Review: Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North

Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North by Adam Weymouth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I squeezed in another book for my year of reading Canada and Alaska (and this book travels to both since the Yukon River extends through Alaska and Western Canada.) I was expecting more of a travel narrative about the author's canoe trip(s) up and down the Yukon River in 2016 and 2017, but this is almost exclusively about the king/Chinook salmon. It reminded me a lot of another book entirely about fish that I read, never expecting I'd read another: Cod by Mark Kurlansky.

To be fair, is there any other area so closely tied to a single species for its livelihood?

I felt the author was strongest in his reporting of facts (economics and trends of fish, history of fishing in the region and worldwide), not very good at describing the landscape, and started to make connections I wish he'd spent more time on (identity without fish, regulation as a form of cultural erasure, etc.) It is decent and current but not the best non-fiction Yukon account I read this year.

View all my reviews