Customer Reviews

Coming Out Of The Woods: The Solitary Life Of A Maverick Naturalist

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to admit that I approached this book with some hesitation. I did not want to read yet another polemic on the good, the bad, and the ugly in environmental politics. And much to my relief and pleasure, this book does not go in that direction. Instead, it is a compelling narrative of one man's effort to reach an accord with the dynamic and changing forest in which he has been living for over thirty years. In the process, Kaufman tests his and his friends idealized and often romanticized notions of Nature against the realities of road building, flying squirrels, and devastating hurricanes. Kaufman uses Thoreau as his touchstone, but takes the latter's two-year experiment and expands it into a life's study. As he digs the foundation of his house, he discovers the pre-history of the Morgan Branch forest; and as his lives in his completed house, he begins to understand the often harsh ecology of the place. His great past time is hunting for edible mushrooms, often in the company of his daughter. These hunts provide a paradigm for the entire book in which the ability to discern fine details makes for enjoyable eating or, in this case, reading.

Kaufman spends twenty years doing what all of us nature lovers think we could do-Live alone in the woods for a lifetime. Well Kaufman isn't always alone and 20 years may not be a lifetime but it is a signifcant commitment to "the simple Life." And the revelations Kaufman comes back with are not exactly what one might expect. Like modern advancements and capitalism is good for nature? Not totally, but similar to Bill Bryson's observations in his big hit A Walk in the Woods, the reality of modern enviromentalist's ideals is not always what it is cracked up to be. And I think 240 months(20 times longer than Thoreau) in the woods qualifies Kaufman as much as any body to say so. Though he lacks Bryson's swift narrative and comical anecdotes, what we gain from Kaufman is an update from Walden Pond that we might be surprised to read. The book will also help quell any idyllic thoughts you might have about dropping out of society to pursue a life in the woods. Because after finishing this book you may find that Kaufman's experience was enough.

Here is a writer who conveys the complexity and beauty of nature without putting on rose colored glasses. Coming Out of the Woods inspires, entertains, informs and tells a page-turner story that reveals how all human interaction with nature demands tradeoffs. Think of it as an update of Thoreau's Walden, but with a strong story line and conclusions appropriate for our time. I recommend it highly for introductory environmental studies courses, American literature courses, or courses on literature and the environment.

Orrin Pilkey James B. Duke Professor of Geology Emeritus Duke University

The book arrived very quickly and was in perfect shape. Very happy with service, ease of ordering and overall experience.

During the 1960s and 70s, many young people were exploring alternative lifestyles. Back to nature, contemplation, and freedom from a material life were blowing in the wind. Mother Earth News, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, and Walden were just a few of the influential texts.

Wallace Kaufman had lived in cities but possessed a keen interest in nature and living within it. Thoreau spent only two years at Walden, but Wallace spends twenty years in the woods. To have sufficient seclusion, he buys a large wooded tract, names it Saralyn, and subdivides it into large parcels for others seeking to be closer to nature. He is thrust into the role of developer and known in the local village as "the mayor of Hippie Town." Teaching English literature at the University of North Carolina is little preparation for his undertaking. He agonizes over removing trees and scarring land required to cut a road into Saralyn.

Wallace is a man driven to pursue his dream and speak his mind regardless of political consequences. It costs him his job and his marriage, leaving him with Saralyn and shared custody of Sylvan, his three-year-old daughter.

Wallace is a romantic with wide-open eyes. Research and keen observation allow him to read the messages of nature with a long-term view, both past and future. His grounding in literature is the basis for analysis and conclusions, which are often at odds with sages who have preceded him.

This is a story of growth and change - of Wallace, Sylvan, and Saralyn. With its colorful characters and anecdotes, "Coming Out of the Woods" would rate five stars if it offered no more, but Wallace gives us insight into our relationship with nature and its salvation.

Wallace Kaufman doesn't know what he is talking about. And it's dangerous. He talks and talks and people believe. He says things ("facts") that aren't true. In his book, he doesn't do his research, jumps to conclusions, and sends a boulder crashing through his neighbor's roof. In a similar way, he comes to conclusions about the environment, woodworking, recycling, &c. It's dangerous.

Our local paper (like Kaufman I'm from Pittsboro, NC) printed a letter to the editor from a woman who had read Kaufman's new book, and believed it. Now she is sure recycling is bad for the environment and that the rain forests aren't disappearing.

Here are some "facts" that aren't true, that I know enough to correct. I'm also going to give the sources of my information (unlike Kaufman).

When talking about a neighbor's new porch (p. 127) he says, "'Those red oak boards will rot,' I warned him...Three years later, the boards had turned black and mushrooms began to grow out of them." He goes on to say of red oak boards that you have "to drench them with preservatives" to make them last. Now it is true that milled red oak will rot, but people make riven shingles out of red oak and they last for 30+ years without preservatives. Roy Underhill, in THE WOODWRIGHT'S COMPANION, p.154 says, "Since the splitting follows the grain of the oak from end to end, the exposed surface is made up of tiny tubes torn open down their whole length... Many folks like to shave shingles to a taper and a smooth surface. If you were to do this on a riven red-oak shingle, you would cut into the pores of the wood, open the grain, and allow it to become saturated with water, and it would rot in no time. Sawn shingles are just as bad or worse."

Kaufman also talks about owl pellets (see p.148), "An owl pellet (in common language we have to call it a turd)..." An owl pellet is a bundle of hair, bones, &c. that an owl regurgitates after it's meal. However, my dictionary's definition of 'turd' is, "a piece of dung." 'Dung' led me to 'excrement', the definition being, "waste matter from the bowels."

On p. 125 he says, "The house had endured because builders had selected the very best yellow pine and white oak. They had used only slow growth heartwood that is heavy with crowded annual growth rings." Back to Roy Underhill's book, THE WOODWRIGHT'S COMPANION, p16. "In pine timber slow growth and tight rings make tough, dense, strong wood, just as you might expect. In oaks, however, the effect is just the opposite. Slow growth in oak makes for weaker, more porous wood of a lower density. The reason for this is that every spring an oak has to put out a new set of leaves before the next tree or it's out of business. To get this mass of vegetation out, massive amounts of water must be run up through new plumbing that forms in the wood each spring. These large vessels form a band of constant width in every growth ring, followed by the denser, stronger wood formed during the summer growing season. The slower an oak tree grows, the closer together these bands of weaker spring wood will be. A slow grown red oak can become so porous that it appears to be 90 percent nothing."

These are just things I, a 16 year old, knew enough to find fault with. It would be interesting to see what someone knowledgeable about the environment or the Native Americans would find is incorrect in Kaufman's book.