Tales from Fish Camp: A City Girl's Experience Working in an Alaskan Fishing Village

by Danielle Henderson

Bear chases. Stabbings. Broken bones. Sleeping three hours a day. Drinking whiskey all night. It all comes with the territory when a city girl from New York takes a job in an Alaskan fishing village. Tales from Fish Camp is a humorous take on the day-to-day drudgery of working 18 hour shifts, boozing it up with wizened old fisherman, hitchhiking, blood poisoning, and sucker hosing, filleting and packing thousands of pounds of fish. Though it sounds like she lost a lost bet, Danielle took this job on purpose -- with no idea what she'd be getting herself into.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

120 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2004

About the author

Danielle Henderson is a TV writer (Maniac, Dare Me, Harper House), retired freelance writer, and a former editor for Rookie. She cohosts the film podcast I Saw What You Did, and a book based on her popular website, Feminist Ryan Gosling, was released by Running Press in August 2012. She has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, AFAR magazine, BuzzFeed, and The Cut, among others. She likes to watch old episodes of Doctor Who when she is on deadline, one of her tattoos is based on the movie Rocky, and she will never stop using the Oxford comma. Danielle reluctantly lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

hahahaha, suckers, I wrote this one!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cant recognize this book as a stepping stone towards the perfection that is the ugly cry. It did make me want to haul off to Alaska though.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i adore danielle.

[Casey Lalli · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited for this book only to be disappointed. I figured that I loved alaska, and fish camp sounded interesting... and written from a female perspective... perfect!
I was going to check the spoiler box, but honestly she didn't give any details in any of the stories so there's nothing that can be spoiled anyway.

I ended up reading this whole book in about an hour. The "stories" are nothing exciting or even fleshed out enough. There's hardly any detail... it's like she introduces you to each story but fails to tell anything worth talking about. There was a "chapter," which was one single page telling you about a guy nicknamed "mate" that she met. That's it. Gave a description of him and his personality. Like what's the point of that?? She had a good "chapter" about seeing some bears, but everything is super surface level and it ends up with more questions than answers.
At some point early on she found alcohol and the rest of the book was just drinking stories.
She did include a single line about breaking up with her boyfriend. Like ???? I understand you chose what you want to share but why put it in there if it's not expanded on a bit?
Overall, I was so excited for some Alaska stories but ended up regretting the amount of time it took me to track a copy of this "book" down and the $8 I spent on a used copy.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining follow-up to "Ugly Cry." After losing her job, Danielle is "invited" to work at an Alaskan fish camp for the summer. She makes great friends while working herself ragged in a world she didn't even know existed.

[Megan Clubine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. I want more tales!

[Kasey Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

We all have those little bragging rights that we try to sneak into conversation with someone new. My not-so-secret fun fact is that I was born in Naknek, Alaska and at age 19 worked on a salmon boat there. Henderson's book takes place around the same time in Naknek. While I was out on the waters of Bristol Bay, she was working in one of the many canneries which processed our catches.

This book is a series of vignettes describing Henderson's seven months in the cannery. It does a good job of capturing the half-drunk exhausted elation that provides the backdrop for the salmon season. Pop-culture references peppered throughout the stories contrast well with the dated, filthy, industrial feel of a fish camp.

I think I would have liked this book a little more if I hadn't spent time in Bristol Bay. It is a good introduction to the hectic, fun-loving sleeplessness of an Alaskan fishing summer.

Words Below

mysophobia. (n) A dread of dirt or filth.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend lent me this book (Thanks Susie!) because I have a newly found obsession with Alaska. This was a very quick read, only 128 pages with often 3 blank pages between chapters, but it was an absolute joy to read. I love hearing stories of people who are able to just pick up and go somewhere and try something COMPLETELY foreign to them. It makes me wish that I could do the same.

[Pao Zavala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ojalá este libro fuera más largo, a veces se me hacían como blog posts o como creo que alguien dijo en una reseña, un zine. Compre este libro en el instante que supe que Danielle Henderson, pues, tenía un libro (no Feminist Ryan Gosling tú no) y además sucedía en ALASKA! No entiendo de dónde viene my hype por el lugar, pero no tengo problema.
Que ya saque un nuevo libro.

[J]

I was in a comic book store with Tom and this caught my eye. It's a non-comic, so it was like a diamond amongst superheroes.