Lots of Info - Little as Advertised

This book is chock full of information. The reader learns much about the Pacific Northwest, large trees, logging, the Haida and other tribes, and weather and sea conditions surrounding the Charlotte Island, BC.

The subtitle, however, is "A true Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed". There is much on the greed of lumber companies and loggers. There is little about the myth and not very much about the "madman" who cut down the golden spruce. By the end I was tired of the tree primer. There is actually more devoted to explaining photosynthesis than there is about the Haida's myth about the golden spruce.

The basic story is of a mutant ancient spruce that is golden rather than green. It is on the Charlotte Islands, home of the Haidaa. The tree is cut down by a logger who apparently has gone off the deep end and fells the tree as a protest. The story line gets lost in all the many digressions and other information. At the outset, the information was interesting, since it was captivating background. Unfortunately, very little was presented beyond background information. The book is terrifically researched on all the other grounds. I got the feeling when I was done that there just was not a lot to the main theme of the book. It was mostly filler/background to fill pages since the chief theme could not fill more than 50-60 pages.

The writing is good and there is a lot of information about a little known part of North America. Just don't come to this book thinking that it will be primarily about a myth and madness.

Three Intertwined Tales by a Great New Writer

If you've ever enjoyed non-fiction masters like John McPhee or Jon Krakauer, then here is another John to keep track of. John Vaillant has written a book that thousands of writers could have written, but the difference is that Vaillant is extremely talented - his writing could stand alone, page-by-page. The result is a compelling true story told by a gifted and wise writer. This book is vastly satisfying to read.

John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madn

On January 20, 1997, Grant Hadwin cut down a conifer (see pp. 127 ff.). Unfortunately, this was not just any tree, but a near unique golden Sitka spruce in British Colombia's Queen Charlotte Islands, some 165 feet tall and over three hundred years old. The tree was sacred to the Haida tribe, who believed that it was a transformed youth (see pp. 155-57). Hadwin, who subsequently perished while crossing Hecate Strait- or disappeared before his court date, depending upon which story you choose to believe (see pp. 159-81)- was ironically an environmentalist who wished to draw attention to the destruction of the region's forests.
My pet peeve first. Where is a picture of the tree? It is inconceivable that no view of the book's subject, either before or after its felling, is available, and yet (with the doubtful exception of the picture on the cover) none of the sixteen pictures in the book deals with the object which "stands" at its epicenter. In a way, this absence is a fitting symbol for the larger work. There is no question that Mr. Vaillant can write; he brings logging alive in a way that lesser craftsmen could not. We find out why the Queen Charlotte Islands are termed the "Canadian Galapagos" (at p. 28) at the same time that British Colombia is referred to as the "Brazil of the North" (at p. 100). We are introduced to a specialized argot, with terms such as "nurse logs" (at p. 8), "spruce flats" (at p. 16), "logger's smallpox" (at p. 76), "highballing" (at p. 77), "widowmakers" (at p. 129), and "pig's ears" (at p. 132). Vaillant, not content with this "forest" of information, discusses ecological problems, Haida culture, and intercultural relations. The void left by the fall of the Golden Spruce, however, is paralleled by a lack of in-depth information about Grant Hadwin. While Vaillant appears to have made, well, valliant efforts to interview those connected with the incident and indeed acknowledges "those members of the Hadwin family who shared their memories and insights with me" (at p. [xi]), no specific citations appear to be listed in the Endnotes (see pp. [243]-50). This lack of information prevents us from more fully understanding Hadwin and his motive, and that in turn leaves only a gap in space where the real object once existed.
The Golden Spruce should be read both for the information it imparts and for the quality of Vaillant's prose. Ultimately, however, it does not break the log-jam of facts and speculations surrounding this hopefully unique (but see pp. 140-41, 213) occurrence.

Samuel Pyeatt Menefee