If Pyle doesn’t arouse your biophilia, check your pulse.
Biologist and versatile nature writer Pyle collects rangy essays on the natural world.
In his latest book, the author, founder of the Xerces Society, examines how “a strong individual sense of connection to nature and natural processes is utterly essential to the healthy coexistence of humans with their biological neighbors and physical setting.” The author takes his time while considering habitats and ecologies—or sussing out the semiotics of Bigfoot (“the observed facts suggest that we would be foolish to dismiss the actual occurrence of unnamed hominoid apes…as fantasy, hoax, or solely a metaphor”)—but what Pyle truly desires is to encourage readers to get outside, take in the details of nature, and avoid at all costs what he calls the “Extinction of Experience.” As he sagely notes, “the sequelae to extinction and alienation are further loss and greater detachment, round and round…a cycle of disaffection, degradation, and the ultimate separation of nature.” Throughout these essays, the author brings an intimate, protective feeling for the natural world, whether expressed as old-school sublimity (“ephemeral pools of unthinkable clarity”) or a more modern appreciation of urban raw land, waste ground, and vacant lots, all of which possess qualities of possibility, imagination, escape, and discovery. Occasionally, Pyle allows a lecturing tone to creep in—“Most mountain walkers never see these common things”; “these people would be better off spending their pennies on a Roger Tory Peterson field guide”—but mostly what comes across is the author’s unbridled enthusiasm as a witness to the world’s many wonders, from wildness (a sliding scale “in the sense of that which takes us out of ourselves”) to the clump of moss in the sidewalk crack, what Nabokov would call “individuating detail.” Pyle proves yet again that he is one of the most nourishing nature writers at work today.
If Pyle doesn’t arouse your biophilia, check your pulse.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64009-276-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!
It should come as no surprise that the gifted author of The Sea Around Usand its successors can take another branch of science—that phase of biology indicated by the term ecology—and bring it so sharply into focus that any intelligent layman can understand what she is talking about.
Understand, yes, and shudder, for she has drawn a living portrait of what is happening to this balance nature has decreed in the science of life—and what man is doing (and has done) to destroy it and create a science of death. Death to our birds, to fish, to wild creatures of the woods—and, to a degree as yet undetermined, to man himself. World War II hastened the program by releasing lethal chemicals for destruction of insects that threatened man’s health and comfort, vegetation that needed quick disposal. The war against insects had been under way before, but the methods were relatively harmless to other than the insects under attack; the products non-chemical, sometimes even introduction of other insects, enemies of the ones under attack. But with chemicals—increasingly stronger, more potent, more varied, more dangerous—new chain reactions have set in. And ironically, the insects are winning the war, setting up immunities, and re-emerging, their natural enemies destroyed. The peril does not stop here. Waters, even to the underground water tables, are contaminated; soils are poisoned. The birds consume the poisons in their insect and earthworm diet; the cattle, in their fodder; the fish, in the waters and the food those waters provide. And humans? They drink the milk, eat the vegetables, the fish, the poultry. There is enough evidence to point to the far-reaching effects; but this is only the beginning,—in cancer, in liver disorders, in radiation perils…This is the horrifying story. It needed to be told—and by a scientist with a rare gift of communication and an overwhelming sense of responsibility. Already the articles taken from the book for publication in The New Yorkerare being widely discussed. Book-of-the-Month distribution in October will spread the message yet more widely.
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1962
ISBN: 061825305X
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1962
APPRECIATIONS
Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.
A popular novelist turns his hand to historical writing, focusing on what shipwrecks can tell us.
There’s something inherently romantic about shipwrecks: the mystery, the drama of disaster, the prospect of lost treasure. Gibbins, who’s found acclaim as an author of historical fiction, has long been fascinated with them, and his expertise in both archaeology and diving provides a tone of solid authority to his latest book. The author has personally dived on more than half the wrecks discussed in the book; for the other cases, he draws on historical records and accounts. “Wrecks offer special access to history at all…levels,” he writes. “Unlike many archaeological sites, a wreck represents a single event in which most of the objects were in use at that time and can often be closely dated. What might seem hazy in other evidence can be sharply defined, pointing the way to fresh insights.” Gibbins covers a wide variety of cases, including wrecks dating from classical times; a ship torpedoed during World War II; a Viking longship; a ship of Arab origin that foundered in Indonesian waters in the ninth century; the Mary Rose, the flagship of the navy of Henry VIII; and an Arctic exploring vessel, the Terror (for more on that ship, read Paul Watson’s Ice Ghost). Underwater excavation often produces valuable artifacts, but Gibbins is equally interested in the material that reveals the society of the time. He does an excellent job of placing each wreck within a broader context, as well as examining the human elements of the story. The result is a book that will appeal to readers with an interest in maritime history and who would enjoy a different, and enlightening, perspective.
Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781250325372
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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