John Vaillant's The Golden Spruce (2005) is the story of a fascinating story unfortunately told in a melodramatic style that feels at odds with its "natural" setting (Haida Gwaii) -- not unlike a lot of CBC radio generated true crime podcasts, which have yet to find themselves, that never seem to get beyond the waters they're soaking in. Note to CBC: Maybe leave true crime to those who know it as all they know?
Vaillant's latest book, Fire Weather (2023), is better for its relaxed presentation of the facts. Although it opens with the 2016 Fort McMurray Fire, we are soon enough taken through the larger landscape, from the Montana-Alberta border to the arboreal forest; and once spatially oriented, into a deeper past, one that begins for the most part with colonialism, namely the Hudson's Bay Company, but also Standard Oil, whose leader, John D. Rockefeller, Vaillant describes as "the Jeff Bezos of his day." (39)
There's a lost of "of his day" comparisons in Fire Weather (Suncor or Syncrude appear as the HBC of their day, though more than one doesn't work when talking of near monopolies). For its part, CBC Vancouver's afternoon drive show has been running a contest of late asking listeners to name the so-and-so of their day. So far we have the Bob Dylan of their day, the Prince, the Joni Mitchell. To the CBC's credit, host Gloria Macarenko read out a letter that began with a critique of the "of their day" shtick -- before giving us the writer's pick of Orville Peck as the Dolly Parton of their day.
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