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A review by jdintr
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
5.0
This is THE BOOK to read for anyone visiting Redwoods National and State Parks on the Northern California coast. My family and I read it as we visited the Redding area and drove out to hike Redwood Creek to the Tall Trees Grove.
While there is much information about the redwoods, Preston's subtitle, "A Story of Passion and Daring," indicates where the book is headed. The two primary passions featured in the book are Michael Taylor's obsession with finding the tallest redwood on the coast, and Steve Sillett's obsession with climbing said trees.
Preston, for the most part, goes back and forth between the two stories, adding in details of Sillett's personal life--how his obsession with trees contributed to the end of his first marriage, and how it bonded him to his second wife, Marie.
These personal aspects of the book are very honest. Characters' flaws come out into the open. Unlike many reviewers here, I really liked this aspect. It gives the book a narrative arc that a normal nonfiction book about the tallest redwoods would miss.
Having hiked to the Tall Trees Grove after completing this book for the second time, I will share a few more observations about the book.
1. I really don't know how Taylor could have maintained his obsession with finding the tallest tree on the coast. Trees grow. Trees fall. It seems like the whole forest is dynamic. Considering all the clear-cutting that let up to the establishment of the national park, there is no way to even get an all-time figure.
2. When I tried to look from the trail into the thicket of thorns and spiked nettles, it gave me new respect for Sillett and Taylor's "Day of Discovery"! I don't know how anyone could make it more than six or seven feet off a trail without serious cutting tools. The underbrush is dense, and it looks painful. Mad respect to those two.
3. There really is a spiritual side to experiencing a redwood or a redwood grove that Marie Antoine describes in the book. I'm not sure that climbing to the very top adds to the awe one feels looking up, up, and away.
While there is much information about the redwoods, Preston's subtitle, "A Story of Passion and Daring," indicates where the book is headed. The two primary passions featured in the book are Michael Taylor's obsession with finding the tallest redwood on the coast, and Steve Sillett's obsession with climbing said trees.
Preston, for the most part, goes back and forth between the two stories, adding in details of Sillett's personal life--how his obsession with trees contributed to the end of his first marriage, and how it bonded him to his second wife, Marie.
These personal aspects of the book are very honest. Characters' flaws come out into the open. Unlike many reviewers here, I really liked this aspect. It gives the book a narrative arc that a normal nonfiction book about the tallest redwoods would miss.
Having hiked to the Tall Trees Grove after completing this book for the second time, I will share a few more observations about the book.
1. I really don't know how Taylor could have maintained his obsession with finding the tallest tree on the coast. Trees grow. Trees fall. It seems like the whole forest is dynamic. Considering all the clear-cutting that let up to the establishment of the national park, there is no way to even get an all-time figure.
2. When I tried to look from the trail into the thicket of thorns and spiked nettles, it gave me new respect for Sillett and Taylor's "Day of Discovery"! I don't know how anyone could make it more than six or seven feet off a trail without serious cutting tools. The underbrush is dense, and it looks painful. Mad respect to those two.
3. There really is a spiritual side to experiencing a redwood or a redwood grove that Marie Antoine describes in the book. I'm not sure that climbing to the very top adds to the awe one feels looking up, up, and away.