by Peter Jenkins

I originally posted the following review on Amazon.com.

This is the first book review I have written (on Amazon.com) and it is not a favorable one. I noticed with amazement that of the 95 reader reviews posted on this site up to this point, 92 give this book a four or five star rating. The three that didn’t, rated it very low; one of those readers didn’t finish the book and one seemed to have an environmental issue that seemed to color the review.

I, on the other hand, did finish the book, but only after gritting my teeth and wading through it (I am bound for Alaska in another month and wanted to get as much insight as possible).

My problems with the book are primarily the poor writing and the author’s continual insertion of his own value judgments. Rather than simply allow the stories he tells about the places and people he encounters to create the images in the reader’s mind, he insists on telling us what we should think and how we should feel about just about everything. An example of this is the chapter when he describes two teachers, Eric and Dean, living in Deering: “Teachers that come to the Alaska bush from hometowns in Florida or Idaho, like Dean and Eric, or other places Outside should have certain personality traits to maximize their experience. They should possess the wayward, flexible spirit of the explorer, the ability to be thrilled by the unknown, and the `I don’t care what people think’ attitude of the rebel.” He then tries to convince the reader that Dean and Eric fit these categories by telling when they were born and some stories from their childhoods. He doesn’t provide much in the way of current information about them other than mentioning some superficial, physical attributes such as “Dean was tall, well built, energetic, and handsome.” I still have no idea what these two teachers are like as individuals; they may as well be polar bears wandering out on the ice somewhere.

The flow of the book is also very ragged. For example, there is a chapter that starts out about Hobo Jim and how he entertains. After a couple a paragraphs, we are on a bear adventure that happened three years earlier that had very little to do with Hobo Jim other than he was there. In the final chapter, when the family is packing up to go home, there is a passage that describes his daughter’s marriage in Alaska that occurred sometime in the previous year and a half. These unrelated ramblings seem to occur for no reason at all and detract from the story.

The best writing in the book, unfortunately, is taken from passages written by Peter’s daughter, Rebekah, in her e-mails and journal. Her passages, however, only highlight how poorly written the rest of the book is.

Lastly, how intelligent can an individual be who loses his father-in-law’s rifle on a moose hunt (when he is carrying it on his shoulder) and doesn’t even realize it? If this is what Peter Jenkins learned while he was in Alaska for a year and a half, I think it was definitely time for him to go home.

The cover of the book quotes a review that states that “On an Alaskan high, he is unmatched by Jack London or Robert W. Service…” I don’t think so.