A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland [Paperback]

Rebecca Solnit (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1998

"A brilliant meditation on travel."—The New York Times

In this acclaimed exploration of the culture of others, Rebecca Solnit travels through Ireland, the land of her long-forgotten maternal ancestors. A Book of Migrations portrays in microcosm a history made of great human tides of invasion, colonization, emigration, nomadism and tourism. Enriched by cross-cultural comparisons with the history of the American West, A Book of Migrations carves a new route through Ireland's history, literature and landscape.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Though the scenario is familiar?an American with Irish ancestry travels to Ireland to explore her roots and her identity?this book is not typical. The essays here have a more intellectual bent; the descriptions of the people and the landscape are interspersed with philosophical musings on things such as the use of animal metaphors in our language, the life of Irish patriot Roger Casement, the imagery of blood in discussions of ethnicity, and the reasons why the Travelers (the Irish version of gypsies) are so hated. Solnit (Savage Dreams, Sierra Club, 1994), who has written numerous essays in publications such as Sierra, writes in an accessible, readable style and displays a thorough knowledge of Irish history and literature. For academic libraries and public libraries with larger travel collections.?Kathleen A. Shanahan, American Univ., Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Truly exceptional, a paradise for readers.” (Kirkus Reviews )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Verso; Pbk. Ed edition (June 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859841864
• ISBN-13: 978-1859841860
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,977,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

San Francisco writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of thirteen books about art, landscape, community, ecology, politics, hope, and memory. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she has worked with Native American land rights, antinuclear, human rights, antiwar and other issues as an activist and journalist.

Her new book is a departure from the previous 12 solo projects, a tall book of 22 colorful maps and 19 essays titled Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, made with 27 artists, writers, and cartographers.

She shops regularly at Amazon for books she can't get at her local independent bookstores, but she loves the local independents, frequents them constantly, particularly the Green Arcade and City Lights. She is very grateful to her readers, for writers are nothing without readers and books are dormant treasures that come alive when they're open and read; they live inside your head....

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a wonderful book, July 29, 2000

By 

Jean E. Christensen - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. For anyone who has ever been to Ireland or for that matter travelled anywhere at all this should be a marvelous book to read. I love the way she thinks and writes. If I were as well educated and as articulate as Rebecca Solnit, I would write as she does. In the book one minute I'm in Ireland and then back here in the Bay Area on Mount Burdell. I love the way one subject brings her to another and then on from there. She reminds one that we can be in many different places at once...not only the place where we actually are physically at the moment...but in all the places our minds, memories, hearts and souls have been (and have not actually been) and remember. I am going walking in the West of Ireland in two weeks and this is a book I shall carry with me and read for the third time while I'm there. Thank you Ms. Solnit for the gift of your intellect and your spirit.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and thought-provoking, January 22, 2002

By 

P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland (Paperback)

I found this book to be an excellent read: not only is Ms. Solnit a clear-eyed and perceptive observer, but she's also a good researcher into the historical and personal dimensions of the places she visits, and she generally presents this material very well (although a few times I felt that the background information got between her and what she was seeing). Also, as a native Californian who grew up in the same rural-turning-into-suburban landscape as she did, I found her comments and comparisons very apt; I'm not sure that someone from a different background would find them as relevant, but the material is fascinating and the anecdotes well written. However, I was rather annoyed by the vehemence of her dislike for "New Age types" -- granted, some people who fall under that rubric are easy to scoff at, but in that case I wondered why such a gifted and perceptive writer was wasting her time on cheap shots. Maybe it's that she feels threatened by anyone who doesn't agree with her "political activism is the ONLY way to change the world" viewpoint, in which case I think she needs to examine her own biases! Otherwise, the book is a beautifully written description of the West of Ireland (as a recent visitor to many of the same places, I greatly enjoyed her perspective) as well as a meditation on the nature of travel itself, and I feel it's well worth reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and visually rich but a bit academic, March 30, 2000

By 

soulcake - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland (Hardcover)

Rebecca Solnit has a unique ability to bring the nuances of place to the reader's imagination. This account of Solnit's solitary walk across the west of Ireland is at times haunting, beautiful,and wistful, yet I felt it had a tendency to get a bit bogged down in the language of academia and deconstruction. Her interior journeys are as compelling as her geographical ones, however, and anyone who is interested in the landscape of this very unique part of the world will enjoy her tales of the Irish west's land and people.