North Country
A Personal Journey Through the Borderland
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A richly observant memoir of a coast-to-coast journey along the US-Canada border . . . An armchair traveler’s delight” (Kirkus Reviews).
“Part travelogue, part memoir, part meditation, part exploration,” North Country is an account of a trip along the northern border of the United States in search of the country’s last unspoiled frontiers (The Boston Sunday Globe). In this vast, sparsely settled territory, Howard Frank Mosher found both a harsh and beautiful landscape and some of the continent’s most independent men and women. Here, he brings this remote area to vivid life in a book “bright with anecdote and history and lore and most importantly with affection for his human subjects” (Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Independence Day).
“A classic road book. You could, with confidence, place this book on the shelf next to such American classics as John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley and Jonathan Raban’s Old Glory.” —Detroit Free Press
“What Mosher’s northern journey is really about is our society’s loss of Eden, the garden we were promised when we came here. The garden we’ve turned into pulp fiction and rocket ranges. The very fact that this brave book can stir up so many thoughts about the predicaments of civilization is surely an indication that it is well worth reading.” —Ottawa Citizen
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A resident of the part of Vermont called the Northeast Kingdom, novelist Mosher (Where the Rivers Flow North) undertook an unusual journey in 1993. Beginning at Lubec, Maine, he drove along the U.S.-Canadian border to the Pacific, resolved to make his trip "one of exuberance and affirmation rather than lament." Unfortunately, most of the places he visited complicated his task, as he found innumerable ghost towns, deserted home sites and abandoned mines. The people he met, however, were a different story. From coast to coast, they agreed that life is hard in the north country but that living there is a pleasure; all were willing to put up with the long, cold winters in exchange for the joys, particularly fishing, that the rest of the year brings. Among those he met were ex-smugglers, a former rodeo rider now an authentic cowboy, an idealistic Native American leader, an overworked veterinarian and two hostile survivalists, all but the last two with entertaining tales to tell. One of his most absorbing subjects is himself; Mosher started as a teacher, worked as a handyman and finally succeeded as a novelist. The only drawback to the book is the absence of maps.
Customer Reviews
Hit and Miss
This is not necessarily a travel book. It has some of that and a lot about the author himself. That’s not always a bad thing, but i just wasn’t that interested in hearing about him and sometimes whole chapters on himself interfered with the flow of the book.