The Names of Things [Hardcover]

Susan Brind Morrow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1997

Provides the memoirs of a woman's journey into the Egyptian desert, where she joins a nomadic desert family and begins her adventurous travels to the Sudanese border, Coptic monasteries, and the coast of the Red Sea, finding both beauty and danger along the way."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Susan Brind Morrow's lyric prose wades the deep waters of life, death, and the meanings of words. Her narrative evokes the smell of raw, wet earth from her Finger Lakes childhood, the red rock of the Egyptian desert she travels, dead Greek words she studied "like shards of some wonderful glass," and fluid Arabic where "a name is a mirror to catch the soul of a thing, and a pun is the corner of its garment." Seeking desert solace for her siblings' deaths, Brind adventures through Egypt's Red Sea Hills and Sudan's wadis, studying the birth of language amid its natural, living origins.

From Library Journal

From a lifetime of combining the study of nature and a fascination with language emerges the beautiful story of Morrow's journey?both physical and spiritual?from her childhood in rural New York to the magnificent deserts of Egypt and Sudan. Memories interlace and enrich this lean yet richly descriptive narrative, particularly the unexpected tragedies of her brother's and sister's deaths. After studies of Arabic and Egyptian hieroglyphs at Barnard College, leading to her first archaeological survey in Egypt in 1980, Morrow traveled extensively in the Middle East and Africa, living with nomadic tribes, courting adventure, and recording her experiences in a mixture of prose, Linnaean descriptions, and etymological pleasures. But more than simply a diarist, Morrow becomes a part of her desert milieu, in a region where women have had little freedom. This work imparts a quality not unlike the writing of Isak Dineson or Jane Goodall. Highly recommended.?Kay Meredith Dusheck, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; First edition. edition (June 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573220272
• ISBN-13: 978-1573220279
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Travel > Africa > Egypt

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a rich, deeply lyrical narrative, October 2, 2004

By 

kmp (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Names of Things: Life, Language, and Beginnings in the Egyptian Desert (Paperback)

This book is for those who love the roots of language and for those who want to explore how languages & cultures shape each other. Essentially autobiographical - tracing the author's life from childhood in upstate New York to studying at Columbia University in Manhattan to travels through the Arabian peninsula - this book also manages to include elements of anthropology & etymology (the study of the origin & development of words) in a way that is very easy to read. It is a rich, deeply lyrical narrative; a true must-have for my own bookshelf.

If there is any drawback, I would say that the tone of the book - which is self-reflective, almost meditative in parts - may not appeal to all readers. Although there are scholarly pieces woven throughout the text, I would describe this as a personal (rather than academic) book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Memoir and Portrait of a Country, October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Names of Things: Life, Language, and Beginnings in the Egyptian Desert (Paperback)

A truly gifted writer...I read passages over and over because the language was so well-crafted and beautiful. This is a wonderful memoir painted with impressionist strokes of a pen. One of the best travel books I've read in years.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting memoir, not too heavy, June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Names of Things: Life, Language, and Beginnings in the Egyptian Desert (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book for it's interesting stories about one woman's life as she travels and studies through Egypt. She weaves word etymologies through the book, twining them with the things she sees in the landscape and people. Though there are some pretty depressing moments, her tone is always light and I found it to be a very quick read. The focus of the book is Susan and her life and how she came to study in Egypt. I would have liked more about language, because that is the what the title says it's about, but her travels are so interesting and the people she meets are described so well that the book is consistently enjoyable. I sincerely hope she writes another book, maybe about another place, since she alludes to other travels in her life.