A thoughtful and thought-provoking account of mankind’s uneasy relationship with nature.
A retired naturalist reflects on his own life, life in general, and the relationship between mankind and the land.
In this “tossed salad of vignettes and essays,” Weeden (Messages from Earth, 1992, etc.) writes lyrically of his past as a biologist in Alaska’s wild interior and of his present as a gentleman farmer on Salt Spring Island off the coast of British Columbia. He rounds out the collection with a plan for nature’s—and humanity’s—future, in which he sees a looming environmental catastrophe. He mainly attributes this coming cataclysm to modernity and its out-of-control economic development, surging human population growth and the populace’s “media-suffocated mind,” bereft of a sense of place or attachment to the land. In these essays, he immerses readers in nature’s power and beauty. He also offers a prescription for saving the future, which he says will require a radical reduction of the human population and a bioregionalism that would shift global and national political power to local control. This beautifully written book works on many levels: as an enjoyable nature read; as an elegy to what humans have destroyed; as an homage to works of art and natural history both famous and obscure, from the essays of Aldo Leopold and Wendell Berry to the musical compositions of Philip Glass and Ferde Grofé; and as an antidote to the ecological poisons endangering humanity. Unlike some nature writers, Weeden writes with facility and wry humor. “A lot of people find geese pushy, and I suspect the reverse is true, too,” he writes, also noting that a pair of donkeys are “loud at one end and irrepressible at the other.” After he declares that “the duty of every inquirer is to uncover more questions than answers,” he achieves that goal in this book, raising crucial questions and sharing real wisdom about the real world.
A thoughtful and thought-provoking account of mankind’s uneasy relationship with nature.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4602-0318-7
Page Count: 296
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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