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maneatingbadger's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
fireblend's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. One the one hand, it's an academic book in that it has a thesis that it introduces at the beginning alongside a framework and series of terms to understand it; alienation, assemblages, translation, contamination. At the same time it's a book that, like the mushroom it mostly talks about, resists academicity and easy classification because said thesis holds itself up with stories about mushroom picking, the multiple paradoxes of forest management, the (also paradoxical) edges of capitalism and the enthusiasm of a researcher finding a niche they genuinely love. Also, mushrooms are cool as hell and I want to try matsutake now.
lwb's review against another edition
4.0
I found this remarkable.
The author seems to violate all the implicit rules of scholarly writing, yet nonetheless nails it. One expects an exhaustive treatment of whatever issue is at hand, but no, the author is willfully anything but exhaustive; indeed the work is nothing more than a sequence of vignettes. Multiple disciplines are called upon, but not in a form of asserting priority, rather as mere points of view. And the fields I know well - ecology, evolution, fungal genetics - are dipped into most shallowly, often to the point of just establishing the utility of some jargon term - patch, disturbance, genetic mosaicism. Moreover, the author inserts herself into the text throughout. Hardly the omniscient, detached observer, the author brings to the fore her own heritage, her clear preferences for the Japanese style of forest management, and a multiplicity of personal anecdotes and reflections.
I probably would never have started, much less completed, a typical scholarly work on this subject. But the authors unique style and sublime use of language kept me reading on. Weirdly, it all works; one is left with a clear picture of lives lived in the product of capitalist ruin.
The author seems to violate all the implicit rules of scholarly writing, yet nonetheless nails it. One expects an exhaustive treatment of whatever issue is at hand, but no, the author is willfully anything but exhaustive; indeed the work is nothing more than a sequence of vignettes. Multiple disciplines are called upon, but not in a form of asserting priority, rather as mere points of view. And the fields I know well - ecology, evolution, fungal genetics - are dipped into most shallowly, often to the point of just establishing the utility of some jargon term - patch, disturbance, genetic mosaicism. Moreover, the author inserts herself into the text throughout. Hardly the omniscient, detached observer, the author brings to the fore her own heritage, her clear preferences for the Japanese style of forest management, and a multiplicity of personal anecdotes and reflections.
I probably would never have started, much less completed, a typical scholarly work on this subject. But the authors unique style and sublime use of language kept me reading on. Weirdly, it all works; one is left with a clear picture of lives lived in the product of capitalist ruin.
abbyterrigino's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
I really enjoyed reading her thoughts and thought the research was very interesting but I felt like sometimes the language felt too academic/bulky when it didn’t need to be.
sammig3's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
dialhforhgai's review against another edition
4.0
“Not that this will save us—but it might open our imaginations.”