Birchbark Canoe: Living Among the Algonquin

Rating:
Summary: Living Among the Algonquin is the Subtitle
Review: I came to a quite different opinion about David Gidmark's book than did the first reviewer; I think it is a very elegant book that combines practical information about birchbark canoes with a very human approach to the relationship between the White and the Native cultures. Gidmark addresses fundamental questions of how one should live in this world and comes to conclusions based on his personal experiences.
He discusses Thoreau's interest in the birchbark canoe, and says, "I admired innumerable things about Thoreau, but one with which I most empathized, and most wanted to emulate, was his idea that people could best flourish by living on the borderline, literally, between civilization and wilderness, thereby deriving the greatest benefits from each." Gidmark goes on to describe his simple lifestyle in his cabin by a "lake with no name," and concludes that he was "far ahead of four billion people-at least-on the planet in terms of material possessions. I had a truck, all the food I wanted and needed, the money and time to travel freely to various countries, and money for clothes and books. In peace of mind I was immensely richer than hundreds of millions of people, particularly in North America, who are so wired into the contemporary consumer society that both husband and wife have to work outside the home and have neither time nor money for significant travel, for instance." Perhaps this is "holier-than-thou," but that could be said about any book that advocates the benefits of an exercise program, for example.
Gidmark criticizes the "materialistic" society only from the standpoint that it leads to stress. I'm sure that he is happy to have people buy his books. The book, by the way, includes a sixteen-page insert of beautiful color photographs of Jim Jerome and Jocko Carle building a birchbark canoe at Rapid Lake, Quebec.
I highly recommend it to anybody interested in birchbark canoes.

Rating:
Summary: Birchbark canoes and political commentary
Review: This book is pretty good when the author sticks to the point. There is a lot of good information about birchbark canoe making and the present state of Algonquin Indians on a few reserves in Canada. When the author sticks to actual information like canoe building, conversations/interactions with present day Algonquin, etc...this is a good read. However, the author drifts too much (mainly after chapter 12) and goes on about how materialistic our society is (is he including the folks who PURCHASE his book and thus support him?)., How everything Indian is good and things relating to White civilization bad or ignorant, etc...Even when I agreed with his political position, I found his holier than thou, smarter than thou...attitude annoying. I wish he did less spouting off his opinion and include more dialog/information with the Indians he befriended, and let the READER draw their own conclusions.

Rating:
Summary: Birchbark canoes and political commentary
Review: This book is pretty good when the author sticks to the point. There is a lot of good information about birchbark canoe making and the present state of Algonquin Indians on a few reserves in Canada. When the author sticks to actual information like canoe building, conversations/interactions with present day Algonquin, etc...this is a good read. However, the author drifts too much (mainly after chapter 12) and goes on about how materialistic our society is (is he including the folks who PURCHASE his book and thus support him?)., How everything Indian is good and things relating to White civilization bad or ignorant, etc...Even when I agreed with his political position, I found his holier than thou, smarter than thou...attitude annoying. I wish he did less spouting off his opinion and include more dialog/information with the Indians he befriended, and let the READER draw their own conclusions.