In this rambling memoir from “America’s heartland of organic produce,” literary scholar Raskin (For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman
) recalls a pleasant year visiting farm friends in Sonoma, Calif. Following the chronology of one season, he goes to farms, markets and restaurants, profiling Mexican workers, talking with small-farm advocates and even harvests vegetables himself. The breezy, romantic prose is peppered with literary references, and, at times, awkward academic language. His descriptions of meals seem limited to “sumptuous,” “delicious” and “excellent”; similarly, the analysis tends to be cursory. After listening to one industrious produce seller’s story, Raskin evokes a simple “Wow!” The closest his research comes to a serious investigation is a description of employees at the Sonoma Whole Foods Market, a company he openly dislikes. The story’s overarching countercultural bent intensifies the aging academic’s apparent longing for the revolutionary roots of organic foods. The redemptive aspect of this memoir lies in its intensely local specificity—Northern California’s marijuana-growing culture and a feeling of youthfulness—although the sprawling narrative imparts more of a gauzy, poetic impression than any cohesive ideas about food or farming. 22 b&w photos. (May)
