Customer Reviews

Fireweed (Bison Book)

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In Mildred Walker's Fireweed she examines one young woman's life in a small town. The life of her young heroine is told so matter a factly yet it is so powerful.

The young girl has dreams of moving to a big city, becoming famous, important and independent of her current life. Ultimately her life becomes all the things she is determined it will not be; burdened with marriage, children and financial concerns in her own hometown.

Fireweed transports the reader so completely into anothers life yet causes them to reflect on their own life, the decisions they have made and where those decisions have taken them.

Mildred Walker's Fireweed stands as one of the great debuts in American literature. It is, quite simply, a beautiful rendering of a time and place - in this case Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the early 20th century. Anyone who has visited the area will instantly be enthralled with Walker's beautiful evocation of the northern wilderness. Those who have never visited will want to after reading this book. Logging in the Great Lakes preceded the auto industry as the supreme element in the region's economy, but far too few books deal with the numerous lumber towns that dotted the landscape. This is by far among the best, illustrating the very human side to exploitation of various degrees and kind. An extraordinary book.