Within This Wilderness

by Feenie Ziner

Book by Ziner, Feenie

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Feenie Ziner is Professor of English Emerita at the University of Connecticut.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read this shortly after reading "Into the Wild". This is like an alternate universe, in which a son who goes off the grid intentionally learns survival skills and settles down in one place, rather than wandering around the country trying to make it on instinct and guts alone.

I found myself wondering what happened to Ben after the story. Did he stay? Did he leave? Did she see him again...?

[Carol Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book of the year. I am a mother of two sons who are individuals in their own right. It spoke to me about motherhood and the love we have for our children.

I was also delighted because I spent a summer not far from the setting of the book, the wilderness in the Canadian Coastal Range. It is a wonderful read.

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich
The author’s son left home at sixteen and, by the time Feenie Ziner’s chronicle begins seven years later, he had settled into a solitary life in the untracked Canadian wilderness, three thousand miles from home. “Ben was on perfectly safe ground when he asked me to come out to British Columbia to see where he was living. Any kid who had gone to the trouble of putting a whole continent between himself and his family could count on their never showing up at his doorstep.” Any mother who would make the trip—a transcontinental flight, a six-hour bus ride to the end of the line, then a journey by bush plane into a densely forested nowhere—is clearly a force to be reckoned with, and the reckoning between parent and child that Within This Wilderness witnesses takes on, because of its remote setting, an archetypal resonance. Indeed, both the awesome natural charms of the surroundings and the hard manner of living that isolation dictates engage and even relax our attention, protecting us for a time from the climate of deep emotion in which the protagonists dwell. Ziner’s deft portrayal of the elaborate, often comic diplomacy of the relations between parents and grown children, her sensitivity to the alarming innocence of the toughest youth, and her splendid writing reward the reader throughout, and her unstinting appraisal of her own noble confusion—a spell of love, worry, wonder, guilt, loss, pride, anxiety, anger, obligation, yearning—is both moving and magnanimous.

[Saher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the simplicity and profoundness of the story and how it presents different relationships with a new perspective. The story is light, something that you would like to read with evening tea.

[Missy LeBlanc Ivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 - ‘70’s Immersion Reading Challenge

Within This Wilderness by Feenie Ziner (1978 1st ed.) 225 pages. 3.5 stars rounded up

This book is listed in the 1000 Books To Read Before You Die by James Mustich (2018).

SETTING: Proctor’s Island, British Columbia (near Tibbett’s Lake)

This is a true story of a mother who travelled to her son deep in the north woods of British Columbia to try and understand the generational gap that pushed him away at age 16. At the time, the U.S. was recruiting our young Americans to fight the Vietnam War, and his family moved from New York to Vancouver, Canada, for a few years. He was bullied for being American, and he was bullied for trying to prove he was anti-Vietnam War. He became disillusioned about life, quit school and left home to live alone. After seven years away, he finally invited her to come visit and see where and how he lived and survived.

Every child is different. Every child has their own inner turmoil and securities. It’s all about how they process them. Ben (Joe Ziner is real life) just simply felt like a failure. He couldn’t live up to the expectations of his parents, the U.S. government, or even civilization as a whole. In fact, he didn’t even believe in them.

This memoir only got a 3.5 star (rounded up) because I felt the writing was a bit reserved. She does say her son agreed with the writings and opinions of this book before being published. The good news is they did reconnect during her 3-week visit. It wasn’t easy going because it was so hard for her to not be so judgmental. Her true thoughts were that Ben, and the few squatting on Proctor’s Island, didn’t really have rights or a say as to what timber companies wanted to do with it. Although Ben seemed to prove to himself that he could survive on his own without all the rules and regulations of life, after seven years he did feel bouts of extreme loneliness and he admitted to missing and needing money, if even for basic food supply.

A quick Google search of the real Joe Ziner (a.k.a. Ben Ziner in the book) shows that he is back living in civilization again doing the one thing he loves to do most: art, just like his father, Zeke Ziner.

MORE ABOUT JOE ZINER AS AN ARTIST TODAY

https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/new...

EXTRA NOTES

This thought by the author, as Ben’s mother, really stood out, and is so true.

P. 55: “You really ought to read Tolkien, Mom”. Perhaps I should have. Perhaps if I had, I’d have understood more than I did now what went on inside Ben’s head.

My granddaughter, aged 9 at the time, asked me to read two books last year that she really, really loved. So, yes, I read them because I wanted to know what moved her. If any of my other 9 grandkids were to even tell me about a book they enjoyed, I would definitely read it just to see what they are all about inside.

READ FREE at Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=...

[Ross Bonaime · Rating 3 out of 5]

In “Within This Wilderness,” a mother spends several weeks with her son, who years earlier ran away to the Canadian wilderness and has lived off the land since. Over the course of her vacation of sorts, the mother learns just how capable her son is at surviving, while also trying to convince him to return to the real world.

“Within This Wilderness” is a story of survival, in every sense of the world. On one hand, we see how the author’s son, known as “Ben,” has survived over seven years on his own, building his own home in the Canadian woods and built a life for himself, even if that life constantly exists on shaky ground. But on the other, we have a slight battle of wills between mother and son, as the mother tries to navigate the topic of bringing him back to civilization, without overdoing it or losing her welcome.

Something about the way Feenie Ziner writes about the wilderness never engaged me as well as I hoped it would. I don’t feel like I ever got a great sense of Ben’s surroundings or the lay of the land, even though Ziner tries her best to describe it. But what won me over about “Within This Wilderness” was the relationship dynamics between Ben, his mother, and the few scattered people who also live near him.

The arrival of Ben’s mother shakes up this area of wilderness, bringing a new face to the group of hippies and spiritual guides that live in the area. For some, she’s a motivator, while to others, she’s a student of sorts. Everyone has a unique dynamic with this new arrival, but I particularly love the mom’s friendship to the eccentric Buddhi who lives close to her son. But with this group, Ben’s mom shows that her experience, and her life in the cities that they hate so much, has importance even in their isolated existence.

But the core of “Within This Wilderness” is that bond between mother and son, and it’s fascinating to see how that relationship develops over the course of a few weeks. In the beginning, it seems like Ben is crazy and his mom desperately needs to save him, and by the end, this dynamic has shifted drastically. By the end, “Within This Wilderness” becomes a lovely story about letting go, both by allowing the ones you love to live the life they want to live, but also about letting go of the mistakes of the past and not letting it necessarily decide your future as well.

[Joe Zabinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

You are going to feel good after reading this book. It is poetic, naturalistic, insightful and has lots to say about family relationships. There is also a lot of insight into the Vietnam War in places, if you are into that sort of thing.

[Incognito · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so grateful that James Mustich put this in his "1,000 Books to Read Before You Die," and that a friend got me to look at it, and that I started with the Zs! I never would have heard of this otherwise, and it was a bit difficult to find, but it is such a fantastic read.