Customer Reviews

HOW WE WANT TO LIVE CL

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3 star:		(1)
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Before I read this book I read the two previous readers' reviews, which made me approach the book with great curiosity (and even a little ambivalence). Happily, I would like to report that I was delighted and surprised by these essays; they are written so well, so beautifully-- really a pleasure to read and to be intellectually provoked at the same time. I especially love how personal these essays are; it's not the usual didactic fretting about the postmodern technological age. Here, people write about how their lives truly are affected by the various kinds of "progress" (the word itself is contemplated wonderfully) in America today. An admirable book!

I was moved and fascinated by these essays which engage the idea of progress with depth, emotion, and insight. "Made by You" by Porter Shreve and "The Wreck of Time" by Annie Dillard were my favorites, though all the essays were fresh, absorbing. This is an important book.

i received this book from a friend not expecting a whole lot from it. but to my amazement i found it refreshing. this is, imho, a collection of well written essays. it is, in some ways, an uncontrived look into the minds and personal thoughts of writers. through his 'dead cat, floating boy' essay, which i found to be the most entertaining, i was introduced to john barth (i am now reading 'the sot-weed factor'). the central theme being 'who are we and where are we going?', it is a collection of modern essays for modern times.

The book's title raised my expectations unjustly. I was expecting powerful essays like James Baldwin's "The Fire Nextt Time," but remained unfullfilled. Perhaps it a sad byproduct of progress that writers see it fit to deal with such enormous issues with very short accounts that go deeply into personal experince, but shamelessly gloss over the depth of enormous events. These are mentioning in grossly conventinal terms.