Looking for Alaska
More than twenty years ago, a disillusioned college graduate named Peter Jenkins set out with his dog Cooper to look for himself and his nation. His memoir of what he found, A Walk Across America, captured the hearts of millions of Americans.Now, Peter is a bit older, married with a family, and his journeys are different than they were. Perhaps he is looking for adventure, perhaps inspiration, perhaps new communities, perhaps unspoiled land. Certainly, he found all of this and more in Alaska, America's last wilderness.
Looking for Alaska is Peter's account of eighteen months spent traveling over twenty thousand miles in tiny bush planes, on snow machines and snowshoes, in fishing boats and kayaks, on the Alaska Marine Highway and the Haul Road, searching for what defines Alaska. Hearing the amazing stories of many real Alaskans--from Barrow to Craig, Seward to Deering, and everywhere in between--Peter gets to know this place in the way that only he can. His resulting portrait is a rare and unforgettable depiction of a dangerous and beautiful land and all the people that call it home.
He also took his wife and eight-year-old daughter with him, settling into a "home base" in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, coming and going from there, and hosting the rest of their family for extended visits. The way his family lived, how they made Alaska their home and even participated in Peter's explorations, is as much a part of this story as Peter's own travels.
All in all, Jenkins delivers a warm, funny, awe-inspiring, and memorable diary of discovery-both of this place that captures all of our imaginations, and of himself, all over again.
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In 1999, Peter Jenkins and his family left their farm in Tennessee to live in Alaska for a few seasons, eventually renting a house in Seward, Alaska (pop. 2,830) on the Kenai Peninsula. The principal aim of the trip was for Jenkins to write a travelogue, but he also saw it as an opportunity to end a period of personal stagnation. It appears to have worked, for Looking for Alaska is filled with a vibrancy that can only come from one with a fully charged battery. Recognizing that "This giant place is filled with people determined to live as free as possible of others' intervention," he employed the same low-key approach to research that made his bestselling book A Walk Across America (1979) so engaging--he made friends wherever he went and allowed people to share their stories in their own way and in their own time. Part of Jenkins's charm is that he never pretends that he's figured the place out; he readily cops to his outsider status and invites readers to experience his sense of awe and surprise with him. During his 18-month stay in the Last Frontier, Jenkins spent time with wildlife rangers, recreation guides, native whalers, fishermen, and dogsled mushers, all of whom showed Jenkins and his family glimpses of their own private Alaska. (They also shared their bear stories; it seems nearly everyone in the state has had at least one run-in with the giant predator). "No one is ever the same after coming back from Alaska," he writes and after reading his book, it's easy to believe him. --Shawn Carkonen
From Publishers Weekly
The footloose Jenkins (A Walk Across America; The Walk West; etc.) hits the road again if not actually the blacktop. Jenkins's 18-month sojourn in Alaska involves more unconventional modes of travel: a nervy float-plane trip through the fog with a passenger who knows the route better than the pilot, for instance, or a wild ride across a frozen river on a sled attached to 13 surging huskies. For all its moments of adventure, though, this book feels more deliberate than Jenkins's earlier journeys. The people he meets seem to have been selected in advance by a booking agent. But that doesn't take away from their stories or from Jenkins's ability to draw them out. He is no poet, but maybe that's why he fits so easily into the company of a people with a natural distrust of outsiders, and why he can bond with a fisherman who "would feel much more at home at the dinner-table with ex-football coaches John Madden and Mike Ditka." Even if Jenkins comes across as more settled and his need for self-discovery a quest that added a spark to his previous works has lessened, the author's ability to inspire confidence in others is a quality that hasn't changed. Nor has his courage to even undertake such a trek. And whether it's the crepuscular sunlight ricocheting off a glacier, a massive brown bear rooting through his garbage or a grizzled mountain man named Wild Gene, Jenkins convinces readers that there is much to look at and to look for in Alaska.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Most of us who "look for" Alaska do so as tourists; we see the incredible rugged beauty of the Inside Passage and gaze with wonder at the glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, and other sights located in areas devoid of any sign of human habitation. Many residents, on the other hand, see a very different place; they face a daily challenge to survive in an unforgiving land. Then there are those like Jenkins neither resident nor tourist who are determined to go beyond the visible and look for the spirit. During his 18-month journey throughout Alaska, the author of the best-selling A Walk Across America found what he was looking for. He shares that experience in a narrative that sparkles with adventure, quirky characters, unbelievable hardships, and indescribable beauty. Not intended for the casual tourist, this book is for those who seek to understand the heart and soul of America's most distinctive state. For all public libraries. Joseph L. Carlson, Lompoc P.L., CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Customer Reviews
Looking for Alaska
I am still in the process of reading this book but what I have read so far is really great. I am looking to travel to Alaska in 2009 and a travel consultant I have been talking to recommended that I read this book.
