Overview
"Beauchemin discovers again and again that happiness is a function of the connection between beings--the nonhuman animals as well as the human."--Maria Popova, A Favorite Book of 2023 For readers of Ross Gay's The Book of Delights comes a joyful, tender memoir of encounters with animals and their potential to transform our lives through joy. Two mismatched ducks quarrel amorously. A tortoise basks on a rock in the sun. Four deer ceremoniously visit a writer's garden to announce the arrival of a newborn fawn. In Archives of Joy, renowned poet, essayist, and novelist Jean-François Beauchemin turns his poetic and playful gaze to memories of animals he has known throughout his life, from fleeting encounters to deep relationships. With each meeting, Beauchemin returns to a simple thought: that joy in nature is an essential counterweight to the inescapable awareness of the brevity of life. In short, humorous, and often dreamlike vignettes, Beauchemin meditates on the mysteries of existence, the alchemy of memory, and the entwinement of the animal world with our own--whether he's nursing an injured bird back to health, deciphering the gaze of a judgmental cat, or keeping company with a workhorse nearing its death.
His life as a writer and his beloved pet dogs and cats feature often, as do the creatures he encounters in his garden, at farms, or on woodland walks: sparrows, crows, deer, foxes, horses, and cows. Deeply restorative, imaginative, and dreamily poetic, Archives of Joy is a memoir that will stay with readers long after its final page.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781771649322
- ISBN-10: 1771649321
- Publisher: Greystone Books
- Publish Date: May 2023
- Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.55 pounds
- Page Count: 160
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In Archives of Joy: Reflections on Animals and the Nature of Being, French Canadian author Jean-François Beauchemin looks back, around and into the mystic, to great effect. His brief and often breathtaking reflections on creatures he has encountered throughout his life meld into a salve for the troubled, weary or distracted mind and will appeal to fans of Brian Doyle, Ross Gay and Margaret Renkl. In a one-paragraph essay called “Useful,” Beauchemin writes, “It might be said that I am rummaging around a lot in that great big suitcase of my childhood, but why the devil do we age, if it is not to encounter ourselves once more?” In “A Visitor,” he recounts a spiritual encounter from childhood, when “I had just learned my dog’s life expectancy was only fourteen years.” Immediately after reading this piece, I snapped a picture of it and sent it to a friend who is grieving a beloved pup; that’s the kind of small treasure this book is.
In Archives of Joy: Reflections on Animals and the Nature of Being, French Canadian author Jean-François Beauchemin looks back, around and into the mystic, to great effect. His brief and often breathtaking reflections on creatures he has encountered throughout his life meld into a salve for the troubled, weary or distracted mind and will appeal to fans of Brian Doyle, Ross Gay and Margaret Renkl. In a one-paragraph essay called “Useful,” Beauchemin writes, “It might be said that I am rummaging around a lot in that great big suitcase of my childhood, but why the devil do we age, if it is not to encounter ourselves once more?” In “A Visitor,” he recounts a spiritual encounter from childhood, when “I had just learned my dog’s life expectancy was only fourteen years.” Immediately after reading this piece, I snapped a picture of it and sent it to a friend who is grieving a beloved pup; that’s the kind of small treasure this book is.