Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs

March 1, 2010
A popular essayist in Haines, Ala., follows her prior excursion (If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name, 2005) with a report on, among other relevant matters, what it's like to be hit by a truck.

In fact, Anchorage Daily News columnist Lende was"run over by a truck…flown out of town, put back together, hospitalized, and finally placed in a nursing home a thousand miles away from home until I was strong enough to travel." After such a life-threatening experience, the author did what came natural to her—she wrote about it. Now recovered and back to consider some timeless values, she proves a skilled observer of nature in the wild and nature in human form. She is the coach of the local track team, wife and mother of five and a winsome reporter on people old and young, including dear friends, stalwart citizens and brave neighbors. Lende provides pointed thoughts on mortality, occasioned only partly by the death of a parent (the book's title was her mother's valedictory); touches of Tlingit native philosophy; and reflections on the blessing of the fleet and the erection of a modern totem pole in Haines. The author loves her Alaskan home, where she can see soaring eagles, bears and other natural wonders, and her cozy whimsy is refreshing, as when she discusses her fondness for her chickens."I know chickens are not the most intelligent of creatures," she writes,"but my hens have been raised to believe the world is good and that they are loved."

Amiable in Alaska and slightly left of center, projecting the warmth of a well-made campfire.

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Starred review from April 15, 2010
While biking downtown, daydreaming about her upcoming tour for If You Lived Here, Id Know Your Name (2005), Lende was hit by a truck. Literally. It ran over her torso. So no tour, but the makings of another book, which moves as far beyond the clich's of the hurt-but-heroic personal-triumph genre as Lendes town, Haines, Alaska, is from . . . well, even Juneau and Anchorage, to say nothing of the world outside. What distinguishes it is Lendes relationship with her community and her faith, both of which present challenges as well as comforts. Small town Alaskan life aint easy. Far too many are lost to alcoholism, weather, violence, and accidents at sea and in the wild. Lende should know: she writes the local papers obits. Friendships, family, and natural beauty sustain her and other survivors. As for her faith, it isnt always easy, either. So few meet in her Episcopal congregations borrowed quarters that they have an unpaid vicar rather than a priest. God doesnt always seem to answer; why, for instance, does Lendes beloved mother go down to death still fighting, while an Alaskan friend passes away in beatific calm? Sometimes her moral compass seems to roll around rather than point north. Lende writes emotionally but never sentimentally, giving us the best Alaska memoir of late, maybe the best ever.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)