The life and times of Johnny Appleseed. The adventures of New York City tugboatmen. Street life in Cairo and Dar es Salaam. The pains and paradoxes of being male and female; the dilemmas of an aging America; the unease of writers between books. The natural history of swallows, juneberries, owls, foxes, and toads. The fourteen essays in this brilliant collection cover all of the above and much more. (51/2 X 81/4, 224 pages, map)
Edward Hoagland (born December 21, 1932, in New York, New York) is an author best known for his nature and travel writing. His non-fiction has been widely praised by writers such as John Updike, who called him "the best essayist of my generation."
A meandering, discursive collection of essays. When not "narrowly" focused on the subjects of Brown Bears, Grey Wolves, and Red Wolves (and there is nothing at all narrow about those essays), the focus meanders nicely. Really, the affect was very much like listening to the radio ramblings of Chris Stevens from "Northern Exposure"; if Hoagland had thought to reference Jung more often, or at all, these essays might have worked as shooting scripts for that character.
Read this for some perspective on writers and writing, the wilderness and our love/hate relationship with crowded cities. I found some really wonderful, obvious things to chew on while reading it.