Notes from the Other Side

Most of us know Marc B. Fried for his five books of Shawangunk region history and nature writing. But Fried is also a columnist: his “Notes From The Other Side” has appeared monthly for nearly 9 years in the Shawangunk Journal, a weekly print newspaper. Now Fried has selected and edited the best of these periodical writings and compiled them into a 339-page book that bears his column's title.

Readers who've enjoyed Fried's regional focus will not be disappointed, for there are a wealth of anecdotes, descriptions and musings here that relate to the Shawangunks and the Wallkill and Rondout valleys, including history, wilderness, farm life and gardening. But Notes from the Other Side is also filled with exotic adventure, social commentary and engaging humor: there are stories of cross-country hitchhiking, winter mountaineering, overseas travel and fascinating personalities and interactions, as well as stories from Fried's earlier years as a professional musician. These span more than half a century and encompass great diversities of geography and culture—an intimate interweaving of action with retrospection, radical thought with rural reminiscing, of microcosm with macrocosm, that readers will find both entertaining and thought-provoking.