Seasonal: A Life Outside

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

After graduating from the University of Colorado, Engle, a member of the Woodstock generation, tried his hand at various minimum-wage jobs--landscaping, quarrying--then found work as a seasonal employee with the U.S. Forest Service. This is his engaging account of his 12 years as a ``timber beast.'' Engle has manned visitor centers, maintained campgrounds, inventoried timber, supervised tree planting, fought forest fires. The work clearly suits him. He introduces readers to colorful characters hired by the Senior Community Service Employment Program and describes a mountain race--11 miles up, seven miles down--that will have the reader gasping. Engle writes that he finds time to fish, look at birds and other wildlife, enjoy scenery. Nature lovers will appreciate his attitude. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Ostensibily an account of working 13 years as a summer employee for the Forest Service, this book is really a paean to the outdoor life and the people who are a part of it. Engle is a product of the 1960s, developing, as he observes of someone else, ``a divine affinity with the land and the trees that grow on it.'' Each chapter has a loose theme--firefighting, inspecting tree plantings, fishing, running, nightjars--around which the author weaves his observations and his fulminations against the indoor bureaucratic life. What you'll find here is more mellow than Edward Abbey and by an author who realizes that his own record is not unblemished.-- Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., CUNY

Booknews

A Forest Service seasonal employee's reminiscences of the work, the rewards, the miseries--done with fine style. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)