For the Time Being

by Annie Dillard

Vintage, 205 pp., $12 (paper)

Annie Dillard writes like a dream, as fans of her novels and essays have long known. In For the Time Being, the risks she takes with structure and topic pay off in a provocative meditation on a major philosophical issue: the problem of evil. To unfold her ideas, Dillard juxtaposes passages (sometimes just brief quotations) on birth defects, clouds, the life of Hasid genius the Baal Shem Tov, her own travels abroad, and the career of Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin. If it sounds more diffuse than most literary nonfiction, it is. It is also better than most literary nonfiction. With her juxtapositions and epigrammatic turns of phrase, the author engages deep questions on the nature of God and of our place in the world. It requires almost perfect balance to carry this off, and Dillard comes close. Her occasional slips in tone do clatter a bit — not because the writing turns bad, but because her project is such a high-wire act to begin with.

This article appears in April 7 • 2000.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US