The book really gives a great insight into the ordinary every day Alaskan lives which has just made me want to see Alaska even more.
I recommend this book to anyone whether you want to see Alaska or not. It is just a great read.
Read the book - take the trip
We've been to Alaska twice and are planning our third trip soon. This is an extraordinarily capturing and surprising place. Our trips there avoid the touristy cruise ship or resort hotel thus allowing us to stay in towns much like Jenkins did during his 18 months there. This style allows you to be with and enjoy Alaskan residents.
What Jenkins did was is to involve himself far more deeply than our experiences and that made this book remarkable for us. I liked his writing style as it made for a comfortable read. Yes, there are errors, but they are few. What's memorable is that each of his chapters highlights some adventure or someone's personality. It's been some time since I finished it and yet I still think back on this work and recall much of it. Peter Jenkins left a series of images in my head that are going to be there for a long while. My only regret was that we missed Hobo Jim. An interesting guy (check out his web site). He will be on our agenda next trip.
I'm on the Amazon site as I am ordering some copies for friends. Looking for Alaska is a terrific book and a must read for any of you with a sense of wonder for the wilderness. It is easy to not only tout Jenkins's book but Alaska as well. Destination and book are tops.
Alaska speaks for itself
I read this book before a trip to Alaska, and admittedly, ours was only a small boat cruise in the inside passage, so I knew I would experience only a part of Alaska from a tourist's vantage point. I wanted a bigger view of this remarkable state and hoped Jenkins would deliver that in this account of his family's 18-month residence in the state. It did - most of the time. I felt Jenkins took me to places I would never be able to go and gave me a true sense of the state. His was a journey based on the day-to-day interactions, discoveries, struggles and surprises of one who intends to know a place and its people more deeply. Jenkins creates a vision of the landscape and the people, and in its richest moments, this book is almost as good as the real thing.
But - it is too long (editing would have cured this), and poorly written (editing would have cured this as well). More than once, I puzzled over sentences that I wanted to correct. When speaking of the caretaker near a family living in the bush, we read this about the neighbor's disposition: "If the current one, Dave, was a bit grumpy one day, he'd try to tell Mike and Pete how to snow-machine the winter trail, except he'd never done it." Or this for example: " In the early morning, the kids' chores began. Eric wanted Mike and Pete to go across the lake about two miles. I went along to help; we were going to retrieve some doghouses to keep the team in."
I am quite willing to labor over a complex but beautiful sentence to get at the essence, but his is just plain bad writing. Too many examples like this slow the pace and distract the reader. At 434 pages, strenuous editing could have achieved more with less.
That aside, when Jenkins lets the landscape and the people speak for themselves, the reader gets a sense of the real Alaska. On the whole, I enjoyed it and felt it prepared me for the little bit of Alaska I was about to see. Just allow yourself enough time to wade through the verbal bush.
Related Links : Product by Amazon or shopping-lifestyle-20 Store
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น