A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write (The Art of the Essay), by Melissa Pritchard
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A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write (The Art of the Essay), by Melissa Pritchard
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Firecracker Award FinalistPoets & Writers “Best Books for Writers” selectionLiterary Hub “Best Books about Books” selectionImage: Art, Faith, Mystery “Top Ten of the Year” selectionIn an essay entitled “Spirit and Vision” Melissa Pritchard poses the question: “Why write?” Her answer reverberates throughout A Solemn Pleasure, presenting an undeniable case for both the power of language and the nurturing constancy of the writing life. Whether describing the deeply interior imaginative life required to write fiction, searching for the lost legacy of American literature as embodied by Walt Whitman, being embedded with a young female GI in Afghanistan, traveling with Ethiopian tribes, or revealing the heartrending story of her informally adopted son William, a former Sudanese child slave, this is nonfiction vividly engaged with the world. In these fifteen essays, Pritchard shares her passion for writing and storytelling that educates, honors, and inspires.Melissa Pritchard is the author of, most recently, the novel Palmerino and the short story collection The Odditorium. Her books have received the Flannery O’Connor, Janet Heidinger Kafka, and Carl Sandburg awards and two of her short fiction collections were New York Times Notable Book and Editors’ Choice selections. Pritchard has worked as a journalist in Afghanistan, India, and Ethiopia, and her nonfiction has appeared in various publications, including O, The Oprah Magazine, Arrive, Chicago Tribune, and Wilson Quarterly. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write (The Art of the Essay), by Melissa Pritchard- Amazon Sales Rank: #781640 in Books
- Brand: Pritchard, Melissa/ Johnston, Bret Anthony (FRW)
- Published on: 2015-05-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.40" h x .70" w x 4.90" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 192 pages
Review Praise for A Solemn PleasureFirecracker Award FinalistPoets & Writers “Best Books for Writers” selectionLiterary Hub “Best Books about Books” selectionImage: Art, Faith, Mystery “Top Ten of the Year” selectionPublishers Weekly “Top 10: Literary Biographies, Essays & Criticism”Foreword Reviews “Books for Grads” selection“Altogether magnificent. . . . [The essay “Spirit and Vision”] bears that cynicism-disarming quality of a commencement address and enchants the psyche like an incantation. . . . [Pritchard] ends the piece like one might a commencement address—and if this were one, it would certainly be among the greatest commencement addresses of all time. . . . Complement A Solemn Pleasure, seriously pleasurable in its entirety, with Susan Sontag’s advice to writers, Virginia Woolf on writing and self-doubt, and Cheryl Strayed’s no-nonsense wisdom on the craft.” —Brain Pickings“Pritchard’s essay collection is one to keep by your bedside to read again and again. Like Lewis Hyde’s The Gift, Pritchard plumbs the depths of why we write, in order to uncover the important reasons we need to write. . . . A Solemn Pleasure is a treasure of a book. Keep it nearby, because in the darkest depths when you are confronted with the beautiful pain of the blank page, Pritchard will remind you how words can create light. . . . And know that this book will give you super powers.” —Atticus Review“Invite[s] underlining, re-reading, and reading aloud. . . . Pritchard [is] a beautifully descriptive stylist and deeply committed artist. . . . A Solemn Pleasure is not only a great way for readers to meet [her], but an excellent choice to mark the launch of Bellevue Literary Press’ new series, The Art of the Essay.” —Rain Taxi Review of Books“Elegant, funny. . . . Pritchard’s own prose embodies her conviction that great writing involves both imagining the inner life of its subjects and a ‘bearing witness’ to the human condition and the transcendent mystery that surrounds it.” —Image: Art, Faith, Mystery“Pritchard once again validates the assertion that all true art is moral, as it instructs by seeking to improve life.” —World Literature Today“A spirited, intelligent, wide-ranging exploration of the joys, frustrations, and trials of the life of the writer.” —Colorado Review“Ethically rich. . . . Pay attention to the surge of [Pritchard’s] mind and the spiritual energy she demonstrates.” —Spirituality & Practice“As insightful as it is engaging. . . . Pritchard will make you cry, think, and laugh; each essay is filled with wit and wisdom. . . . A great read for writers, readers looking for enlightenment, and those who savor nonfiction that explores the spiritual through the everyday.” —Library Journal (starred review)“Moving. . . . Readers will treasure the book’s numerous memorable moments.” —Publishers Weekly“Heartfelt . . . bear[s] powerful witness to suffering, compassion, and transcendence.” —Kirkus Reviews“From grief to daily rituals to the shape of