Going to Extremes

Joe McGinniss divulges Alaska---its geography, its people and socioeconomics, and its image as seen by residents, transients, and visitors---in vivid prose that is simply hard to put down. Here is a guy who loves reading maps and pays close attention to a land's features that are way beyond ordinary: coastal glaciers, unnamed and perhaps unexplored mountains, and details of an unforgiving climate and extended summer daylight that are alien to most readers from the lower 48 states. He describes the interplay of sun, clouds, and the land and always comments on the mountains that are visible from any one of his destinations. McGinniss not only has a powerful sense of place but also has an uncanny ability to share this sense to his readers, allowing them to form a mental image of the beauty and mystery that he sees and experiences. Some of the most interesting parts of the book include his encounter with Olive, a native American girl who is torn between staying with her family in western Alaska and trying out the "other life" in Washington DC, a place where hardly anyone from her group can be found.Another interesting thing about the book is that this was written by this guy who was hardly a hiker, who later dwells in deliberate isolation for a few days at a cabin by a lake fringed by mountains where not another soul was present, and who, at the end of book (a climactic end, I should say, and where finally he mentions grizzly bears after I started wondering why he never mentioned them before!), finds himself hanging on to dear life in pursuit of a ledge that could get him closer to the goal of his companions in the scarcely explored hinterlands of the Brooks Range. This last chapter was lengthy---but for a good reason. After the establishment of Gates of the Arctic National Park, I bet that the grizzly bear territory that McGinnis and his hiking companions, and the breathtaking meadow that they stumbled upon, have been rediscovered by many a hiker or backpacker. Nevertheless, reading a book like this 25 years later after its inception, gives me the vicarious experience of fresh discovery and makes me hope that one's personal discovery is enough for the rest of us to be comforted with the existence of untouched and untrammeled wilderness. Which, I do hope, Alaska still has vast reserves of it.

This magnificiently written "fly-on-the-wall" narrative about The Last Frontier is pretty dead-on and holds up after 20 odd years later. I have travelled many portions of the state on leisure expeditions and felt his emotions throughout each page. The most valuable asset of this book is its ability to both entertain the sourdough among us and in addition vividly depict the Alaskan aura for those who have never been. There are no slow moments: witty, poignant, and eloquent structure make this the most enjoyable book I have ever read - in actual fact, it is the Only book I have ever read whereas upon finishing the last page, I immediately began reading again! Favorite anecdote: In describing the residents of Alaska as thinking about Alaska all the time as if it was an entity onto itself in their lives, he states that this is a unique state of mind in that you would not, say, find people walking around Toledo contemplating the "Essence of Ohio".

McGinniss' picture of the Last Frontier definitely squares with the descriptions my wife (a sourdough, 32 years in Alaska) shares with me. Between her and Mr. Bane, below, I'm pretty confident in its accuracy.But that isn't very important, because as you will see, telling tall tales to chichoccos (tenderfeet) is so Alaskan that if McGinniss had fabricated a good portion of the material, it would still retain its Alaskan character. What's most important is the close-up view you get of the people, the land, the weather, and the wildlife and the ways they all interact. I don't think McGinniss ate mucktuck in the book (smart man), but he immersed himself in Alaska pretty deeply nonetheless. A very easy read; that rare book that is light and deep at the same time.

I don't know anything about Alaska until I read this book. I have no idea whether it is accurate or not the way he described that remote area. But my heart was following him everywhere he went and every feeling he got. I chewed on every word, and was totally lost in the last episode when they found this beautiful meadow. I was speechless after I closed the book. I sat at the beach, and had it to myself again and again, that beautiful meadow, the peace, the harmony...Thank you, Joe!

My wife and I happened to be included in Joe's book. I spent time with him during his Brooks Range hike. Joe was a great companion and had a unique way of making us all laugh. His version of the hike is amazingly accurate and sensitive to the character of the land. He has the unique ability to make you laugh at him and youself.