Christopher Milne, The Open Garden
Of course I knew Christopher Milne -- who doesn't know the real Christopher Robin, after all? But I hadn't read his story "The Windfall," and I wasn't familiar with his essays, four of which were collected with this story into a smallish book entitled The Open Garden: A Story with Four Essays.
And just between us, I didn't need to read "The Windfall." Kind of interesting, in a gender-essentialist sort of way, the way Milne retells the Eden narrative, but not much more than that.
The essays, though: I thought those were right gems! Honestly, I'll be reading and rereading these for a long time, and assigning them in classes as terrific examples of expository prose; of nature writing; and of memoir. I don't want to muck them up with too many words of my own, fatigued as I am tonight, and unprepared for wise comment, but honestly, you'd be doing yourself SUCH a favour if you just went off and had a quick read. It's a wee book, but thoughtful, insightful and wildly diverting. Good stuff indeed.
And just between us, I didn't need to read "The Windfall." Kind of interesting, in a gender-essentialist sort of way, the way Milne retells the Eden narrative, but not much more than that.
The essays, though: I thought those were right gems! Honestly, I'll be reading and rereading these for a long time, and assigning them in classes as terrific examples of expository prose; of nature writing; and of memoir. I don't want to muck them up with too many words of my own, fatigued as I am tonight, and unprepared for wise comment, but honestly, you'd be doing yourself SUCH a favour if you just went off and had a quick read. It's a wee book, but thoughtful, insightful and wildly diverting. Good stuff indeed.
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Theresa K.