Tide, Feather, Snow

Tide, Feather, Snow
A Life in Alaska

Synopsis

Alaska is a place where know-how is currency and a novice's mistakes can kill you. An extreme landscape in both its beauty and challenges, the state is nicknamed "The Last Frontier" with good reason: Here is a paradoxical landscape where boundaries—between community and isolation, bounty and deprivation, conservation and exploitation—are constantly in flux.

But the state has also always been a place for reinvention, a refuge as much for those desperate to escape something as for those on a quest for something else. In Tide, Feather, Snow, Miranda Weiss, a young woman who grew up landlocked in well-kept East Coast suburbs, moves with her boyfriend to Homer, Alaska, where the days are quartered by the most extreme tides in the country, where the years are marked by seasons of fish, and where locals carry around the knowledge of fish, tides, boats, and weather as ballast. At first, she struggles to make a place for herself in this unfamiliar country. But ultimately, Weiss learns the skills to survive on her own, from setting a fishing net to befriending the locals, from jarring rosehip butter to skinning a sea otter.

Weiss's keenly observed prose introduces readers to the memorable people and peculiar beauty of Alaska's vast landscape and takes us on her personal journey of adventure, physical challenge, and culture clash. In the tradition of John McPhee's Coming into the Country, this elegant and affecting memoir is nature writing at its best.

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Review

I will admit right from the start that when I was asked to review Tide, Feather, Snow I was both excited and hesitant. Excited because I love books about Alaska, my home for a decade. Hesitant because I have read a few that turned out to be poorly written attempts to sound like an insider's impression of the state, this book is not one of those. While I lived in Alaska's largest city, my jobs took me all over the state, from Barrow to Juneau, and in contact with local residents. Many friendships were formed in those years and the experiences were many. But those stories are for another day.

One of the most exciting things about Miranda Weiss's book for me is that it takes place in Homer, Alaska which is a place I have spent time. From the first pages I could easily picture the locations and enjoy the details of this interesting little coastal town. But even those who have never set foot in Alaska will have the same feeling.

From the time she arrives in Homer it is not only a learning experience but also a challenge to fit in with the inhabitants of this close knit community. Newcomers arrive and leave so quickly in a place like Homer that fitting in is not always easy.

If you want a close look at life in a small Alaskan town this is the book to read. Miranda takes her readers through all of Alaska's seasons with the trials and tribulations each brings. Her descriptions of the landscape will have you shivering from the cold wind across the bay and enchanted by the Northern Lights dancing across the sky. She will introduce you to some of the locals, colorful, but down to earth in their own way.

Miranda Weiss's journey from East Coast girl to Homer resident is an excellent read. I highly recommend Tide, Feather, Snow.

This is a video I found on You Tube, it is Miranda Weiss reading an excerpt from Tide, Feather, Snow. It is also a little peek into Alaska life, hope you enjoy it.



I received a copy of Tide, Feather, Snow from Harper Perennial. I was not compensated for my review.