Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals - Hardcover

Williams, Joy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585741876 ISBN 13: 9781585741878

Publisher: Lyons Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Most of us watch with mild concern the fast disappearing wild spaces or the recurrence of pollution-related crises such as oil spills, toxic blooms in fertilizer-enriched rivers, and the increasing violence in our own country.

About this title

About the Author

JOY WILLIAMS is the author of four novels, including The Quick and the Dead (Knopf 2000), two collections of short stories, and a history of the Florida Keys. Her first novel, State of Grace, was nominated for the 1974 National Book Award. Her work has appeared in Granta, Esquire, The Paris Review, Harper s, and dozens of other magazines and reviews.

From the Back Cover

Most of us watch with mild concern the fast disappearing wild spaces or the recurrence of pollution - related crises such as oil spills, toxic blooms in fertilizer-enriched rivers, and the increasing violence in our own country. Joy Williams does much more than watch. With guts and passion, she sounds the alarm over the general disconnection from the natural world that our consumer culture has created. The culling of elephants, electron-probed chimpanzees, and the vanishing wetlands are just some of her subjects. Razor-sharp, controversial, scathingly opinionated, and refreshingly unafraid of conflict, Williams refuses to compromise as she lashes out at the greed of Americans and decries our own turpitude. It is not enough to mourn the passing of the natural world, Ill Nature shouts. Get out of our homes and our cars and our cubicles and do something...now. (5 3/4 X 8 1/2, 228 pages)

Reviews

Adult/High School-These 19 essays were first published (some in different form) in magazines as diverse as Esquire and Mother Jones. Alternating long essays with short ones, Williams looks at the state of nature and the destruction wrought upon it by humans from rich nations-and the inexcusable obliviousness of those people to what they are doing. She charms with wit and passion: as she says in the last essay, "Why I Write," "The good piece of writing startles the reader back into Life." These are, by that standard, good pieces of writing. The title of one chapter, "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimps," conveys something of Williams's freewheeling style. "The Case Against Babies" (another knockout) might come as a revelation to many young women, even as it outrages some of their parents. "The Killing Game" is probably the best-known piece here because of the hate mail it provoked when first published. There are no "pros and cons" here: wrong is wrong, as every child knows (and many teens have not yet forgotten), and Williams knows her own mind. Though the subjects are often distressing, many teens will identify strongly with her moral outrage at injustices and cruelties inflicted upon the defenseless, and will be heartened to find a writer who so effectively expresses so much of what they feel. The book has a hideous cover but readers who get past its off-putting face will be rewarded-whether they hate it or love it-with a truly colorful reading experience.

Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Sharp, sarcastic and uncompromising, Williams tackles a host of controversial subjects in this collection of 19 impassioned essays dealing mostly with humans' abuses of the natural world. Two of the collection's strongest essays deal with animal rights: "The Killing Game," an antihunting essay first published, to great furor, in Esquire, and "The Animal People," which casts a harsh eye on the agricultural, medical and environmental establishments for their treatment of animals. Other pieces note the diminished state of African wildlife ("Safariland"), the increasing number of babies born in the United States despite the threat of overpopulation ("The Case Against Babies") and the impact of consumer culture on the natural world ("Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp"). An acclaimed novelist (The Quick and the Dead) and Guggenheim fellow, Williams writes that her essays, unlike her stories, are "meant to annoy and trouble and polarize"; she terms her own nonfiction style "unelusive and strident and brashly one-sided." Readers will likely find all this true. At times, the collection falters under the weight of Williams's anger and moral indignation, and a few essays that are only loosely nature-related ("Sharks and Suicide," "The Electric Chair" and "Why I Write") undermine its momentum. However, her forceful writing and vivid depictions of habitat destruction and animal abuse ("Neverglades," "Wildebeest") make for compelling reading. Williams believes that the "ecological crisis" facing us is essentially a "moral issue," one caused by "culture and character, and a deep change in personal consciousness is needed." While it is unlikely that her combative rants will win new converts, some environmentalists may find this book a powerful call to action.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

This is not a comfortable book; nor can it be cast aside as just another tiresome list of environmental ills. In this collection of essays, Williams decries the ecological devastation caused by development, technology, and an out-of-control population. She minces no words in her treatment of hunters, wildlife managers, scientists who use animals in research, and a general public addicted to consumerism. Her writing is heavy with sarcasm and irony. It is also compelling, and the ten chapters go quickly. Williams is a seasoned writer, the author of several works of fiction (The Quick and the Dead) as well as nonfiction and recipient of a National Magazine Award for Fiction. Although the chapters "Sharks and Suicide" and "Hawk" diverge from her environmental theme to follow other musings, as a whole the work is effective and will likely leave the reader angry, frustrated, distressed, or depressed, which is, after all, her intent. Highly recommended for environmental and general collections.DMaureen J. Delaney-Lehman, Lake Superior State Univ., Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sharp and satiric in her novels, which include The Quick and the Dead [BKL O 1 00], Williams is even fiercer in her essays. She will not soft-pedal or sweet-talk; she means to incite, rattle, and pique. Extremely well informed, Williams writes, in a froth and a fury, about the ravaged state of nature. In "Safariland," she both marvels at the wonder of elephants and vanquishes the fantasy that wildlife still roams free in Africa. Williams calls the Everglades the Neverglades because that great wilderness is no more. She cuts through the self-serving rhetoric hunters spin to justify their lust for blood; questions extravagant artificial insemination procedures; and bluntly describes the brutal transformation of animals into myriad, thoughtlessly consumed products. And she looks directly into the heart of wildness in wrenching tributes to a beloved dog who suddenly turned vicious and to the fabulously crazy punk-rock performance artist Wendy O. Williams. These howls, protests, and pleas for sanity are lacerating, brilliant, and necessary. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585741876
• ISBN 13: 9781585741878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228