Marshwalker: Naturalist Memoirs

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

John Weier is a writer and naturalist who decided, some years ago, to
visit Oak Hammock Marsh, a protected wilderness area just north of
Winnipeg, at regular times throughout the year and then write about what
he found there. The result is Marshwalker, a book of nonfiction about
fauna and flora in the tradition of Richard Jefferies in England and
Thoreau and Annie Dillard in the United States. It is a book that anyone
who has a special interest in natural things and their presentation in
literature will find immensely rewarding.

It so happens that, a few weeks before encountering the book, I had
myself been on a natural-history tour of Manitoba whose first stop was
Oak Hammock Marsh. Weier’s listing of what he saw, and his delicate
and accurate descriptions of birds and animals, could therefore be
compared with my own observations on my necessarily brief visit, and he
succeeds in bringing back the feel of the place vividly and evocatively.

But I don’t think that my recent visit to the marsh was a major
factor in my enjoyment of this book. Weier writes simply and
thoughtfully about what he observes, does not assume an unrealistically
high level of knowledge, and passes on various interesting facts about
bird behavior and related subjects that are not generally known.
Besides, his casual, personal approach allows him to record other topics
that pass through his mind—memories of visits elsewhere, worries in
his personal life, thoughts about conservation and the plight of our
planet—as he is watching snow geese or coyotes or owls or ground
squirrels.

Weier’s is an unostentatious, stuttery, honest prose that proves
remarkably flexible. For those with wild-life interests, his book will
be a continuing delight; for those who savor solid writing, it will
prove a refreshing change from the callow pretensions of urban
postmodernism.

Marshwalker is illustrated with more than 20 accurate and delicate
drawings by Rudolf Koes and has been expertly produced by Turnstone
Press, who have provided an attractive typeface and a splendid cover.
Highly recommended.