Fungal: Foraging in the Forest by Ariel Gordon [Non-fiction Review]

Summary 💬

Fungal is a wide-ranging collection from Ariel Gordon where she explores her fascination with all mushrooms, not just those you can eat. In these engaging essays she takes the reader through ditches and puddles in search of morels, through the hallways of a mushroom factory, down city sidewalks and beside riverbanks as she considers things found and fungal. Along the way there are entertaining stories of the perils of mushroom identification, including mailed mushrooms that have liquefied, or terrifying thoughts of Canadian geese being fed hallucinogenic mushrooms as well as thoughtful analysis of the ways mushrooms knit our ecosystems together and the ways we knit our lives and communities together. Smart, funny and poetic, Gordon moves seamlessly from the natural world to the personal in these essays, examining the interconnectedness of all things and delighting in the rich variety of the world around her.

Publisher website

Review ✍🏻

I haven’t yet read Ariel Gordon’s debut collection of creative nonfiction Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests, to which Fungal Foraaging in the Forest may be considered a sequel. But, as Gordon and I share a hometown, her name was familiar to me as a local writer (she’s perhaps best known for her poetry). As I grow older, I find myself drawn more to writing about the places familiar to me. So, this title piqued my interest due to its focus on mushrooms and its local setting.

There wasn’t a place mentioned that I didn’t know! I especially enjoyed the focus on Assiniboine Forest, the history of Loveday Mushroom Farms, and when Gordon finally makes a trip out to Birds Hill. (I was a little shocked by the aspersion cast towards the park before she actually visits but I suppose there was some truth in it…) I think it’s hard for me to separate my enjoyment of this book from my familiarity with the places within it, so your mileage may vary.

Gordon’s +20 years as an amateur mushroom enjoyer (there must be a word for this??) makes her exploration and reflections on the topic enjoyable for someone like me. That is, someone who can appreciate a neat looking mushroom while on a stroll but doesn’t know anything about them. She shares intriguing knowledge and perspectives without boring the reader with too many scientific particulars. The personal reflections remain grounded in the topic. Sometimes essay collections seem to stray too far forom their marketed topic. Not so in Fungal. Each essay links clearly to mushrooms while exploring it from a fun perspective like mushroom kitsch or growing mushrooms from a book. Several essays include poems. There’s nothing too heavy here – if you like mushrooms and you like personal reflections, check out Fungal.

Lastly, I want to note somewhere that Fungal is clearly a ‘pandemic’ book, but not overtly so, so if you are touchy about that sort of thing like I am then have no fear. It was experienced and written primarily from 2020 to 2023, but COVID is not a focus of any of the essays.

The Bottom Line 💭

Though it’s hard for me to objectively prescribe how enjoyable this book may be if you’re not familiar with its locales, I can more confidently recommend it for those who enjoy their creative nonfiction essays of a reflective yet topical nature.

(…I considered rewriting that sentence but I am struggling with reviews these days and am amused by its length so it stays.)

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Under the Cover @ All Lit Up
🍂 Reviews: Prairie Fire
🍂 Related: For more thoughts on Canadian non-fiction, check out my posts on Joy Ogawa’s Gently to Nagasaki or Adrienne Clarkson’s Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship.

Are you a mushroom enjoyer?
Do you have a favourite nature topic to read about?