A Miserable Paradise - PAPERBACK
This book was supposed to be a month-by-month look at life in Ketchikan, Alaska, through the eyes of a seasoned Alaskan contemplating things like resource management and the proliferation of content in the outdoor industry. But 2020 was not typical. Between the steelhead trips and the hunts for grouse and blacktail deer, there was always the dramatic impact of the pandemic not only on the author's job as a high school teacher, but life in general.
This book is not just a look into a year in the life of a resident of Southeast Alaska. It is a time capsule, written without the benefit of hindsight, of a truly devastatingly remarkable year.
Read the review in the Anchorage Daily News.
Book Review:
“Lund occupies a unique spot in our national divide. As a consumptive user of the outdoors, he’s an instant persona non grata in many left-leaning circles (although this is less true in Alaska). And as a teacher, he’s an enemy of mankind for those on the extreme right. Yet in this book he comes across as something altogether different. An average guy with a job classified as essential and a passion that is badly misunderstood by urbanized wildlife defenders, trying to find his way through an unprecedented situation.
It’s refreshing to encounter a largely depoliticized take on 2020, and to have this be Alaska’s first book to examine the year makes it even more valuable. We need this middle ground where someone recognizes that health and economic concerns are both deeply important, and that when they come into conflict, answers aren’t easy. And policy answers aren’t forthcoming in this book. What one does find here is how the mutual stereotyping by the two ends of the political spectrum that loudly dominates our national discourse leaves little room for voices in the middle. The very voices we most need to hear.” - Anchorage Daily News