Sippewissett: Or, Life on a Salt Marsh

by Tim Traver, Bobbi Angell (Illustrator)

Tim Traver's Sippewissett is heir to a rich history of nature writing. Akin to classics like Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the book forms an eloquent bridge between ecology and memory, science and art. Traver alternates between remembrances of the Cape Cod salt marsh where he spent his boyhood summers and the history of Sippewissett, a place that has been studied by many of America's great biologists, from Louis Agassiz to Rachel Carson. There is poetry in his retelling of the past, a childhood of mud and tides and water; there is great love in the peace and satisfaction he finds later in life fishing and clamming and watching his own children discover the secrets of the marsh. Traver manages to weave these personal details into mesmerizing historical passages and meditations on the ecology of place that read like whodunits; one discovery leads to another, from the most beautiful dance of life to more somber considerations, such as the way the marsh can tell us so much about our environmental crises.
Sippewissett is an intimate exploration of place by a man of science and strong family bonds. Here is one of ecology's most studied places through the eyes of someone determined to make sense of its beauty and complexity--at once private and public--filled with poetry yet grounded in science, a place disappearing in the face of development and global climate change.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Memoir, Science, Environment

264 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2006

Reviews

[Richard Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fine treatment of life on a marsh combining science, philosophy, literature and memoir. Well done.
Read it to understand how the marshes work and how they work in an ecological sense. And to enjoy the personal stories attached to the author's marsh life.

[ND · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very poetic and thoughtful dive into the history, biology and mystery of a place near and dear to the author. It is very specific, ie a great thing to read on Cape Cod, but possibly not in other locations. He tries mightily to make it universal, and I am not sure he quite gets there. There were sections that felt like they could be cut, and I found it odd that some of the characters, often women, were only identified by their first names. This may have been at their request, but it comes off as a bit sexist.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are passages in Sippiwissett of clear, enveloping description that brought me fully into the scene and into the marsh the book explores. But there are also long sections of more abstract introspection and overwhelming strings of rhetorical questions -- whole paragraphs comprised of one after another -- and that made it hard to stay focused as I read. There just seemed to be too much going on here, between philosophical and theological speculations, family history, personal reflection, scientific explanations, environmental advocacy, etc. Each of those was interesting in its own right, but the sum of them just didn't come together for me in a cohesive way. I think because the style of writing varied so much from paragraph to paragraph and page to page -- a more consistent style might have pulled the disparate ideas and interests together.

[Jill Sansone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great descriptions of the marsh and good commentary on the ecological issues present and future. AND if you are part of a multi generational summer community, his experiences are spot on!

[Merlin]

good cape cod reader

[Jeri Waterloo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where are we headed

This book is not only about marsh but about nature itself it gives the reader something to think about . Excellent read

[Frankie]

it's slow going so far on this one...he doesn't draw you in.

[Lillian]

Interesting wander through the marsh and author's life. I thoroughly enjoyed