SOURCE: "The Lonely Life," in Belles Lettres, Vol. 5, Spring, 1990, p. 6.

In the review below, Berne argues that The Writing Life is at its best when Dillard is less strident and relentless.

What happens when you've been writing seriously for years, devoting much of your life to your art, and suddenly you begin to doubt your purpose? You have two options. One is to quit writing; the other is to talk yourself out of your doubts. Reminding other writers of the value of writing is a way of reminding yourself. In The Writing Life, meditations on being a writer, Annie Dillard tells of the time she's spent in lonely cabins, tool sheds, and library, carrels, writing, writing, writing. "It takes years to write a book," she informs us solemnly, "between two and ten years." So why, we ask, does anyone choose to be a writer? Dillard once knew a...