Charles Fish, author of "In Good Hands: The Keeping of a Family Farm" and "Blue Ribbons and Burlesque: A Book of Country Fairs", sets off on a journey down Vermont's Winooski River, from the headwaters in Cabot to river's end at Lake Champlain, in order to rediscover the river valley of his youth and to consider the power of place in all our lives. Recounting travels by foot, car, and canoe (which Fish christens "The Tub"), "In the Land of the Wild Onion" offers engaging and often humorous tales of adventures along the river, of impenetrable thickets and backbreaking portages, of battles with a recalcitrant canoe, of nights camping out among the mosquitoes. The people Fish meets along the way spur discussions of geology, hydropower, hunting, fishing, farming, and tracking, to name a few. The chronicle of his journey is both a reminiscence of days spent living along the Winooski and a clear-eyed, deeply informative, and fascinating look at the changes and challenges to the habitat and resources of a river valley. What emerges is a portrait of the lives and rhythms of the valley, a rich and rewarding insight into how the land forms us and how we, its stewards, care for the land.
Anyone with an interest in nature writing or local and regional resource management will profit from this well-told tale of one of Vermont's great rivers.