#7 – Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard – Best Reads of 2023

Like Norman Mailer, Annie Dillard made it on to this year’s Best Reads list of 2023 despite not being a ‘current’ publication. This 1998 book by an author who has been variously described as a naturalist, mystic, memoirist, and a spiritual writer is a kind of extended reflection on suffering, transcendence, and the natural world—all of which are the bread and butter of Dillard’s work.

I have written about Dillard’s influence on me several times on Heartlands, most recently in my review of her book, The Writing Life. (I also reviewed her found poetry collection, Mornings Like This.) She is a writer who demands close attention and slow reading. I savor her pages like poetry.

Holy the Firm was transfixing, so much so that I did something that I rarely do—as soon as I finished it I started to read it all over again. I’m now on my third read, this time outlining the text as I read. There’s that much richness in this text.

You won’t understand every move she makes. But like the moth that immolates itself in a flame in one of this book’s most memorable passages, you won’t be able to look away. Pure gold and #7 on my list for this year.

In case you missed the previous entries on this list:

#8 – The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

#9 – Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

#10 – 24 Hours in Charlottesville by Nora Neus