The Last Book

Readers familiar with Sam Pickering's delightful essays will certainly hope that the title of his latest collection is not intended as prophecy. A true original, Pickering offers observation on everyday life that never fail to sparkle with wit, insight, amusement, and wonder.
  Freely blending fact with fiction-"Writing makes liars of us all," he notes-Pickering ranges easily and amiably from his home base in Storrs, Connecticut, to his roots in middle Tennessee, with numerous side trips to observe the natural world to refelct on the bonds of family and friends. One essay finds him playing auctioneer at a local arts council event, jollying the attendees with "tattered country tales" and fanciful, extravagant claims for items being sold. In another piece, his tongue-in-check remarks about the split infinitive, when quoted in a newspaper, ignite a small controversy that lands him on radio talk shows and provokes a flood of sometimes angry e-mail. Yet, whenever the irritations of the human world become a bit too wearying, Pickering finds ready refreshment in the doings of birds and insects and the splash of sunlight on a tree or flower.
  Throughout these sixteen essays, Pickering implicitly heeds the advice he offers his son just before the boy much meet the parents of his prom date: :The good storyteller, I instructed Francis, heaps paragraph upon paragraph, just like a waitress serving mashed potatoes in a family-style restaurant." Having dined at the table of a master storyteller, readers will depart this collection feeling fully sated-indeed, well nourished.

The Author:

A native of Nashville, Sam Pickering is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut and author of eleven previous books of essays. His most recent collections are Living to Prowl, Deprived of Happiness, and A Little Fling.

Readers familiar with Sam Pickering s delightful essays will certainly hope that the title of his latest collection is not intended as prophecy. A true original, Pickering offers observations on everyday life that never fail to sparkle with wit, insight, amusement, and wonder.

Freely blending fact with fiction-- Writing makes liars of us all, he notes--Pickering ranges easily and amiably from his home base in Storrs, Connecticut, to his roots in middle Tennessee, with numerous side trips to observe the natural world or to reflect on the bonds of family and friends. One essay finds him playing auctioneer at a local arts council event, jollying the attendees with tattered country tales and fanciful, extravagant claims for the items being sold. In another piece, his tongue-in-cheek remarks about the split infinitive, when quoted in a newspaper, ignite a small controversy that lands him on radio talk shows and provokes a flood of sometimes angry e-mail. Yet, whenever the irritations of the human world become a bit too wearying, Pickering finds ready refreshment in the doings of birds and insects and the splash of sunlight on a tree or flower.

Throughout these sixteen essays, Pickering implicitly heeds the advice he offers his son just before the boy must meet the parents of his prom date: The good storyteller, I instructed Francis, heaps paragraph upon paragraph, just like a waitress serving mashed potatoes in a family-style restaurant. Having dined at the table of a master storyteller, readers will depart this collection feeling fully sated--indeed, well nourished.

Publishers Weekly

The author of several books of essays and the inspiration for the teacher in Dead Poets Sociey offers another set of meandering journeys of imagination and discernment. A married professor (of English at the University of Connecticut) with family, he uses his representative experiences grading papers, preparing a son to meet a prom date's parents, leading a charity auction as essay subjects. But these affairs, however wryly recounted, are mainly springboards for forays to the imaginary town of Carthage, Tenn., where characters like Slubey Garts and Proverbs Goforth comment on life, and for intricate observations of the natural world. Through this blend of journal, flight of fancy and nature writing, Pickering sustains his thematic arc, which is the passage of seasons and, by extension, the passage of time. When he writes, "Efficiency does not matter in August" or "Snow glazed the ice, and willows shrank into switches," he offers tight phrases appropriate to his observational powers but more important, to his being of a certain age, at "the time of life when every death diminishes." Pickering has the natural essayist's intimate yet distanced take on the world that combines a devotion to particulars (like watermelon rind pickles or stems of goldenrod and joe-pye weed) with a near-indifference to the status- and achievement-mongering that marks modern life. Pickering's fans will find few surprises here; even the promise of the title is doubtful. Newcomers can sit back and enjoy Pickering's pixilated world. (Aug.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

A native of Nashville, Sam Pickering is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut and author of eleven previous books of essays. His most recent collections are Living to Prowl, Deprived of Happiness, and A Little Fling.