The Frog Run: Words and Wildness in the Vermont Woods

by John C. Elder

The North Woods tradition of making maple syrup serves as an illuminating backdrop for John Elder’s reflections on nature, literature, playfulness, and fatherhood, as he builds a sugaring house with his sons.

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2001

Reviews

[George Christie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no doubt John Elder is a fine person and professor (as the book takes great pains to point out), but that's no reason to pick up this very modest book. I knew I was in trouble when he started expounding on his disorderly array of books in his office at Middlebury College. Of course he needs to not only point out the array but give enough titles to prove he's a hell of a reader. Sigh. He's an English professor, for crying out loud, being well-read is kind of assumed. It doesn't get more interesting.

I finally realized just how not-for-me this book was, was when I read (included to make the book seem more substantial I think) Scott Slovic's essay on John Elder and he pointed out, "What's remarkable about this essay (the book contains three essays) is the acuity with which it addresses Elder's primary audience of college English professors and administrators." Not having the necessary literary background, the profound connections have little meaning for me.

The one thing I find interesting about this book is the disconnect between what we are told about the author and what the author actually presents. We are told he is a wonderful professor, great writer and true friend, but these essays convey little of that warmth and understanding. That being said, I suppose if you want to hear one man's jumbled literary connections to nature, coupled with a pedestrian account of maple sugaring, this will be an adequate read.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book opened really well. The first section touches on numerous, wildly disparate things: sugar-making, Wordsworth, the game of Go, and Aldo Leopold, to name a few. Elder comes across as an individual that one would admire and like, and his orientation toward nature and ecology is admirable.

The fist essay also touches on the meaningfulness of the Bible and the Psalms to Elder, and I have to admit that this was kind of a downer. Elder is positioned somewhere between a Zen Buddhist and a fundamentalist Christian, or at least has a strong affinity to this religion in which he was raised. (I am pretty cynical about formal Christian movements, though I admit to having met many Christians whose spirituality deeply impresses.)

The second major section of the book was a 'portrait' of Elder, and I found this section to be tedious. It is clear enough that Elder was a good man/ecologist/teacher/etc., but I think the focus of this section varied too much from personal perspectives to biography to cohere enough for me.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent essays on nature and maple sugaring

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth star is more out of respect for the writer than love of this particular writing.