a dachshund, Pritchard insightfully connects the most obscure of subjects to reveal gems of truth about the human experience.” —Foreword Reviews“Full of lovely sentences that often achieve an almost mystical, spiritual power.” —NewPages“A fine, delicate essayist. . . . Pritchard’s writing is inspiring.” —Literary Hub“Gorgeous and moving. . . . Each of these essays confirms that to write is to think and feel, to take part in the profound and sacred act of witness. Read together—and the book is so arresting that many readers will finish it in a single sitting—the essays amount to a clear and irrefutable mandate for empathy.” —BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON, director of Creative Writing at Harvard University, author of Remember Me Like This, and editor of Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer (from the Foreword)“‘Great writers are witnesses to the spirit of their age,’ Melissa Pritchard declares. And in her splendid collection of essays, A Solemn Pleasure, she bears witness to matters great and small, from the quotidian joys of a borrowed room in London to the life and example of Georgia O'Keeffe to the plight of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Art is for her ‘a form of active prayer,’ which leads her to journey both inward and outward, notably to Afghanistan, where the consequences of the war on terror become tragically clear. This is the spirit of our age, gracefully rendered in Pritchard’s essays, which will stand the test of time.” —CHRISTOPHER MERRILL, director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and author of The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War“Melissa Pritchard has written an incredible book that is an important testament to the role of the writer as society’s moral and spiritual compass. In A Solemn Pleasure, Pritchard meshes the personal with the political in a bold and deeply honest composition that will make every reader a more compassionate human being. This book is written from the heart. It will refresh your passions and inspire the deepest yearnings of your soul. I found myself underlining, taking notes, and feeling inspired to write.” —JEN PERCY, author of Demon CampPraise for Melissa Pritchard“A writer at the height of her powers.” —Oprah.com“Dreamy and delightful.” —NPR’s All Things Considered“Wildly imaginative. . . . Endearingly quirky.” —Glamour“Precise and lucid.” —New York Times Book Review“Pritchard polishes the strange and makes it shine.” —LESLIE JAMISON, San Francisco Chronicle“One of our finest writers.” —ANNIE DILLARD“Melissa Pritchard’s voice is completely her own.” —TAYARI JONES“I have admired Melissa Pritchard's writing for several years now for its wisdom, its humble elegance, and its earthy comedy.” —RICK MOODY“Melissa Pritchard is a treasure.” —BRADFORD MORROW“Melissa Pritchard’s prose, that darkly lyrical firmament, is brightened by the dizzy luminous arrangement of her stars and satellites, her great gifts to us: humor, irony, kindness, brilliance.” —ANTONYA NELSON“A writer of immense talent.” —PETER STRAUB“No one is quite so brilliant at voicing the all-but-impossible-to-track interior lives of the most complex human beings as is Melissa Pritchard.” —BRAD WATSON
About the Author Melissa Pritchard is the author of eight books of fiction, including the novel Palmerino and the story collection The Odditorium, as well as the essay collection A Solemn Pleasure (forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press in 2015). Among other honors, her books have received the Flannery O’Connor, Janet Heidinger Kafka, and Carl Sandburg awards and two of her short fiction collections were New York Times Notable Book and Editors’ Choice selections. Pritchard has worked as a journalist in Afghanistan, India, and Ethiopia, and her nonfiction has appeared in various publications, including O, The Oprah Magazine, Arrive, Chicago Tribune, and Wilson Quarterly. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.Foreword contributor Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the best-selling novel Remember Me Like This, a Barnes & Noble Discover selection and New York Times Editors’ Choice, and Corpus Christi: Stories. He’s also the editor of Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. He is the Paul and Catherine Buttenweiser Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Fantastic and Friendly By Anne Burner A Solemn Pleasure is a fantastic book of essays. From a brief stay in London, to the death of the author's mother, and the story of a child slave, each one makes you think. I laughed, was frankly envious of one, and cried at several others. My favorite essay might be Doxology, about the author's Dachshund; though A Room in London is a close second.One thing I loved about this book is that the writing is up close; personal. I felt less like I was reading a book of essays, and more like I was having a series of long conversations with a friend. Anyone who enjoys reading essays will love this book.(Full Disclosure: I received a review copy through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program).
