tree, we travel through Ms. Solnit’s present and her reflections on everything from history to the writing she creates and the literature that inspires her.

    I was already taken by this book when I saw the table of contents and wondered how she would make use of the symmetry of the chapters. I was immediately brought into the quirkiness of her style when I started reading the passage that runs in a single line along the bottom of the pages. It seems to be her way: a subtle logic to her stories that has a personality unique to herself.

    Ultimately, I found this book to be many things. It is informative and moving, personal and universal, captivating and inducing of intellectual challenge. I have come very much to enjoy Ms. Solnit’s style and look forward to reading more of her.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2014
    The author is an exceptionally gifted writer, and I love reading her work. It's by no means prosaic, but her insights and analogies are both poignant and down-to-earth while still being lyrical. The subject of the book often deals with very dark and somewhat disturbing topics and the authors normal and thorough descendance into them made the book difficult for me to read at times. Still, the final chapter was as transcendent and uplifting as any I have ever read. I will continue to read works from this author as I think she will prove to be one of the clearest voices of our times.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2013
    The Huffington Press has chosen this lilting book as the book they are "talking about this week.". It will certainly haunt me. The story that launches her current book is the loss of her mother to Alzheimer's, step by awful step. In her attempt to frame this reality, she nests the narratives that her mother has told herself and her own responsive attempts to organize reality. Her mother had not been a warm, or often even kind.

    With a deft hand, Solnit weaves the doors and windows through which she travels into a mesmerizing story. As a child, she was a solitary person, but found that " books are solitudes in which we meet." ( possibly my favorite sentence in the book.). She shares the stories that have helped her to shape her own life and have in turn inspired her own writings. She had decided early on to never refuse an adventure, and she shares a few she had taken as relief and growth as the burden of her mother grew.

    Solnit also speaks of the ways in which our interior dialogues can trap us. They can tell us who to love or hate. "Not a few stories are sinking ships." She believes among these tales are the ones that stiffened and distanced her mother into jealousy and aloofness. Somehow, the author successfully weaves the story of Frankenstein and the history of his creator into a meaningful, and even necessary, part of her own discourse. Along the way, Solnit goes to the "country where many go much further and some don't return." She has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

    This is a literate book for the reader who loves a well crafted work. It is thoughtful, insightful, and even funny. It challenges the reader to evaluate one's own internal script and to open for the constant change of every context. This is a book that fills the promise of solitudes meeting.
    98 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Gary Forma
    5.0 out of 5 stars As ordered
    Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2019
    Good read
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2020
    Fabulous book. What an amazing author. Really inspiring read.
  • Snowwhite
    5.0 out of 5 stars Super book
    Reviewed in Germany on June 18, 2019
    Super book. Awesome language
  • Kate Parrick
    5.0 out of 5 stars Never far from home
    Reviewed in Australia on June 27, 2019
    Rebecca Solnit writes like an angel. Her work is rich and fulfilling, but impossible to define. I see the world fresh when I read her.
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading for her mastery of words alone.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2017
    Rebecca Solnit is a very gifted writer. I loved this beautifully written and insightful memoir

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