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Product Description
From Amazon
Review
–Canadian Geographic
“MacGregor's intimate knowledge of and affection for the bush shines through every page. The result is a book that is moving, thought-provoking and, finally, convincing.
“This is an impressive book, not only because personal history is seamlessly integrated with historical and geographical information, not only because of the writer's journalistic eye for detail … but really because it is an exploration of the Canadian sensibility. In this respect, it can be compared with Atwood’s Survival.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Poetic.…Intensely readable.…This is a book for cottagers and condo dwellers to curl up with.…[A] charming weave of history, memoir and insight into the deep pull of the wilderness.”
–Globe and Mail
“Arresting, powerful writing.…This is the full concentrated involvement of mind and soul in conscious awareness of the passage of days, seasons, and years.”
–Quill & Quire
“Wonderful.…It's hard to even imagine anyone today who is writing more lyrically about Canada than Roy MacGregor. Escape is a simply marvelous hymn to our great outdoors, of which MacGregor, as the son and grandson of woodsmen, is an authentic part.…He gives us loving glimpses of time spent at his cottage, of searching for hidden lakes, finding a heron colony, of nature to be enjoyed rather than conquered.”
–Toronto Star
“Few [writers] have explored our intimate relationship with the outdoors so thoroughly.… In alternating chapters of personal experience and historical perspective, MacGregor charts our love-affair with nature, and he does it in prose that is as breezy and refreshing as a summer afternoon.”
– Montreal Gazette
“Enthralling.…With Escape, MacGregor clearly secures his reputation as one of Canada’s best-loved writers.…Escape is filled with charming personal stories that are subtly blended with the historic lure of nature in Canada.…MacGregor has a captivating way of bringing chapters, and in fact the entire book, to a thoughtful conclusion. He’s like someone who leads you along a heavily wooded trail and without warning walks you to a point where a wonderful view emerges – and there’s not a cloud in the sky.”
–Edmonton Journal
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 15 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Escapism is not healthy for Canada,
By A Customer
This review is from: Escape: in Search of the Natural Soul of Canada (Hardcover)
I picked up this book hoping to get some insight into the Canadian identity. I wanted to know the character traits that make us unique in the world and what we value as a society. It would be nice to have an answer to the question "who are we and what do we stand for?" "We are not American" is beginning to wear thin. In London, England the statues are of warriors and generals. France has their thinkers and philosophers and Finland, it's to architects the honour goes. But Canada - "it's cold," or "ice hockey" or "beer" is the closest I've heard. It's sad, but true.Ernest Hemingway once said that all American literature was a search for paradise - "the great good place where death, pain and suffering do not exist and where you don't have to work hard to survive." The song "Try to Remember" comes to mind also. But I suspect it's hard wired into all our psyches to want to return to paradise, to childhood, not just in Canadians. That Canadians can do it and at what cost to the environment is something that should give us all reason to worry. Is our quest in search of "nirvana" destroying our environment? Is that quest really satisfying our real hunger, which is to find our stillness within, to create harmony, prosperity, and peace, in our homes, our workplaces and our communities. I think it's time we worked some more on building our character back again and face the awful reality that we have created, the one we are trying to escape from. We can create a society that lives nirvana every day of our lives, so we don't have to play "pretend" for a week or two in the summer. Escaping never works and never will. What we are escaping from is going to be right there when we return. Anyone who saw the History Channel program Pioneer Quest, will know that living off the land was pure hardship so I don't buy this author's idea of trying to portray it as something wonderful and magical. It is a lot of work to live off nature in the raw, no time for sitting around on a deck drinking beer and having barbeques, like our cottagers do. So, I'm not impressed with the idea that we are especially unique for our escapism or that we treasure nature more than the next guy. If fact I know it's not so, that as life becomes speeded up all people everywhere long to escape. Whether it's going to the wilderness, watching TV, numbing our senses through drugs and alcohol, eating too much, and on and on, everybody seems to want to escape. We need to work on why, and not build an identity on such a concept as escapism. This book is nothing more than another escape, into the authors life. We have our own lives to value so why bother with his. One who is always escaping never grows up and we need to grow up as a nation and stand for something again.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Escapism is not healthy for Canada,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Escape: in Search of the Natural Soul of Canada (Hardcover)
I picked up this book hoping to get some insight into the Canadian identity. I wanted to know the character traits that make us unique in the world and what we value as a society. It would be nice to have an answer to the question "who are we and what do we stand for?" "We are not American" is beginning to wear thin. In London, England the statues are of warriors and generals. France has their thinkers and philosophers and Finland, it's to architects the honour goes. But Canada - "it's cold," or "ice hockey" or "beer" is the closest I've heard. It's sad, but true.Ernest Hemingway once said that all American literature was a search for paradise - "the great good place where death, pain and suffering do not exist and where you don't have to work hard to survive." The song "Try to Remember" comes to mind also. But I suspect it's hard wired into all our psyches to want to return to paradise, to childhood, not just in Canadians. That Canadians can do it and at what cost to the environment is something that should give us all reason to worry. Is our quest in search of "nirvana" destroying our environment? Is that quest really satisfying our real hunger, which is to find our stillness within, to create harmony, prosperity, and peace, in our homes, our workplaces and our communities. I think it's time we worked some more on building our character back again and face the awful reality that we have created, the one we are trying to escape from. We can create a society that lives nirvana every day of our lives, so we don't have to play "pretend" for a week or two in the summer. Escaping never works and never will. What we are escaping from is going to be right there when we return. Anyone who saw the History Channel program Pioneer Quest, will know that living off the land was pure hardship so I don't buy this author's idea of trying to portray it as something wonderful and magical. It is a lot of work to live off nature in the raw, no time for sitting around on a deck drinking beer and having barbeques, like our cottagers do. So, I'm not impressed with the idea that we are especially unique for our escapism or that we treasure nature more than the next guy. If fact I know it's not so, that as life becomes speeded up all people everywhere long to escape. Whether it's going to the wilderness, watching TV, numbing our senses through drugs and alcohol, eating too much, and on and on, everybody seems to want to escape. We need to work on why, and not build an identity on such a concept as escapism. This book is nothing more than another escape, into the authors life. We have our own lives to value so why bother with his. One who is always escaping never grows up and we need to grow up as a nation and stand for something again. |
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