A fascinating look at the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, a lonely and often dangerous trek in freezing temperatures over 1,023 miles of daunting wildlands from Whitehorse, Canada, to Fairbanks, Alaska. Traditionalists created the Yukon Quest some 15 years ago as a counterpoint to the commercialized Iditarod, and as a way of celebrating mushing in its raw form. A roving correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Balzar devoted more than half a year getting to know the male and female drivers of the 1998 race and following them along the racing trail. Here he presents a firsthand account of the race, addresses social issues such as the ongoing debate between animal-rights advocates and the partisans of the sport (he sides with the mushers), and offers historical facts about the Yukon Territory—in particular, the Gold Rush of the late 1800s. But Balzar is at his best when he focuses on the mushers, showing the details involved in devising a game plan (from selecting proper equipment to caring for and handling the dogs), and providing clues to the mindset needed to enter and endure such a race. Besides an adventurous spirit and a love for the wild country, mushers must also share a symbiotic relationship with their dog team. And while the drivers can’t truly prepare for such life-threatening problems as losing a dog, succumbing to hallucinations, or becoming disoriented from the cold and exhaustion, they must be prepared to respond to any threat. A harrowing experience by the eventual winner near the end of the race illustrates just how perilous it can be for even the best- prepared. As a bonus, Balzar creates wondrous landscapes of the wild north country, depicting even more dramatically the cold, solitary ordeal of the courageous drivers and dogs who commit themselves to this demanding race. (Maps, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-5949-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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