A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg

This is an excellent collection of thoughts and comments on the sheer edge of adventure. Cahill knows exactly how to describe the amazing stupidity of some of these adventure sports in a way that still leaves you interested in participating. Like his previous collection, Jaquars Ripped My Flesh, this book covers the gamut in place and sport, from extreme skiing in Montana to whitewater rafting in India. And while Cahill is a master at adventure writing, when he turns his pen to describing the cultures of some of the more exotic places that he has visited and the difference between their culture and our's, he's both hilarious and profound. This book is a selection of the Vintage Departures series, a group of books that I have found to be uniformly excellent.

"A Wolverine---" is the second book of articles mostly taken from "Rolling Stone" and "Outside" magazine. The articles were written as far back as 1971 when Tim was a young man indeed. And it shows. Youthful high spirits prevail, and there is much cheery bravado interspersed with excellent journalistic essays that display a remarkable maturity.Ever wonder why people chase all over the earth to view a solar eclipse? Find out on a rollicking trip to find the absolute best place to get an unclouded view. Discover what all the shouting is about.I am used to Tim somehow bringing me back alive, laughing all the way from the wildest, strangest parts of the world. I have always credited him with fine introspection and lyrical prose that sneaked into whatever he wrote. The guy is just incapable of bad writing.The essays include a fine thought piece on the late Dian Fossey, the "Gorillas in the Mist" author who was murdered apparently by poachers. The essay on "reprogramming" of children who were enmeshed in cults is harrowing. Cahill has no use for the cults, but the rationale and methods of reprogramming are chilling. He infiltrated a California cult and lived there while developing his story. The living conditions (except for the leader who lived in a mansion on the hill) were unbelievably bad, yet the morale was high among the young converts. Tim presents a balanced, sometimes humorous, article that shows empathy for all except the leader.The premier essay, which should be required reading, was his on-the-spot reporting of the Jamestown Massacre that took place in Guyana twenty years ago. The immediacy and power of his word pictures, the horror of 900 dead supposedly suicides, the incredible remoteness of the site crush with a pervasive sadness and dismay.

While Cahill is always very entertaining, his later books have focused more on the caving, scuba, climbing and flying aspects of adventure travel. In _Wolverine_ the stories include a broader variety of journalistic endeavour, taking him from Jonestown to a bizarre religious cult to encounters with mountain gorillas. This was the book that hooked me on Tim's writing.What makes it so good is, for one thing, that he's never so detached as to reek of smug pseudo-sophistication, but never so involved as to let his emotions and opinions interfere with the story. The balance between the two extremes is perfect. For another, Tim simply does and sees things hardly anyone else ever sees and does, let alone writes about. For yet another, he is often very funny in a dry, Montana sort of way. If you are new to Tim Cahill, you're in for quite a few hours of great reading.

More classic Cahill, the Dave Barry of adventure travel. Cahill separates his writings into 5 sections, Jungles of the Mind, Visions of Terror and Paradise, Wet Work, Monsters and Hoaxes, and The Raggedy Edge. The stories incorporates a lot of material from his magazine work. Some of the material is recognized from his other book `Jaguars Ripped my Flesh', although he uses it with a lot of new material. I found this book much more enjoyable than `Jaguars Ripped my Flesh'.

This stuff is terrific - can't stop reading it. I try to ration myself or the book will be finished before I can tear myself away. Cahill never fails to bring a new, irreverant, insightful view to his adventures. Read it for fun, but learn wierd things while you're at it.