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Salt Marsh Diary

by Mark Seth Lender
St. Martin's. Apr. 2011. c.128p. illus. ISBN 9780312656010. $19.99. NAT HIST
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Lender, best known as a contributor to NPR's Living on Earth, here crafts a series of essays marking the passage of the seasons outside his Connecticut window. His sparse yet lyrical prose shows the natural world of the salt marsh in all its glory, with the detached description of a naturalist and the intimacy of an inhabitant. He draws incisive and often unexpected parallels between the rhythms and locales of the salt marsh and society at large, highlighting especially the humor and irony. In "animal personals," a series of personal ads from the marsh dwellers, he writes, "I'm a thief and I dig it! Recently WW M Raccoon 29, pleasingly plump, knows every garbage can in town and willing to share, wants woman same age who knows how to stay out of traffic."
VERDICT This lively work will appeal to the poetic at heart and nature lovers alike, particularly those who feel the gulf between the world they live in and the simplicity of the world outside. Recommended.
Reviewed by Marianne Stowell Bracke, Purdue Univ. Libs., West Lafayette, IN , Jan 01, 2011
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