“Published to acclaim in 2020, Restigouche reads almost like a parable or allegory about the arrival of colonial rules, private property law and resource exploitation, and the exclusion of people from their own native land and resources. Told with a journalist’s objectivity and a poet’s sensibility, Lee’s Restigouche is an extraordinary work of research and finely-crafted writing that should be revisited and widely shared.”
Wanda Baxter, Miramichi Reader
“Lee offers ... concrete descriptions of the life that flows around him, which he complements with engaging chapters on the complex, multi-layered history of the region.”
Literary Review of Canada
“Elegantly written… innovative and thoughtful… Restigouche offers valuable inspiration for studies of other Canadian rivers, large and small… all students of rivers will be enriched by reflecting on his work…. This is a carefully crafted book, a personal testimony set within a wider context of impersonal forces that have been exerted across dozens of generations.”
Peter Clancy, The Journal of New Brunswick Studies
“In Restigouche, Philip Lee offers a rich and immersive travel memoir full of adventure, as well as the history of place and its people, a philosophical and ecological treatise, and a plea, if not a lament, for the natural world and all the living beings that depend on it. One man’s love and exploration of this one river offer the reader a glimpse of what’s possible when we pay due respect and attention to the world’s wild places, not to mention to the people who dwell there, and what calamity awaits when, as happens all too often, greed and decadence get the upper hand.”
Naomi K. Lewis, Judge, New Brunswick Book Awards.
“Using an ambitious canoe trip as the structure for his story, Lee takes readers through calm waters, white rapids and occasional portages to share the many characters and events that have shaped the region’s rich history. The journey is long, deep and involved, but moves with a comfort and confidence rarely found in texts of this complexity.”
Grid City Magazine
"This stunning book published by Goose Lane Editions is a beautiful and poetic love letter to one of Canada's most beautiful rivers."
[EDIT]ION
“In Restigouche: The Long Run of the Wild River, author Philip Lee takes us, physically and emotionally, along this mighty river, each bend and turn akin to life’s fluctuations, as the text follows Lee in part autobiographically, in part as a researcher, along its banks and the surrounding geography… This is a special book, for many reasons. Learning more of this land’s history—snapshots of people, place and time, is invaluable. Armchair research, exploration, and this connecting kind of travel experience is needed, it seems, now more than ever. And of course with an eye to our environment, where water plays its perennial and pivotal role. Author Philip Lee shares and enlightens us—a flow of observations, insights and engaging storytelling through moving topography, quite literally, in the river and book called Restigouche.”
Bill Arnott, The Miramichi Reader
"Extraordinarily well crafted—what is essentially an academic exercise has been transformed into a hard-to-put-down page turner, as compelling as a fine novel."
Jim Gourlay, Saltscapes Magazine
Growing up in Dalhousie next to beautiful Restigouche river as it floods into the Bay of Chaleur was a daily pleasure. Amongst the newsprint fumes of burning bark, the rumbling of power generation and chemical manufacturing, there resides the worlds best salmon river. Natives on The Bar and Cross Point learned generations ago that their survival depended on nurturing the river and the Europeans who began destroying it. Their story is a love story worth every single sentence in this lovely written book. The Irving’s with their clear cuts and hidden agenda on profits over the environment have destroyed New Brunswick and the Salmon who once were so abundant. Stories of the Vanderbilt’s, President’s, Royalty who came to this river to divulge in Salmon fishing while gorging on elaborate meals of fiddleheads, deer, smelts, alpine and meat pie. The Natives and French have built simple but grand satisfying lives while the English only take from this small lovely place in the world. If you want to experience heaven, fly into Charlo, NB, take a drive up Highway 11, drop a canoe into the Restigouche River, sip some cold beer, fry some McCain fries over an open fire and watch 45 lbs salmon jumping around you. Thank You Philip Lee, this book is a treasure of Canadian Life that has become lost and forgotten. It will become mandatory reading in all Canadian schools in a very short time. Bon Ami!
Andy Neal
"Rivers are remarkably resilient, but they do not wash away our sins." That line from the first few pages of my dear friend Philip Lee 's new book hooked me like one of the salmon that once ran prodigiously through "this magnificent river, the finest salmon river in the world". Philip shines a light on the river's astonishing history, rich with jaw-dropping tales and fascinating people – I couldn't put it down. He also shines a light on the sins that were committed against the river and the Mi'gmaq nations, whose history is intertwined with and indistinguishable from that of the river. How did it happen that the government and the wealthiest and most influential family in the province alone came to have lodges along the Restigouche? How did this great river, "a miracle of nature" become just another object to be traded in backroom deals with one of the wealthiest families on the continent? The manner in which this happened, and the gross dichotomy between life at the salmon lodges, overrun with "international bankers, merchant princes and industrial tycoons", and the life of poverty and suffering of the Mi’gmaq, left me seething. So did the description of flying over the river and witnessing the vast clearcuts from the sky. “Like most of us,” he writes, “I had imagined that the interior of the province still maintained at least some of the characteristics of the forest primeval when in fact it is no longer that at all.” This is a brilliantly crafted book by Philip Lee!
Luis Cardoso
“This book is masterful. Far more than a travel memoir, it connects all the dots.”
Jacques Poitras
“Philip Lee paddled up a river in search of its stories and returned with an unforgettable tale of a wild place and the people who shaped its history. An investigative journalist and seasoned river man, Lee is a master storyteller in his element, steering the story along with prose as fluid and graceful as the river he loves. This book will fire up your sense of adventure and make you yearn for wild places.
Barbara L.
“Magnificent. A grand and sweeping tale that is also the story of New Brunswick, of the Maritimes, of Canada. What Philip Lee has done in Restigouche is compose a compelling, poetic love letter to the forever river of his life. This book is his plea for conservation, protection, and restoration. But it is also, happily, a book filled with love of the river and hope for its future.”
Roy MacGregor
“Journey down an ancient wild river with a seasoned river man and gifted storyteller. Hear the aspirations and hearts of the original river people of this land called Mi'gmag'i and the newcomers who have grown to love this river and the gifts she shares with all who take the time.”
Cecelia Brooks
“In this love story about a wild river, a metaphor for all love stories about wild places, Lee describes the intricate and intimate experience, the profound caring, and deep pleasures of a long-term relationship and, in the telling, connects us with All That Is.”
Freeman Patterson
