Natural Acts A Sidelong View Of Science And Nature Deals on David Quammen

Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

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Editorial Reviews

"David Quammen is simply the best natural essayist working today."--Tim Cahill, author of Lost in My Own Backyard

"Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions," said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?).

This revised and expanded edition best-loved "Natural Acts" columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as "Planet of Weeds," an influential new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work.

David Quammen is a naturalist, writer, and literary scholar who can turn from William Faulkner to theories of demographic stochasticity on a dime--or a comma. Natural Acts, a collection of Quammen's columns by the same name from Outside magazine, highlights his many interests. In its pages, he touches on Malthusian population dynamics, the mating habits of butterflies and snakes, Tycho Brahe's quest for the stars, magnolia trees, whales, and deserts--to name just a few of the matters that pass beneath his bemused gaze. This is humanely wrought science writing at its best. --Gregory McNamee

Customer Reviews

New Meets Old

Reviewed by jd103, 2010-01-28

Although I'd read Natural Acts, it was the only collection of David Quammen's essays I didn't own so I was happy to see it republished in this new edition. Half of its length is now made up of 7 newer pieces not in the original, while 11 of the original essays have been eliminated.

In the new introduction, Quammen offers three objectives for the book: putting what he considered the best of the original back in print, publishing some of his favorite more recent work in book format, and providing the opportunity to see how a writer has changed during the intervening quarter century. My opinion on that last one--he may well be a better, more knowledgeable writer now, but I do miss the sense of fun and brevity in the earlier shorter magazine columns.

Still, I consider the best and most important essay here to be one in the newer section. Planet of Weeds explores the sixth mass extinction now underway, humans rich and poor, invasive and "weed" species, and who is likely to still be around when planetary life hits its next low point--an excellent if depressing essay. Another recent winner concerns the life and death of a dog and a lesson learned about community.

I was curious to see what the author decided to eliminate so I checked out a library copy of the old edition. For the most part, I found the cut essays to be dated, either by changed numbers and facts or because they were in response to a then current issue or book. A couple others seemed a bit dull. I would have liked to see 3 of the deleted essays remain--a funny one about sea cucumbers probably cut for personal reasons, one about a wild tiger and the trip to see him, and especially one about bison which seemed completely solid to me.

I hope this will help you decide whether to read the new, the old, or both editions.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Steve B., 2008-07-13

This marvelous collection of essays covers a wide range of topics, including death by hypothermia, giant octopus wrestling, and of course, Tycho Brahe's missing nose. But my personal favorite is Quammen's account of the U.S. Army program to train bats to firebomb Japanese cities during WW II. Needless to say, this endeavor proved disastrous for teachers and pupils alike.

In another piece, Quammen discusses the long-term consequences of overpopulation and habitat loss on our natural inheritance. He begins this essay with a brief discussion of planet Earth's five major extinction events so far, and offers a thoughtful, richly detailed prognosis as we blithely sail toward the sixth.

Anyone with even a passing interest in science would enjoy reading Natural Acts. I highly recommend this book, both for its style and substance.

Very bad, grating prose; interesting subject matter

Reviewed by A_2007_reader, 2008-06-24

Just a heads up: though David Quammen has won awards for his prose, it's grating and full of segways. Just a sample, picked randomly from one of his nature essays (Time and Motion Study): "We've all heard the canard (masquerading as scientific fact that someone remembered someone else having read somewhere, always untraceable and unconfirmed) that the flight of a bumblebee is aerodynamically inexplicable". It's like this throughout. Quammen comes across as a pretentious, book-learned auto mechanic.

If you can stomach the prose then the articles are interesting for the few factual titbits. But Quammen is a difficult read because of the ackward prose.

A better writer for non-fiction is John McPhee. A better writer, period, is Ernst Hemingway.

not painful

Reviewed by Anonymous, 2001-02-22

Science writing is rarely both illuminating and entertaining, and that is why this book is exceptional.

Should be 6 Stars.......... Simply Great

Reviewed by Salil Punalekar, 2001-01-11

Having read many science and nature writers, this was my first experience reading Quammen. I was thrilled. Quammen is a fabulous writer. This book is a collection of Quammen's essays on topics ranging from Sea Cucumber to cockroaches to crows to amimal rights to deserts to rivers to turtles and much more. I doubt if you'll find such a rich, diverse and eclectic collection of natural writings anywhere else. Must read and own.