At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays [Hardcover]

Anne Fadiman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007

In At Large and At Small, Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favorite genres, the familiar essay—a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth and its miniaturist focus on everyday experiences. With the combination of humor and erudition that has distinguished her as one of our finest essayists, Fadiman draws us into twelve of her personal obsessions: from her slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for catching butterflies to her monumental crush on Charles Lamb, from her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the country.

Many of these essays were composed “under the influence” of the subject at hand. Fadiman ingests a shocking amount of ice cream and divulges her passion for Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip and her brother’s homemade Liquid Nitrogen Kahlúa Coffee (recipe included); she sustains a terrific caffeine buzz while recounting Balzac’s coffee addiction; and she stays up till dawn to write about being a night owl, examining the rhythms of our circadian clocks and sharing such insomnia cures as her father’s nocturnal word games and Lewis Carroll’s mathematical puzzles. At Large and At Small is a brilliant and delightful collection of essays that harkens a revival of a long-cherished genre.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Fadiman, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner for The Spirit Catches You and You Fall, makes a bold claim: "I believe the survival of the familiar essay is worth fighting for." The "familiar essays" that Fadiman champions and writes are in the mold of the early 19th century, rather than critical or personal works as we've come to know them. Her essays combine a personal perspective with a far-reaching curiosity about the world, resulting in pieces that are neither so objective the reader can't see the writer behind them nor too self-absorbed. And spending some time with Fadiman is a pure delight. She loves the natural world and taxonomies of all kinds, as well as ice cream and coffee. Her love of the romantic age goes beyond the stylistic, and she prefers Coleridge and Lamb over Wordsworth and Southey. The collection rolls good-naturedly through its subjects until the final piece—an account of a whitewater rafting trip that went tragically awry, a harrowing reminder of the stakes on which all endeavors rest. This collection is a perfectly faceted little gem. Essayists, of both the critical and personal sort, could do worse than to follow Fadiman into the realm of the familiar. (May)
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From Booklist

Fadiman begins her second essay collection by quoting her father, the waggish intellectual of page, radio, and television Clifton Fadiman, lamenting the impending demise of the "familiar essay." Decades later, Anne is happy to report that the essay has survived, even if the familiar essay is now less, well, familiar than the critical or personal essay. A familiar essay is a confiding, inquiring, and witty reflection on a passionately considered subject. This intimate form was perfected by Charles Lamb, a writer Anne adores. With Lamb and her father serving as muses, Fadiman writes funny and keen essays that seemingly without effort mesh the personal with the literary and historical to surprising and edifying ends. Fadiman finds lessons for living in the contemplation of ice cream and coffee, the adventures of an Arctic explorer, and the collecting of butterflies. A master of the tangential, a close observer, and a lover of language, Fadiman is blithely brilliant in her pursuit of beauty and meaning as she wrestles with questions of life, death, and rebirth. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374106622
• ISBN-13: 978-0374106621
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Fadiman is the Francis Writer-in-Residence at Yale. Her first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, is an account of the unbridgeable gulf between a family of Hmong refugees and their American doctors. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, among other awards. Fadiman is also the author of two essay collections. The London Observer called Ex Libris "witty, enchanting, and supremely well-written." NPR said of At Large and At Small, "Fadiman is utterly delightful, witty and curious, and she's such a stellar writer that if she wrote about pencil shavings, you'd read it aloud to all your friends."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read Book of Essays, June 14, 2007

By 

Alan Naftalin (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays (Hardcover)

Anne Fadiman in one of her essays says that a key question in the culture wars is: "Should we read great books because of their literary value or because they . . . teach us how to live?" I am not much interested in the culture wars. I read books, great and small, for pleasure. I do not remember when I have read a book with greater pleasure than this small, beautifully written, book of essays. The subjects range from butterfly collecting to ice cream to Coleridge to flying the flag after 9/11 to unexpected death. The author reveals herself as learned, loving and at times very funny. Give yourself a treat. Read this book.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars write stuff, July 5, 2007

By 

A. Fine (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays (Hardcover)

Anne Fadiman's prose is as good as it gets, even if the subjects of her essays are not always as interesting to the rest of us as they are to her. Never afraid to use a large word when a diminutive one might do, an occasional trip to the dictionary may be necessary. But the trip is always informative, and my brain was grateful for the exercise.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book will make you smarter, November 8, 2007

By 

Raya Madison "lifelong lit lover" (NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays (Hardcover)

Really, it will. In this collection of essays (available separately in other venues, but nestled together with great mutual congeniality in this book), Fadiman begins with her own confessed interests and obsessions--Charles Lamb and Coleridge, ice cream and coffee, arctic exploration and mail delivery, mounting butterflies and flying the flag--and traces a patient, curious path through all sorts of trackless wildernesses (ancient literature, Romantic poetry, familiar essays and out-of-print tomes) to piece together observations that are quietly illuminating not just of the subject matter but the ways Fadiman--quietly, subtly--suggests that books are to read, loves are to be cherished, life is to be lived. The clarity and precision of her prose are breath-taking; readers would never guess that Fadiman's process could entail, as she reveals in one essay, moving paragraphs about in the manner that a pet hamster transports food from one side of his cage to the other. Surprising, rewarding, and deeply interesting, this book is a necessary addition not just to your library but your experience, as it will make you want to read more widely, look more closely, and think more deeply about things, just as Fadiman does.