Customer Reviews

The Suburban Wild

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In the traditions of Aldo Leopold and Gene Stratton-Porter, Friderici brings the ordinary to life - the invisible environment we pass through every day, mostly without a hint of awareness. A deep rendering of the remnants of nature that are left in the housing developments, corporate parks and fragments of moraine and ravine ecosystems that are the only reminders of the area's glacial past. I highly recommend this book to anyone familiar with the area - it will make you look aroun and more aware of your environment during your daily commute!

In a way it's a shame that this book has the title and blurb that it does, which imply that this book would be of interest only to suburbanites, or even more specifically only to Chicago suburbanites. But just as Chicago's Field Museum is a world-class natural history museum that draws and enlightens visitors from around the world, Friederici's book deserves a much wider audience than just suburbanites or Chicagoans. His eye and prose are just as poetic and informed as that of anyone at work today in the field of literary nature writing. This book contains some great writing and encounters and insights. The best nature writers are looking for the world in a grain of sand, and even though this book goes against the literary "grain" in not setting out for a remote and sublime wilderness, it still finds plenty of interesting grains of sand on the Chicago lakeshore.

It was a real pleasure to read this slim volume of essays by Peter Friederici. The poetic style in describing his impressions while walking through the woods of Suburbia or while reminiscing about his childhood makes one relaxed and feeling good. His background of a naturalist makes some other essays very interesting and enlightening. I recommend this little gem to every suburbanite who likes to read, sitting in an armchair close to the window, occasionally peering out at the birds and the squirrels by the feeder, savoring the words of pleasant and knowledgable poet.