Coming Into the Country by john mcphee

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Coming Into the Country was on every list I found of books to read before visiting Alaska. Written in 1977, at times it was a little dated - but still interesting. The book is essentially broken into three sections - one is a group of men out canoeing, fishing, camping, one is about the debate about moving the capital of Alaska out of Juneau, and one is McPhee’s experiences when he moved to a town of 86 and spent his time learning about the residents and their stories. All in all an interesting read that gave me a sense of what the area was like about 45 years ago.

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catlover505

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Meandering, long and slow, especially the last chapter, which my e-reader called 6 hours. This book had three sections - I think my favorite was the first, mostly a trip down river. The second section, about Alaska figuring to change the location of the capital, a story I had not heard. The third was basically gossip, who said what about whom, what their cabin was like, how they supplied. It's only point seemed to be describing what kind of person might have lived around Eagle, Alaska at a particular time. Pretty language, but a bit to fond to unusual non-obvious words.

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Pain_2_King

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Very good introduction to one of the least understood regions of the US.

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kiinntannn

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Some quotes, descriptions, and info I liked:

"Pourchot, after breakfast, goes off to measure the largest of the spruce near the campsite. He finds a tree twenty-two inches in diameter, breast high. Most of the spruce in this country look like pipe cleaners. The better ones look like bottle washers.Tough they may be, but they are on the edge of their world, and their trunks can grow fifty years and be scarcely an inch through."

"Forest Eskimos, who live in five small villages on the Kobuk, do not tend to think in landscape terms that are large. They see a river not as an entity but as a pageant of parts, and every bend and eddy has a name."

Some outstanding alliteration: "No matter what the weather might be, Kauffmann said, the Brooks Range for him was the best of Alaska--in the quality of its light, in the clarity of its flowing water, in the configuration of its terrain."

"We need whole ecosystems, whole ranges, whole watersheds."
"Entire mountain ranges?"
"We're going to have to live in close harmony with the earth, There's a lot we don't know. We need places where we can learn how. The carrying capacity for plants and animals is limited here. They need plenty of space and time. Think of the years it takes a grayling to grow. If we do our thing, if we exploit shortsightedly, we impoverish even the biggest landscapes. There is no such thing as superabundance."

"In the eighteen-nineties, Jack McQuesten, a storekeeper celebrated in the country, used to plow his garden with a moose."

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Mahiru_Kojima

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

McPhee writes about people, places and issues in an engaging, intelligent way that avoids pedanticism. Here he conveys the romance as well as the conflict of Alaska’s statehood, presenting the impossibility of “modern” conservation ideals coexisting with economic “progress” and with maintenance of traditional lifestyles. Despite the book having been written nearly half a century ago, it is alive with descriptions and conversations that still feel relevant.

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JBeo

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

“What had struck me most in the isolation of this wilderness was an abiding sense of paradox. In its raw, convincing emphasis on the irrelevance of the visitor, it was forcefully, importantly repellent. It was no less strongly attractive—with a beauty of nowhere else, composed in turning circles. If the wild land was indifferent, it gave a sense of difference. If at moments it was frightening, requiring an effort to put down the conflagrationary imagination, it also augmented the touch of life. This was not a dare with nature. This was nature.”

I'll read John McPhee on any subject. So glad I don't live in Alaska, and so glad I read this book. Fantastic perspective of the land and the deeply curious and strong people who inhabit it.

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christianlsc

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Boring men travel down a river, stop, fish, throw some shit into their campfire, discuss bear maulings, I fell asleep. Just no.

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xiliaw

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Books I and II (the first half, essentially) were truly great. Beautifully evocative of of place, witty and informative, and very engrossing. Part III started out the same, but soon devolved into strangely long rehearsals of technical information that did nothing to illuminate the people or places being described for me. Perhaps the author felt that these things were peculiar to, and therefore illuminating of, the Alaskan bush, but I ended up very lightly skimming the last 100 pages or so.

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Coming Into the Country

john mcphee

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