The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

Dillard, Annie. The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1974.

I came to The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek having just completed Ann Lamott’s Traveling Mercies. Both texts embody spiritual journeys. Both texts approach the world, in general, from my perspective. It was not the appropriate order in which to read these books. I have read other Dillard texts – and have heard her speak – I’ve always been a fan. I found myself distracted, restless and impatient in the beginning pages of the book. Nothing moved. Oh sure, Tinker Creek moved, but the action of a creek is somewhat sedate.

In general, I pace my reading gauging the time it will take to read any given text based on the number of pages therein, and knowing the speed at which I read. I estimated The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to be a three to four day read. But creeks and muskrats move slower than that, not to mention crickets and spiders. Dillard’s purpose seemed to be to slow down the reader – to engage on a more subtle level. Her pilgrimage slowed me down, forced me to take deep breaths and walk in the meadow below my house.

But I found myself wondering, about a third of the way in, on the day my phone bill was due, how is she paying for this luxurious life? How can she wander the shores of Tinker Creek for hours on end, undisturbed by the outside world and its cares? How is she eating? This was a gap in the text that I simply could not get beyond.

I loved her language and her ability to show me her surrounding and emotional and intellectual reaction to those surroundings, but the text as a whole remained very surreal and abstract for me. Unlike Lamott’s text which at times was entirely too real.

In both texts there was a search for God. Both texts had strong feminine voices and perspectives. And yet, they are polar opposites. For Lamott God is to be found in the busyness of life while for Dillard God lives in the quiet places. Dillard’s biblical references always caught me off-guard. Hers seems to be a more native, pagan approach to life and yet her very Christian presentation does not feel or seem out of place in the pages of her book. The juxtaposition of the texts has given me a perspective in my own writing – do I fall into one camp or the other? In my heart I think I must learn to fall between the two.