THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512220035
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
CHARLES KURALT'S AMERICA
CHARLES KURALT
G.P. Putnam's Sons. 279 pp. $24.95
Wouldn't it be nice to set aside a whole year to pursue a ``fanciful journey'' around the edges and into the heartland of the country? With Charles Kuralt's America, we have the perfect travel guide. Much as a deep-sea diver must do to avoid the bends when returning to the surface, Kuralt, after stepping aside from his 37-year career with CBS News in 1994, makes a gradual return to those places having special meaning to him during the seasons when they are most appealing.
Can there be much debate about New Orleans in January, Key West, Fla., in February, Charleston, S.C., in March? Kuralt remains true to his intention to ``drift with the current of life.'' In April he changes his plans to visit California's Big Sur and Monterey peninsula to return to his Connecticut farm and see the bloom of daffodils, propagated from ``Narcissus Charles Kuralt bulbs'' that were grown (and named) by Grandville Hall of Gloucester, Va.
Kuralt's talent for seeking out idyllic spots for quiet reflection is balanced with his touch for finding interesting local people whose lives often serve as models for others. Frequently they demonstrate an ability to work with their hands, which are usually guided by their hearts, in creating useful works of art.
In Charleston, Kuralt meets Philip Simmons, an 82-year-old blacksmith whose iron gates grace over 200 properties, including the Smithsonian. Then there is George ``Sonny'' Hodgson, whose family has been turning out wooden boats for work and pleasure in the same East Boothbay, Maine, boatyard since 1818. ``Slim'' Green, the old master saddle-maker of Tesuque, N.M., fashions saddles that are as comfortable to look at as they are to sit on; and young Haida native carver Lee Wallace, from Ketchikan, Alaska, is a fifth generation totem pole maker.
Often those he meets are great story tellers. Some of their stories are nothing short of amazing, such as the one he picked up in the back country of Montana about Hugh Glass, a mountain man, skinned and crippled by a grizzly bear:
``After days of carrying him on a litter, his companions gave up on him, took his bedroll, knife and gun, and left him to die in a patch of gooseberries. He couldn't walk or speak - the bear had broken his legs and torn up his throat - but he could reach the berries. Day after day, that sour fruit kept him alive. After a few weeks, he was able to crawl. He crawled and limped 200 miles to a trading post and eventually got well enough to go looking for his knife and gun.''
Blending seamlessly with this ability to collect people and places is Kuralt's gift for mixing lightly all of the essentials of what he has seen, heard, felt and tasted into stories worth knowing about. Although his style belies the energy dispensed in collecting these tales, he does not overlook the occasional need for sustenance: ``My purpose in revisiting New Orleans was to eat my way through a whole month of contented days and nights. This might be considered gluttonous any place else, but New Orleans is not any place else.''
Giving every mouth-watering detail, Kuralt begins at Commanders Palace with sauteed trout crusted with pecans, continues with braised duck at Brigtsen's, snails in brioche at Versailles, a dish of oysters, spinach and leeks at Bayona's on Dauphine Street, and concludes with a ``haute Creole masterpiece'' in a converted church known as Christian's. Perhaps feeling a little sorry for his readers, he includes a recipe from Chef Goffredo Fraccaro for Scampi La Riviera, with this aphorism, ``If you care anything about good cooking, you will thank me for this.''
Like Charles Kuralt's America, the scampi were outstanding! Thank you, Charles, we hope to hear from you again soon. MEMO: Chiles T.A. Larson, a photojournalist, is working on a series of
photo-essays about Virginia institutions. He lives in Ivy. by CNB