Wild Ride: Earthquakes, Sneezes and Other Thrills

by Bia Lowe

Book Overview

A collection of personal essays on topics as diverse as the nature of allergies, a meditation on bats, and the significance of 1974, from a writer with a uniquely acute and sophisticated voice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060926953
• ISBN13: 9780060926953
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating

Grabs you by the gut -- and it ain't always pretty. I first read this in grad school and had to block out the cries of "Eew! It's icky!" from some of my more dim-witted colleagues. But I digress. It's not pretty -- it's a wild ride. Read it.

Superb Essays, Not quite as succesful as a book

In Wild Ride, Bia Lowe uses an eclectic mix of the personal and the profound to deliver a ?wild ride? across many different subjects. One of the strengths of this book, in my opinion, is Lowe?s ability to gather strands of story from different times, places, and apparently different stories, yet still manage to bring it altogether before the essay is over. In Our Kind, she moves from a personal tale of her earliest memories, to expository material on bears, then back to stories of her times at Noyo and finally to a conclusion about her cat Lucy. Yet even in this conclusion, she manages to bring in elements from the other storylines so that all the notes of the essay play together in a final crescendo. Both Blood and Drummer also seem to me to be incredibly well-balanced at presenting both the personal story and the essayistic voice. Lowe is not at all ashamed of letting us see her work. She stops and breaks out of stories to address the reader directly. She even talks about writing and reading the essays themselves. In Bats she suggests, ?Let?s say I?ve just reread this essay...? This lends a sort of honesty to the tone that may boost her credibility when she gives us other information that we have to trust her on. I suppose it is also another way of adding immediacy to the experience. Writers who use this technique are almost saying, ?This essay is so immediate, it isn?t just first person, present tense, I?m actually writing this right now while you read it.? As much as I liked many of the essays in this book, as a whole, I don?t think this book works as a book. I didn?t come away with a unified understanding or the unity of experience I would normally look for in reading a book, even creative nonfiction. Wild Ride doesn?t let me put my finger on a ?whole? that isn?t just the sum of the parts. Granted there are recurring subjects and ideas in these essays - sex, lesbian sexuality, pets, a father who drinks too much, but I can?t seem to add it all together. One reason for this might be that what Lowe does so masterfully in the essay, she does not do in the book. Only three or four small references are repeated across essays. She repeats the long word-play lists in Blood and Bugaboo. She makes a few repeat references to bears and Susan across essays, but overall, the essays at the end of the book do not, for me, wrap up all the themes of the previous chapters into a final understanding of what it is she wants me to come away with.In many ways Lowe was successful at weaving together diverging threads and storylines into concluding paragraphs that tied everything together. She was less successful, though, at combining divergent essays into a single book.

quick read!!

For all those looking for the why of life bia has been there done that. love don;t bring love if you don;t love.

Bia talks about nothing, but tells you everything.

Bia writes like a typical stoner. She takes you on a surreal journey through recollections of her childhood, the death of a beloved pet, a lover's cancer scare, aging, even a SKUNK in a thunderstorm with a vision I've never before experienced. This journey is lyrical, visual and trippy and you ultimately lose track of where you started, without ever caring. Her genius will then carry you back, tie the quizical ends together, astonish and delight you. If your mind tends to wander with superfluous detail, you'll love this book!

An non-stop ride of exitement!

I Love the way this book can get you to enjoy life and all its thrills! I Love the disriptive shorts through her racing life!!!!!!!!! I recommend this book to any one that is bored with life, is troubled, or just is a thrill seeker!