VERMONT ODYSSEYS edited by C.L. Gilbert...

VERMONT ODYSSEYS edited by C.L. Gilbert (Plume: $10.95). Although the essays in this anthology celebrate life in contemporary New England, the authors eschew the standard, semi-humorous discussions of woodpiles, old stone walls and unsuccessful attempts at gardening. A few of the writers still make a living off the land: In “Some Things We Do for Lamb,” Don Mitchell discovers that “farmers do not so much work with nature as conspire against it.” But most of these pieces focus on the shift away from agriculture in Vermont and the concomitant destruction of the qualities that made the state a desirable place to live. Readers more than 3,000 miles away will recognize the litany of complaints about the creeping urbanization and gentrification that makes homes unaffordable to middle-class buyers and transforms orchards into condominium complexes and public thoroughfares into private streets in guarded enclaves.