NONFICTION - Nov. 13, 1994

A YEAR IN THE MAINE WOODS by Bernd Heinrich (Addison Wesley: $22; 258 pp.) “By the time I was 10 years old,” Heinrich, author of “Ravens in Winter,” and “Bumblebee Economics,” tells us, “I had lived for six years as a refugee in a northern German forest.” He takes to the Maine woods to “rediscover the vividness” with which he remembers seeing things as a child, “to see nature again as I did then.” You have to appreciate and respect this desire in order to fully appreciate the pace and flavor of this delightful account. And to appreciate his loneliness, even as he accomplishes what he set out to. One of the most strange and wonderful things in this book is the author’s relationship, over far too soon, with his pet raven, Jack. “Once we were off again,” he writes of their drive to Maine, “Jack quickly resettled on his perch next to my ear. ‘You OK, Jack? You glad to see me?’ ‘ M m mm .’ ‘This is fun , huh?’ ‘Mm mm .’ He was very glad to see me, and we journeyed on.”