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Susan Cerulean

Auteur de Florida Wildlife Viewing Guide

12+ oeuvres 143 utilisateurs 10 critiques

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Œuvres de Susan Cerulean

Oeuvres associées

Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals (1998) — Contributeur — 122 exemplaires
Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy (2020) — Contributeur — 3 exemplaires

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Susan Cerulean, a naturalist, attempts to use her father’s failing body and mind as a metaphor for the earth’s deterioration due to human consumption and abuse. She depicts her father transforming from a man who had vitality and an intellectual, protective, and fun-loving spirit to one who gradually loses control over his language and bodily functions but never loses his essence. She also uses the title as a metaphor for her father being birdlike, as in the informal dictionary definition: a person of a specified kind or character. Her father is a pretty tough old bird.
One of the themes that will stay with me after reading this book is how the author discussed the concept of aging—humans aging and the earth aging—with and without undue interference. Through anecdotes about growing up with her father and relating to her father as an adult, she showed aging as the natural process nature intended. She emphasized the critical care and nurturing required for the human body and the Earth. She talks about the loss of life signaled with each new condominium complex and strip mall. She says, “A quarter-acre of swamp traded for a dollar store. Forty acres of pine woods buried under a Walmart. A hip fractured on asphalt. What am I here for if I can’t save or protect a single place or thing? Or Person?”

The pages of the book are replete with her admiration and love for her father. The author describes her love for her father growing deeper and maturing even though she struggles with his having worked for The International Nickel Company. This company contributed to the “resource extraction that was destroying so much land and water and wildlife.” Cerulean chooses her words carefully and creates interesting prose when she admits that she didn’t mean to make her father a scapegoat in her writing in defense of the natural world. When she outlined human abuses to nature and her father’s complicity, it is disclosed as another family secret. She quotes Deena Metzger as having said, “A person can be wonderfully good, generous, kind, and still operate within the cultural machinery that destroys the Earth.” Her use of this quote is a somewhat detached acceptance of her father’s worth despite her disagreement with his chosen career’s role in destroying the land that she is expending her energy preventing.

Cerulean speaks of Disney and other Florida theme parks as a detriment to the state's natural wonders, which she enjoys so much more. She also talks about objectifying her father's relationship with and condition to study him the way she studies birds. Her expertise as a writer did not completely convince me of the metaphor of the earth as a bird’s nest for human beings. For the most part, I found her writing style to focus on anecdotal reflections rather than building a cohesive story. She conveyed a passion for birds and their habitats and a desire to protect Florida’s wildlife. She also imparted a genuine concern for her father’s well-being and the caretakers with whom she entrusted his life. She did not have the same optimism or confidence in the humans who are caretakers of the earth.
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Signalé
LindaLoretz | 1 autre critique | Mar 15, 2021 |
Susan Cerulean is a naturalist, an activist, a writer, a daughter and a mother. This memoir covers all of those bases. It is a beautiful interweaving of stories about her work protecting the shorebirds of northern Florida with personal accounts about caring for her aging father who is negotiating the difficult terrain of Alzheimer’s, and with the realities of a mother facing an empty nest as her son enters college. The writing is honest, moving, and compelling. None of the heartache, questioning and self-exploration are glossed over or minimized. The reader is called to bear witness to the pains and challenges of the human condition, and to the dire state of life on our afflicted earth. Susan Cerulean faces it all head-on and encourages and inspires the reader to do the same.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
mayaspector | 1 autre critique | Aug 3, 2020 |
Cerulean ventures with various people to locales in Florida. She beautifully describes the scenes in such detail you feel as if you are there with her. Whether looking for dune mice or diving on a lighthouse, she gives such vivid details you feel you are part of the expedition party. This book opened my eyes to the ecosystem of Florida and how there are many people looking to protect it.
 
Signalé
JWarrenBenton | 1 autre critique | Jan 4, 2016 |
Cerulean ventures with various people to locales in Florida. She beautifully describes the scenes in such detail you feel as if you are there with her. Whether looking for dune mice or diving on a lighthouse, she gives such vivid details you feel you are part of the expedition party. This book opened my eyes to the ecosystem of Florida and how there are many people looking to protect it.
 
Signalé
JWarrenBenton | 1 autre critique | Jan 4, 2016 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
12
Aussi par
2
Membres
143
Popularité
#144,062
Évaluation
4.1
Critiques
10
ISBN
13

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