Review of Plenty (from GoodReads.com)

Note: Minor spoiler alert; some comments refer to events that some readers may not be interested in before hand. Such comments are brief and ought not to diminish the pleasure of reading the book if you so choose.

4 of 5 stars

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon

My expectations for Plenty were high and, having read a number of related books, I felt prepared to jump into it. What shook me, despite my familiarity with the subject, is the profoundly personal nature of Plenty. This humble record not only tells the story of seasonal food in British Columbia, it tells the story of the real struggle of its protagonists and co-narrators. In this way it diverges from my expectations in the most delightful of ways. I know the realities--some personally, other...more My expectations for Plenty were high and, having read a number of related books, I felt prepared to jump into it. What shook me, despite my familiarity with the subject, is the profoundly personal nature of Plenty. This humble record not only tells the story of seasonal food in British Columbia, it tells the story of the real struggle of its protagonists and co-narrators. In this way it diverges from my expectations in the most delightful of ways. I know the realities--some personally, others by hearsay--of seasonal eating: the struggle of early fruitless spring, the richness rhubarb's vegetable sweetness, the canning and freezing of late summer that lasts into the fall, the preparation of jams and other preserves, and so on. Alisa Smith and James B MacKinnon recounts these in their turn, slightly different due to their more northerly clime, but familiar all the same.

What stands out all the more are their private accounts of these tasks in the context of their lives. A dear family member passes away, another struggles through a relationship failure, the two deal with each other's painfully quiet feuds, and eventually enjoy the commencement of friends' weddings. In addition, they provide some suggestion and some clarity on their own insights as they go about the labors of their professions; from the indigenous people of the Salish Sea to the famine and climate crises in Malawi, the two manage to write eloquently and passionately of their own fortunes and shortcomings.

It is not uncommon for a good book to have its emotional effects on me, but in the most sincere way, Smith and MacKinnon bring the reader into their lives. Comparisons to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver are expected, but what stands out is the richness of encountering the people of their landscape; the farmers, fishers, and friends are as honestly and successfully portrayed as either of the writers, for which I am immensely grateful. Unlike some seasonal eaters, I am not among the new wave of future farmers--though I know a few who are. What I find herein is hope on the scale of a modest urbanite, an earnest eater, someone who experiences the seasons with hands, stomach, and heart.

Though I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested, and thoroughly commend the writers, its prose wavers at times and its multi-centered focus can occasionally confuse rather than elucidate. In certain ways, such commentary is hardly a criticism as much as a recognition of the complexity of Smith and MacKinnon's task. Covering a personal culinary memoir, the frustrations of a maturing relationship, the history of modern agriculture, the food politics of British Columbia, and the hardships of people one encounters along the way is simply monstrous. It is, indeed, miraculous that these two intrepid souls succeed as well as they do. I cannot say that the task might be better done or appropriately lessened and still be what it ought to be, and so I add this critique with its own grain of "sinner's salt."