Book of the Week #41

Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country edited by John R. Harris, Kay Morgan & Mike Dickerman (Littleton, NH: Bondcliff Books in partnership with Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce University, 2011)

"Beyond the Notches records the pulse of the North Country in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Its authors share an interest in close observation and the articulation of a storied relationship with the land. They scrutinize Coos, Carroll, and Grafton counties from a variety of perspectives, including archaeology, psychology, art, history, ecology, photography, journalism, and literature. Several writers explore what makes the region distinctive; others examine tensions that vex its inhabitants, or posit remedies that address its most serious ills. The majority acknowledge that the North Country can no longer rely on weather, terrain and distance to hold back influences like new arrivals with increased expectations, new technologies for communication and recreation, and new attitudes that call into question local traditions. North Country residents have begun to recognize that their way of life has evolved "beyond" the notches, and many appear interested in new approaches, several of which are outlined in this volume." (Introduction, p. 10)

A diversity of voices and an interesting collection of images, both old and new, made this volume a pleasure to read.
The included essays are collected into five parts, each begun with a quote from Robert Frost. The volume begins with "First Stories" which "reveal the primacy of the land and its features," but are also first in the sense of chronology, the competitive sense of "first place" and the sense of being essential or primal. Part 2 covers "Transformation and Change" and includes a fascinating essay by Rebecca Rule about the people who made the Berlin paper mills run. Part 3, "Working the Land"  includes essays on the working life of (among others) loggers, bootmakers, and farmers as well as the local innovations and outside forces that have shaped the North Country economy and the Stark Prisoner of War camp. "Conservation and Recreation" is the theme of part 4 which includes essays on the places those of us from "below the notches" visit the North Country for (Storyland, The Public Forests, Lake Umbagog, etc.) The final section focuses on "Competing Visions" of what the future of this region might look like.