Certainly not a how-to book
I find Second Nature to be primarily a treatise on urban
landscaping for homeowners--what to do with the land on which
your house sits. A very philosophical approach to gardening.
excellent
This book is a must read, a real page turner. Sit back with a cup of something to drink and soak this book in. Get cozy, you may not want to put it down for a while. Enjoy Pollens style of writing and his good natured humor. I myself enjoyed the battle with the woodchuck as I have done my time with maurading gophers in my day. There is often a moral deliema that comes with the territory of gardening. Pollen brings all that to light with a wonderful common sense and realistic approach while bringing a smile to our face. A book well worth the read, no need to rush through, just enjoy at your own pace. Maybe keep it beside the garden and enjoy while watering....
Early Pollan proves why he's where he is today
Who could have predicted that a young Michael Pollan writing about gardening would become a leading advocate for responsible agriculture and one of the country's biggest-selling writers? Just about anyone who read him then, is my guess. Pollan shows in this gem of a book what a terrific and layered writer he is.
For all the fantastic writing, the book, however, is uneven. Many of the chapters were published as magazine articles before the book came out, and it shows. The organization of the book by seasons is forced and the individual chapters in each section don't always belong. Pollan makes a good effort of tying it all together with memories of his grandfather's garden (and the characters of the grandfather and his garden in the beginning narrative are worth the price of admission), but in the end the individual narratives don't hold together as well as later Pollan books manage to do.
But don't let this stop you. Push through some of the more boring chapters (or skip them altogether, since the one advantage of the choppy nature of the book is that each chapter stands alone well), and you'll be rewarded with the absolute perfection of others. My favorite, the chapter about seed catalogs, is at once observational journalism, literary criticism, and writing master class.
If you came to this book the same way I did (which is to say, after reading Pollan's more recent work, including his magnum opus "The Omnivore's Dilemma"), I think you'll find enjoyment in seeing his earlier achievement as a writer, a science journalist, and a modern environmentalist. Don't miss it.
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