UTTER, EARTH: Advice on Living in a More-than-Human World delivers wisdom and smiles in equal measure

UTTER, EARTH: Advice on Living in a More-than-Human World
ISAAC YUEN
West Virginia University Press
$21.99 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A light, literary take on an animal book for grown-ups, a tongue-in-cheek self-help column with lessons drawn from nature, a sort of hitchhiker’s guide to the more-than-human world—Isaac Yuen’s Utter, Earth is a celebration, through wordplay and earthplay, of our planet’s riotous wonders.

In a time of dirges and elegies for the natural world, Utter, Earth features odes to sloths, tributes to trilobites, and ringing endorsements for lichen. For animal lovers and readers of Brian Doyle, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Amy Leach, each essay of this one-of-a-kind collection combines joyous language, whimsical tangents, and scientific findings to remind us of and reconnect us with those to whom we are inextricably bound. Highlighting life that once was, still is, and all that we stand to lose, this living and lively mini encyclopedia (complete with glossary) shines the spotlight on the motley, fantastical, and astonishing denizens with whom we share this planet.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Wry, amusing essays on life, the Universe, and everything. I'm not sure I'd've picked this book up if it hadn't been for David Naimon (podcast Between the Covers host) delivering this encomium:

“To shoal is to be social, to sense together, we learn in one of Yuen’s more-than-human essays. But to school is to sweep together in unison, to dazzle with coherence. It’s this spirit of schooling that animates Utter, Earth, essays that—in their curiosity, play, and care—aim to weave us back into a world of which we are but one small part. How would our language change if we invited nonhuman others alongside us again in fellowship, if our lives not only allowed for but celebrated everything swimming just beyond the limits of what we know? It’s not time for school, it’s time to school, to school with the creatures of Utter, Earth, the lemurs, leopards, and leafcutter ants, the wombats, waterbuck, and wildebeest, to school with others to find ourselves again.”

Like any collection of essays, some work better for individual reader than others. My own favorites were:
I was charmed and amused and educated by these pieces of Author Yuen's brain. I'm pretty sure I could summarize the contents of the essays, but I'm also sure that constitutes a spoiler. And having run afoul of the shrill shrieks of the Spoiler Stasi before, I ain't a-doin' that. Read 'em your damnself.

I'll give you these, because if you want to yell at someone, you can yell at the press's marketing folk for including them:

There. I've done what I can to entice you into getting and enhoying this condensed, enriched, fortified collection of an intelligent man's musings on words, ideas, and the way they interact to form the world. Even the odd, off-kilter title of the collection makes perfect sense after reading the entire book. (I suspect that, like me, a lot of y'all might be put off by it...please ignore that urge and try this one out!)

Get two. You'll want one, and it's Yuletide so gifting one to someone who loves nature, language, and humor, is only decent.