A rich, compelling look at a thriving yet increasingly threatened natural resource and those who depend on it.
A writer and photographer offers a thoughtful exploration of the vital role played by salmon in Alaskan communities.
Gulick (Salmon in the Trees, 2010), whose work has appeared in Audubon and National Wildlife, follows up her preceding book with this well-reported and gorgeously illustrated volume about the intimate, complex relationship between salmon and the Alaskan people. Salmon is a gift, the author explains, and those who receive it all share a “deep connection to these remarkable fish,” though they may sometimes disagree on the best way to use and protect the prize they’ve been given. Alaska is one of the few places that still has a flourishing population of wild salmon, Gulick asserts before interviewing people whose very existence depends on the continued health of salmon runs. Some are transplants who run the sport-fishing businesses that attract tourists to America’s last frontier; others are commercial fishermen; and several are Alaska Natives who keep centuries-old traditions alive when they catch and preserve the flavorful fish. The author provides an up-close look at “the salmon way” as she ventures out on a fishing boat, travels by seaplane into the wilderness, encounters bears, and sits down for many meals as she gets to know “the salmon people of Alaska.” The result is a vivid portrait of a place that will likely be foreign to many readers; 18% of the population still harvests fish, game, and plants in order to survive. Those who embrace a subsistence way of life (either by choice or necessity) might seem poor to outsiders, but they “consider themselves the richest people in the world,” with access to the vast variety of nature’s bounty, as Gulick explains. Her conversations with those who depend on salmon deftly show how the fish are a vital link in the state’s environmental and economic systems but also how they bind families and communities together. Few who read this illuminating book or see the author’s awe-inspiring color photographs will fail to come away with a sense that this is a way of life well worth preserving.
A rich, compelling look at a thriving yet increasingly threatened natural resource and those who depend on it.Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68051-238-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Braided River
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
Like Sly and the Family Stone “taking ‘them’ higher” here, the authors likewise reach for the sky.
A homemade brew of whimsical rhymes and personal photos from the historic hippie event that Levine attended as the still photographer for the Academy Award-winning documentary Woodstock.
This is an incredible all-access pass to the music and art fair that came to be known solely as Woodstock. With “you are there” photos, from aerial views of endless bodies sardine-packed like a Spencer Tunick happening, to close-ups of Hendrix, to an exquisite shot of Arlo Guthrie’s shoes reflected in a puddle of water above the caption, “Rain and a wet stage were a constant factor but didn’t stop Arlo from performing,” the authors have created an intimate time capsule with this book. The details and tidbits are highly specific (“The Woodstock security were called ‘Polites,’ not Police,” while another page features a then-pregnant Joan Baez and Ravi Shankar chatting backstage accompanied by a caption that explains that her husband was in jail for draft resistance), allowing for the festival to be framed inside its all-important, Vietnam-era context. Because Woodstock is told through a collage of photos, song lyrics and rhyming text, it also has a homespun scrapbook vibe, which feels right for recounting a personal communal experience. For example, one page reads, “Richie Havens launched the great show / ‘fore other performers were ready to go / Holding the crowd for nearly three hours / ‘til ‘Motherless Child’ rang out from the towers” in bold type next to a shot of Havens on guitar. Smaller print explains, “Because the other acts hadn’t arrived, Richie Havens was asked to open the show. His performance set the tone for all that followed.” Even if readers are not familiar with Havens or his music, the vivid picture of this artist drawn through word and image is nonetheless mesmerizing. From The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia smiling behind a “For Rent” sign, to towheaded toddlers playing naked around a drum set during a break, the peace and love essence of Woodstock rings out loud and clear.
Like Sly and the Family Stone “taking ‘them’ higher” here, the authors likewise reach for the sky.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-2261-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
After a session with this lyrical book, the reader will understand, too.
A capable guided tour of a landscape unlike almost any other.
Nostalgia for lost places—mostly dammed or developed or 'dozed—drives much modern nature writing. First-time author Colasurdo indulges in nostalgia aplenty, and sometimes in purplish prose, but the lost places about which she writes are gone, not through human malfeasance, but through a not-unexpected show of natural force. Spirit Lake, the venue of many of Colasurdo's memories, is located below Mount St. Helen's, or Loowit, its Native-American name, which blew its top in 1980. The resulting "dreamscape of our childhood,'' as Colasurdo calls the mountain, for years resembled the surface of the moon. But then, faster than anyone expected, life began to return to the volcanic landscape: Trees grew, flowers bloomed, and the dead lake filled anew with water, fish, and beavers. People returned, too; a hundred visitors now ascend the volcano every day. Colasurdo, writing with a solid grasp of science lightly worn, looks at volcanology and what might be called salvage ecology to account for this renaissance, noting that "the volcano had not so much deforested its foothills as rearranged the trees'' and that most plant and animal species are, all in all, a hardy and resilient lot. The author has a grand time presenting and interpreting her arguments of how the mountain works, and she's done her homework well. After much time walking its remnants, she writes, "I understood how volcanoes bloom on the Earth's crust like so many branches of scarlet paintbrush.''
After a session with this lyrical book, the reader will understand, too.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-57061-081-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
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