One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey (Annivers
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Product Description
To live in a pristine land … to roam the wilderness … to choose a site, cut trees, and erect a home … Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. Here is a tribute to a man in tune with his surroundings who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.
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The fact this won a book award of any derivation merely decries the overall lack of potency of that particular award. One Man’s Wilderness might be awe inspiring in terms of the mere concept of building your own cabin and living in the wilds of Alaska. But as a book, it’s downright dreadful. To repeatedly read about wood, or a man’s axe, is the personification of sandpaper licking narrative. While I immensely delight in the images shown in the photo sections, and the thought of living in the wilderness free from the modern world and it’s occasionally vicious bite, this book leaves a lot to be desired in terms of literary enjoyment.
From the beginning, we are open snapshots of the theme’s day as taken from the diary of Dick Proenneke and blown up by the translator and sort of co-leader Sam Keith. From page one, the text feels as if the leader has added words to the original notes – words the real leader never wrote – in an effort to make the whole excursion even more Homeric than it really is. I don’t know why, since the thought of building a cabin with one’s own hands is pretty significant in the first place. Why add a litany of cheesy descriptions that don’t fit the ideal being carried out by the theme of the book?
There are also details that give me cause to marvel about the theme himself. For a guy who lived alone, free of the various entanglements of modern culture, we sure see a lot of pictures of the guy. In one image, we see him effective on the roof. I can only imagine the effort spent setting up the camera and running to get to the roof in time for the picture. In another scene, we see the leader inspecting the grounds of the house-to-be. At this point in the narrative, the reader absolutely knows he is alone based on things we have read. Why all the self images? Why all the forced effort? It seems to me, despite his proclamations to the contrary, he was in desperate need of companionship.
I also feel that this man’s “stealing” of the baby caribou from it’s mother was an absolute travesty and only shows the guy should never have been in the outdoors in the first place. As the baby predictably died the next day, nothing could be more clear. Then to eat the thing is…well, I suppose utilitarian. But it rings hollow. Perhaps he should have shot it in the first place and removed the dramatic but doomed saga. I’m struck with marvel at how a guy so physically able and mentally keen can do such erratically dumb things. Baiting the wolverine is another example. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Some things the guy does seem, well, flakey. We’re not talking Walden here, that’s for sure.
I suppose the scenery of moving to Alaska and building a cabin to live solo for 30 years is the personification of flakey in this day and age. I admit it sounds clean in theory. But then, I’m bone idle and – like most Americans – addicted to the creature comforts in life. Then reality hits and I don’t see the need to carry 1-day-ancient caribou off the side of mountain in an absurd attempt to save its life. What a juxtaposition of erraticism in the modern world.
Perhaps I’m being overly critical. But in this 225 page book, we don’t see a whole lot going on additional than various forms of wood crafting and an unending stream of animal interactions. While these adventures are awesome experiences on a personal level, reading about another person’s leaves a lot to be desired. Personally, I find most of what he writes hypocritical (additional people are terrible because they kill but not me), mundane (endless woodworking descriptions), or idiotic (caribou, wolverine, self-pictures). His actions surely speak louder than his (or my) words. In fact, the words speak of a man who was inconsistent in scenery and in search of an identity, who took off for the Alaskan bush in search of himself. What he establish there is anyone’s guess, though we do have Sam Keith’s opinion about how the world of this one man played out.
Overrated and slow.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I like books that contain the kind of real details that this book contains. Properly open, fact can be more appealing than fiction. The book reads to some extent like a journal. For me, but, it deserves 3 stars because of writing quality, and because it failed to keep me reading past midnight.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
The photography is fantastic+++,the injenuety of this man makes me humble.THE BEST THING IS THAT THIS AREA WILL BE PRESERVED.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Inspiring book. Diarist was over 50 when he started this journey. Helps me look to the future for myself.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
The service was brilliant. I didn’t realize I was placing an order with a company in England and was surprised at how quickly my book arrived.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5