Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World by Barry LopezMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The approach Lopez takes towards the natural world is of observation: listening and paying attention. He talks about this in some of the early essays in the collection.
Further along in the book the essays become more autobiographical, more personal to him, what his life was like growing up, the sexual trauma he endured, his house, and finally his health.
In the earlier sections he writes about people he’s met and who made a great impression on him, friends and other naturalists, native peoples he was honored to spend time with, mostly in the far north in Alaska. Lopez has travelled around the world, but always says the place he most wants to be is at his home. His home is in deep in a forest, near a large river with many acres of woods in Oregon.
I haven’t read his entire cannon, but I suspect these personal biographical essays are the only ones he writes deeply about himself. He does share his childhood trauma and states that he told very few people about this.
This will be the last book from Lopez, as he passed away, and the essays he included in this book have that sense of leaving his last words, his legacy. Although, perhaps some of these essays were published elsewhere, as there is some repetition of the material, particularly one right after another.
I listened to the audiobook version of this title, and the narrator was a perfect fit for these essays.
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