The Stars, the Snow, the Fire: Twenty-Five Years in the Northern Wilderness : A Memoir (Graywolf Memoir)

Rating:
Summary: deep with Jungian shadows
Review: I just discovered John Haines, as I am planning a vacation in Alaska and I am interested in the literature and poetry that is native to AK. Mr. Haines is very deep and real, and yet he seems to be able to tap into that shadow stuff that we all carry with us. Much of what he writes is initially disturbing, yet it is so real that I found it compelling enough to keep reading.It is almost like going to a Jungian therapist! If your willing to go deeper and not afraid of the shadows this book is well-worth exploring. His understanding of the natural world as a place devoid of our human judgements and associations is acutely genuine.

Rating:
Summary: As poetic as essays can get.
Review: This collection of essays is a set of ruminations on nature and the role people play in nature. Based on over 20 years of homesteading in Alaska, Haines ranges from concrete subjects such as trapping to more abstract matters such as the way ice forms in a river or snow falls in the woods. There are two features that stand out. First, this is essay writing that verges on poetry. The writing is spare and carefully chiseled and conveys a sense of the north country that is stunning. Second, unlike many nature writes, Haines views man as part of the environment in an unsentimental but powerful light. Haines is troubled by the need to kill animals for their fur, but he also views this as a part of nature. Haines is not as famous as writers such as Barry Lopez or Annie Dillard (perhaps because most of his opus is poetry), but there is no doubt he is a nature writer on par with the best.

Rating:
Summary: As poetic as essays can get.
Review: This collection of essays is a set of ruminations on nature and the role people play in nature. Based on over 20 years of homesteading in Alaska, Haines ranges from concrete subjects such as trapping to more abstract matters such as the way ice forms in a river or snow falls in the woods. There are two features that stand out. First, this is essay writing that verges on poetry. The writing is spare and carefully chiseled and conveys a sense of the north country that is stunning. Second, unlike many nature writes, Haines views man as part of the environment in an unsentimental but powerful light. Haines is troubled by the need to kill animals for their fur, but he also views this as a part of nature. Haines is not as famous as writers such as Barry Lopez or Annie Dillard (perhaps because most of his opus is poetry), but there is no doubt he is a nature writer on par with the best.