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Eating Dirt (2011)

by Charlotte Gill(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1553659775 (ISBN13: 9781553659778)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Greystone Books

review 1: Tree planting. Someone suggested I do it once and I'm glad I said no. Charlotte Gill did it, did it for a long time and did it well. She wrote about that experience with an amazing depth of environmental awareness. Her years spent traipsing through BC's rain forest informed her senses and gave her an acute understanding of the nuances of nature and particularly, of trees. She has more words to describe a forest and a clear cut than I thought possible. Beautiful, clear eyed and unsentimental writing, I really appreciate her voice. This is a rollicking good read, packed with historical and scientific info I would not have searched out otherwise.
review 2: Charlotte Gill is an extremely talented writer. While I only tree planted for six weeks one summer more tha... moren 20 years ago, I appreciated her ability to bring the memories rushing back: the jargon, the long, crazy van rides, the insect filled soggy sandwiches, the tedium, the subhuman conditions. Looking back I cannot believe I did it. But it was probably one of the most important things I've ever done. If you can survive tree-planting, everything else feels like a walk in the park (other than parenthood). But enough about me. Why is Charlotte Gill so good? I think it's the many contradictions she brings to this book. Firstly, you do not normally associate tree planters with erudition. They're normally the "work hard, party harder" type - but Gill constantly surprises with the quality of her research and the depth of her knowledge. I expected to be entertained rather than educated, but there were healthy dollops of each. Her tone is also unusual, often poetic, but quite detached. She obviously feels great passion for her subject, but she never let's the passion come through in any way sermonizing or judgemental, as you would expect from a "tree hugging" hippy. There are no politics, no agenda. Instead we get to bask in her almost beatific love for her surroundings. This is an ode to nature, to geology, to history, to trees of course, and to hard work. Finally, she writes metaphors like: "we'll drop into beds like stones into water" which I hope will stay with me for a long time. less

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