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful lessons on the writing life By Genevieve D. In A Solemn Pleasure, Melissa Pritchard paraphrases a Sufi parable for one of her essays titled “Elephant in the Dark.” To me it captures one of the most compelling thematic arcs of her collection: the slipperiness of art or art’s ‘many-sidedness’: “Some Indians kept an elephant in a dark room. Because it was impossible to see the elephant, those who wanted to know something about this exotic beast had to feel it with their hands. The first person went into the darkness and felt the elephant’s trunk and announced, This creature is like a water pipe. The next person felt the elephants’ ear an asserted, No. It’s like a giant fan. A third person felt the elephant’s leg and declared, That’s not true. This animal resembles a pillar. A fourth person felt the elephant’s back and concluded, Not at all. It’s like a throne. Different points of view produce different opinions. If someone had brought in a candle, they would have all felt like fools.”In many ways, art can be described as this kind of groping around in the dark—a necessary attempt at guessing the higher truths. Pritchard uses this folktale to preface one of the more didactic essays in the collection that discusses fiction writing technique, but to me it also encompasses Pritchard’s larger intent: to argue and show that art is a form of transcendence, that it can bring a little light into a largely banal world, that writing can be “active prayer.” The essays in A Solemn Pleasure might be seen as mere inspirational accounts but they are done remarkably well: they elevate your sense of creative purpose and also teach something practical about that kind of creative living. Pritchard is exhorting us to think grand but stay grounded. To Pritchard, writing isn’t a job or a vocation—it’s tantamount to a kind of divine calling—but one that shouldn’t keep you above the fray or inflate your sense of importance or intensity of your ‘suffering.’ I did roll my eyes at some of the heavy-handed attempts to deify the writing experience (evoking the American Transcendatalists; think Emerson and Thoreau) but looking past these moments there were some gems that were just the right balance of the personal, philosophical rumination, and reportage that I find strikes the right flavor profile of essays I enjoy.Some noteworthy pieces in A Solemn Pleasure:- “A Graven Space” (on painter Georgia O’Keefe, “an artist of uncommon and cultivated paradox.” It is an essay where Pritchard argues that we need to demystify the idea of creation: “Many of us stay busy inventing reasons not to create—we complain, while, and will not work because we are terrified of doing so…”; “crank down the pedestal.”)-“Still God Helps You: Memories of a Sudanese Child Slave (a retelling of Pritchard’s experience meeting and helping 33-year-old William Mawwin, a student in Phoenix, Arizona, a man who survived slavery in Sudan; feels like a straightforward human interest reportage piece and yet Pritchard draws out strong lessons on empathy and importance of the writer-as-witness)- “Decomposing of Articles of Faith” (more a prose poem than an essay that alternates lines of a prayer with transcendental musings)- “Time and Biology: On the Threshold of the Sacred” (explores whether writers and artists have a kind of ethical or moral responsibility or whether there is such a thing as art free of a moral or political stance of some kind.)It’s hard to categorize the kind of writer Pritchard is. Some essayists have that writerly lyrical power that wow you with the sheer force of their writing; others have a strong narrative bent, a knack for drawing you in with their storytelling; others have that journalistic smarts and can weave in the personal with contemporary and historical analysis, drawing from current events and footnotes; others still can be profound just by their navel-gazing self-examination, revealing themselves in ways that reveal the world. What I don’t like are writers who go full-tilt digressive, who think the essay grants them license to verbal-vomit all over the place; some readers like that kind of hazy brushstroke, but I don’t usually or can only tolerate it in very, very good writers (see Rebecca Solnit). To her credit Pritchard’s writing feels tighter than most mainly because most of the essays here are relatively short and focused, either topically or conceptually. That said, Pritchard’s essays don’t jump out for being exemplars of any of these aforementioned styles. But in some way, this made A Solemn Pleasure so delightfully readable. Pritchard wasn’t straining herself like a singer hitting those high notes she has no business hitting (which is what I felt was the main problem with much-hyped Empathy Exams from Leslie Jamison; my review here.) At the same time, there are no standout essays here, no one single piece that truly bowled me over. Overall, pretty solid as a whole. And I will take away the parable about the blind men and the elephant and Pritchard’s wonderful lessons on the writing life.[Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher for an honest and candid review. This review was originally written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.]
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. A must-read for all artists! Wise, inspiring, & deeply satisfying. By Noelle P Barkley As a long time fan of Melissa Pritchard's writing, I was eager to read this new collection of her non-fiction work. As I expected, this fabulous little book did not disappoint! In fact, I am back on Amazon to purchase several additional copies to give as gifts! I feel confident suggesting that it would be a cherished asset to anyone involved in the arts (writing most especially!) and would like to extend my gratitude to the author for this incredibly relevant and delightful book!
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