Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World [Paperback]

Linda Hogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2007

Award-winning Chickasaw poet and novelist Linda Hogan explores her lifelong love of the living world and all its inhabitants.

"We want to live as if there is no other place," Hogan tells us, "as if we will always be here. We want to live with devotion to the world of waters and the universe of life." In offering praise to sky, earth, water, and animals, she calls us to witness how each living thing is alive in a conscious world with its own integrity, grace, and dignity. In Dwellings, Hogan takes us on a spiritual quest borne out of the deep past and offers a more hopeful future as she seeks new visions and lights ancient fires.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist (Mean Spirit) and poet (Seeing Through the Sun) Hogan branches into nonfiction with this slender volume of meditations on the natural world. She successfully couples a poet's appreciation of phrasing and rhythm with Native American sensibilities and stories. Throughout, Hogan exquisitely examines both natural and internal landscapes. She writes beautifully about animals without anthropomorphizing them and, in so doing, explores what it means to be human. Herself a Chickasaw, Hogan is able to bring a diverse cultural perspective to her analysis of how people relate to nature. She concludes, "We must wonder what of value can ever be spoken from lives that are lived outside of life, without a love or respect for the land and other lives." Although 11 of the 16 essays have been previously published, they come together to form an invigorating whole. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Dwellings is Chickasaw Indian poet and novelist Hogan's (The Book of Medicines, LJ 7/93) first book of nonfiction. In this collection of short essays, many previously published in literary journals, she describes various aspects of nature and problems she perceives in current attitudes toward it. Hogan's lyrical writing style draws us into her experiences in Central America, her Chickasaw homeland, and her current home in Colorado, showing us portraits of the natural world in each spot. Her strong orientation toward the environment shines through in each section, as she encourages her readers to see themselves as a small part of the whole that is our ecosystem. The pieces come together to reflect the author's profound respect for the earth and prompt us to feel the same. For literary and ecology collections.?Gwen Gregory, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruces
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393322475
• ISBN-13: 978-0393322477
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational essays on the natural world, October 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World (Paperback)

Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw novelist, essayist, and poet, writes some of the most beautiful prose of any living Americxan writer. When she writes nature essays, as in this collection, her style is not that of the journalist (like, say, John McPhee) or even the activist (Rick Bass). Instead, her words are imbued with beauty and wisdom and spirituality. While I hesitate to use the term "Native American writer" to describe Hogan because I believe any such terminology to be limiting, in her case it is necessary because her Chickasaw background informs so much of her work. The plains of Oklahoma, snakes, dreams, a suspicion of technology, and bats all feature prominently in her writing. Hogan doesn't always deal well with the specifics of ecology--she suggests, for example, that wolves never predate on livestock, which of course is an oversimplification of lupine behavior--but she writes extremely well about the importance of human beings seeking a spiritual connection with the natural world. I highly recommend this book, particularly to anyone wishing to teach high school students about the spirituality of nature.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much in such a little book!, March 14, 2000

By 

Miranda - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World (Paperback)

This book is amazing in its multitude of ideas about life! Practically every sentence makes an amazing statement that causes you to stop and think. Plus, Hogan is obviously an avid reader for her book is stuffed with other readers, scholars, and scientist's words and thoughts. If you're interested in the mysteries of life, this is a book you can't afford to pass up!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred and beautiful, October 9, 1999

By 

A. Durbin (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World (Paperback)

Linda Hogan melds wonderful descriptions of the environment with poignant reflections on humans' place in the world and our relation with other beings in nature. Amazing, humbling, inspiring. I highly recommend it!