Coming into the Country is written in somewhat desultory thirds. The first of which, describing a trip down the Salmon River in the company of state and federal wildlife officials, provides the better reading of the three. The second relates the aborted attempt of the state, flush with speculative oil money, to build a shining new capital in the bush thereby relegating Juneau to the remote backwater that many in the state already considered it to be.
McPhee ends his book with a lengthy description of Eagle, Alaska and the residents therein. Alaskans, arguably the last of America's frontiersmen, continue to provide some measure of awe to us of the "lower 48". To his credit, McPhee uncovers some truly heroic characters, but a fair percentage are merely misanthropes whose appearance in outpost Alaska, though unquestionably providential, presents more an unintended and wearing parody than the serious subject matter McPhee presumably seeks.
Still, Coming into the Country provides an intriguing if dated look at an American anomaly. Alaska remains an outpost where most Americans will never set foot. Though our 49th state, it seemingly exists a world apart from the rest of the country. Cruise ships may bring tourists to littoral rest stops, but how can any of us from the outside truly comprehend the scale of such a land? Coming into the Country provides at least a kernel of comprehension but, more importantly, a hunger to hunt for more.
From characters like the author himself -- who changes and is challenged himself by the environment -- to fellow canoe riders, to grisslies, to yuppie suburbanites, to the self-made, this book delves into what makes people move to Alaska, to adapt, to stay, to survive, to be frustrated, and to not want to be anywhere else.Fascinating reporting on an Alaska that no longer exists In the mid 1970s, John McPhee turned his powers of description toward Alaska at a time when the "Alaskan way of life" was under siege. Alaska had been a state less than 20 years. The claims of natives to the land had been resolved by putting millions of acres in the hands of native corporations. The old "tradition" of immigrants to the land being able to plop down and build a cabin almost anywhere was disappearing under the burden of new regulations. Huge new national parks were designated, and at the same time the pipeline was being constructed, highlighting the old conflict between development and ecology, between preservation and self-determination.
Sadly, the Alaska that McPhee wrote about no longer exists. In the first segment, he writes about the Brooks Range wilderness, and discusses the controversy around establishing the "Gates of the Arctic" National Park there. That park is now established. In the second segment, he writes about the aftereffects of the decision to move the state capital from Juneau to somewhere north of Anchorage. That move never occurred. In the third (and longest and most compelling) segment, he reports on the lives of the people of isolated Eagle, Alaska, a town that today boasts a fax machine.
The third segment is where McPhee's writing really shines: I don't think anyone has ever conveyed the personality of Alaska and Alaskans as well as McPhee has. My favorite was the story of how one man and his son managed to get an entire C9 Caterpillar bulldozer into the middle of nowhere, clearing their way through 70-foot winter drifts, to set up a gold dredging operation. McPhee conveys the extreme beauty and wildness of the place, and the fire and determination of the people to belong to it.
I was sad but impressed to find McPhee accurately foretelling the Exxon Valdez tragedy by predicting that an oil spill in Prince William Sound was the greatest threat to Alaska's environmental health. However, McPhee's account is remarkably balanced; if you're looking for polemic (either pro or anti-environmentalism, for example), you won't find it.
In sum, I give this book five stars for the quality of the writing and the insight, but four for being somewhat dated. If you want to learn more about what Alaska was like, you couldn't do better than this, but if you want to know what it's like NOW, you might prefer to supplement this otherwise wonderful book with something else.