Genre: Memoir
Description:
“In 1946, fresh from the battlefields of World War II, a 26-year-old
Dan Block, fancying himself a knight in shining armor, sets off for the wilds
of northwest Montana with his young bride, a truck full of mink cages, and a
dream carved from the bones of wilderness.
What follows is a breathtaking and heartfelt chronicle of life on the
last American frontier: a place where snow falls six feet deep, bears roam the
woods, and where only the night sky is crowded. Through freezing temperatures,
dangerous animal encounters, wild neighbors, and trout-filled streams, Dan and
GeRayne carve a life from scratch outside the boundaries of Glacier National
Park near Trail Creek - fifty miles from town and a thousand miles from
comfort.
Told with wit, wisdom, and an unflinching eye for detail, Trail
Creek is more than a survival memoir - it's a love story, a coming-of-age
tale, and a tribute to the forgotten art of making do, holding fast, and
finding joy in the hardest places.”
Author:
“A gifted writer, educator and natural storyteller, Dan later became a
professor sharing his passion for biology, literature, wilderness conservation
and self-reliance with generations of students. Trail Creek: A North Fork Saga
is his vivid memoir of those early, hard, unforgettable years - a tribute to
adventure, his marriage, a one-of-a-kind life and the last true frontier.”
Appraisal:
One of the things I like most about memoirs and biographical books is
comparing the life of the person in the story to that of myself, my family, and
my friends. Daniel Block, the author whose experiences moving from a midwestern
city to a homestead in an extremely rural and rugged area of Montana well
before I was even born is definitely not something I experienced, but I found
myself comparing his life to my father’s, a rural western farm boy who
eventually became a forester, as Dan Block eventually also does. While I’ve
never lived in an area as rural as Block’s homestead, I’ve definitely spent
time in and experienced to a small degree what those areas are like, even if a
whole lot later in the world’s timeline, but I found I could both relate at
times to his experience and enjoyed getting new perspectives and a glimpse of
someone else’s experiences that were different from the people I know.
Definitely an enjoyable and enlightening read. Adding to it are a few sections
with pictures of the people who play the biggest part in the story from the
same time frame being chronicled, making picturing them that much easier.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
Review is based on an advance reader copy, so I can’t gauge the final
product in this area.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 115-120,000 words
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