THE PRACTICE OF THE WILD

Snyder writes as a missionary for the spiritual communions of our earth, but his cause is not well served by his own reading of it. From his very first words, Snyder conveys a sense of pedantry. He lectures carefully, speaking in jerky phrases with odd inflections and spaces his frequent lists as if to allow a student time for note-taking. He compounds this feeling by pronouncing foreign expressions, Native American or Oriental with a meticulous accent. Only when a section takes a narrative tone does his speech accelerate to a more conversational pace. This is a difficult type of literature to read without sounding like horatory. S.B.S. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV 92]