The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed,   ISBN:9780393328646

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As soon as I started the book I thought, this reads like a National Geographic article. Sure enough, when I looked at the author notes, I saw that Valliant has written for NG. Which is precisely the problem with the book. He has used the story of the Golden Spruce like a hook to hang a number of science articles on. As for madness and mayhem, the actual culprit becomes a ghost in the book, a sketched out caricature used as an excuse to give the reader a geology lesson.

Valliant loves facts, and if this was a textbook it would be above average in readability, but it purports to be something more, and in that it fails.

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This book can be read at many levels. It can be read as a "dual tragedy" (the tragic fall of Grant Hadwin and the Golden Spruce). It can be read as a history of the Pacific Northwest (the Queen Charlotte islands in particular). It can be read as an expose of the logging industry. But as I closed its pages a few minutes ago, I had an epiphany. This is a well printed book. The paper has such a wholesome feel to it. I love the feel of a book, of good paper, a crowded library -- of fine wood (like bookcases). And this book is a wake up call about deforestation. At the book's close John Vaillant managed to coax me into looking at my own part in deforestation. And that is the level at which I will remember this book.

The book is packed with facts, stories and anecdotes about trees, logging and the people of the Queen Charlottes (the Haida in particular, but the Anglos not insignificantly). The lives of its two main characters (Grant Hadwin and the Golden Spruce) weave in and out rather casually. If you are looking for a spellbinding linear story about the tree -- or the man who felled it - you are likely to be disappointed. If you expect to learn about History or Haida culture you are likely to be frustrated by the lack of an index and/or glossary.

But if you read for meaning, you will be left with an awareness of our part in destroying the world around us garnered through accounts of very human beings (like ourselves) and their inability to see what they are doing. Vaillant does not accept "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Rather, he helps us to see what we do -- very gently and lovingly. At that level, the book (like the madness of Grant Hadwin) makes perfect sense.

Now I just have to wait for George Perkins Marsh's Man And Nature: Or Physical Geography As Modified By Human Action (1864) to come out for Kindle.

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This is a very well-written and interesting book. It has several plots, each of them holding the reader's interest throughout the book.

One of the plots deals with the history of logging in the northwest, specifically in Alaska where the Haida Indians live. The Haida live in a very remote area of Alaska, difficult to get to and accessible only by air or boat. On the islands they call home, there is an amazing tree - a Golden Spruce. The Haida have incorporated this tree into their spirituality.

The book also deals with the history of this tree. Because of its color, it is an obvious mutation. How it came to be, how it survived, and how it is now replicated is a theme of this book.

The most striking plot that weaves in and out of the whole book is the story of a man named Hadwin, an extreme athlete also known for his eccentricity and confrontational manner. Hadwin has destroyed this tree and disappeared. Supposedly he drowned in the turbulent Alaskan waters. However, because of his ability to survive the most extreme conditions, there are many who think he faked his death and still lives.

My only difficulty with this fascinating book is the portrayal of Hadwin. As a clinical social worker, I am very familiar with serious and chronic mental illness. What the author portrays as a variant of the norm is actually something far more serious. Anyone who has to stuff cotton in their ears to keep the voices at bay suffers from auditory hallucinations. Hadwin has a history of hallucinations, paranoia and varied delusions. To discuss him as an eccentric or quirky type of guy is to do injustice to the fact that this man is very, very ill.

All in all, I found this book to be a fascinating page-turner, one I highly recommend.

Customer Rating: 

The author of The Golden Spruce, John Vaillant, is the best modern writer that I have read
in years. This book is so good that I don't just recommend it to friends; I buy copies and
send them.

I am up to copy #16.

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"The Golden Spruce" is one of the few books that I wished there was more by the time I was reading the last page. Beautifully written and highly informative, John Vaillant's book is the "Perfect Storm" and "Into Thin Air" of old-growth coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest, Western British Columbia, and southeastern Alaska and the development of, and the attendant risks involved in, logging. In particular, the book revolves around an extreme act of protest against the lumber industry committed by a modern-day Paul Bunyan, the ultimate outdoorsman, in the person of Grant Hadwin, who was himself a trained logger but eventually went through a complete mental and spiritual conversion to an environmental advocate. To the perspective of the indigenous people of the Queen Charlotte Islands and tourists who cherished a biological rarity deep in the protected woods, his act was unspeakable and unimaginable. He was about to face justice in Haida Gwaii but decided to do so under the most treacherous circumstances--by paddling a kayak across the dangerous and unpredictable Hecate Strait from Prince Rupert, B.C. in February. His disappearance, as well as his reputation for being a survivor in the formidable wet wilderness of western Canada and southeastern Alaska has made him larger-than-life, a legend. This was no crazy man. Hadwin's eloquent manifesto to the pitfalls of human civilization was not unique but revealed a deep understanding of how our common notions of progress could get us in trouble.

The book's namesake was a rare biological idiosyncrasy indeed. In a language designed for lay reading, the author explains that the genetic mutation affected the protein(s) involved in the alignment of chloroplasts, which in turn responds to the angle of sunlight to maximize photosynthesis. This mutation did not necessarily undermine the viability of the plant; if anything, the plant lived for longer than 300 years--and could have survived longer, if only.... Instead of succumbing to a potentially lethal mutation, the plant lucked out thanks to extrinsic factors that increased its chances for survival. Unfortunately, these factors have been difficult to replicate under controlled conditions and under close watch by horticulturists and forestry specialists at the University of British Columbia, among other locations. Additionally, the plant turned out to be sterile; whether this was a direct or indirect result of the mutation was not elaborated, but that's quite beside the point. One of the best aspects of the book was the detail to which the author described the various attempts to rescue the tree by cloning, grafting, and other techniques. At the conclusion of the book, the reader is left with the hope that someone will succeed in extending the life of this tree through artificial means that are no less remarkable given the specific growth requirements of this individual tree. Whether scientists succeed or not, this tree, which meant so much to different people of different backgrounds and persuasions, not to mention the Haida people themselves, underscores the plasticity and fragility of nature. Even in these most forbidding environments where nature seems to rule, it takes only a brief moment in the life of the forest to see its members fall to oblivion. Sure, the sound of a Western conifer when felled can be stirring, but the power of human greed can be just as stirring--if not downright chilling. Grant Hadwin's gesture was not a tantrum or gesture of human folly. It is a strong symbol for what can go wrong when exploitation is pitted against preservation.