Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness

Rating:
Summary: moving stories in honest prose
Review: The title story is a moving story about a father and son, about loss and human frailty. The stories delineate failing marriages and lost souls, treading somewhat in Carver Country. I'm now reading his memoir, Indian Creek Chronicles, and it is a pleasure to read. I consider him frist rate and a find.

Rating:
Summary: lacking in soul and high in the "celebration" of hunting
Review: This book started out with some humor and potential, but ended up becoming an increasing celebration of drunken hunters and killing animals. The graphic description of steel-jaw trapping a raccoon and STOMPING it to death leaves me sickened to this day. The deeply insensitive and callous nature of his "good-old-boys" hunting buddies left me disgusted. As someone who works in wildlife rehabilitation and veterinary related fields, I find it ironic that I have probably HAD to kill more animals then most hunters could hope to kill in a lifetime. The only difference is that I never enjoyed it. I work very hard to repair the damage that people like this author do to wildlife and the whole wilderness setting. I neither like nor admire this man and his ilk. This book may appeal to the immature, callous men who are still trying to prove their "manhood" with a gun, but for those looking about a book that appreciates and understands nature, this one isn't it.

Rating:
Summary: Great story, but hastily ended
Review: This is the story of a young man who dreamed of being a "mountain man" all his life. At age 20 he is offered a job as the winter babysitter of some salmon eggs in a remote stream in Idaho. He jumps at the chance to live his dream, without really understanding much about what is required of someone living so remotely.

With naive young dreams in tow, he arrives at the tent where he will spend the next 7 months. He tells of how he learned to cut wood and use snowshoes, learned to feel comfortable alone in the wilderness, dealt with boredom and loneliness, was violently sick with food poisoning without anyone to help, had to learn to cook and preserve food, and how he learned to hunt. He tells how it feels to kill an animal, and the sadness he felt when a beautiful creature dies to feed him. I loved how he honored the animals he killed by treasuring their skins.

Through the book you see him maturing and becoming more capable and respectful of nature. You also see him change from feeling inferior to the weekend yahoos in hunting camps, to seeing those same men as the shallow and careless fools they are. None of those hunters ever admired the worn teeth of a dead lynx, imagining the life it must have lived and feeling honored to end it's pain and suffering.

I loved every bit of the book up until the last chapter. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it yet, but the last chapter was rushed and abrupt, and had an unsatisfactory ending that left me feeling like he had a publishing deadline to meet. I also didn't like the way he handled his dog's future.

But, the one-paragragh epilogue of the book explains that he has gone on to a career as a Fish and Game employee and that the period covered in this book shaped the rest of his life. Without that last little blurb (which I almost overlooked), the book would have been a letdown. Overall, it's an interesting, short book about growing up and learning to be comfortable in our skins, and definitely one to read if you are a fan of outdoor living or just dream of living off the land.

Rating:
Summary: Indian Creek Chronicles
Review: This was a magnificent book. I have continued to enjoy over and over again....it is my all time favorite.

Rating:
Summary: Makes me want to head for the mountains!
Review: What an incredible story! Much of the emotion I felt was created by the descriptive nature of the author's experiences. It was a difficult book to set down once I got into it...wanting to learn more about this "greenhorn" and how he was going to make it through 7 months of living in solitude. A MUST READ!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best.
Review: Wow! What a book. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself totally immersed in the story of Pete Fromm. Call him a daydreamer, Call him an idiot kid, but is there a better thing to be? Written with immense amounts of humilty and honesty, it will stick with you long after you finish the last page.