THE YEAR-LONG DAY: One Man's Arctic

A stereotypic man-against-the-elements tale of the frozen North. Ruud, a loner and something of a misanthrope, spent four years in the Norwegian Arctic exulting in the desolate solitude and honing his survival instincts. A. E. Maxwell (pen name of a husband-and-wife freelance team) used Ruud's diary to recreate the ""pageant of mauve tundra and knife-edged grey mountains."" And even though the writing is rather florid for a meager tale of blinding blizzards, snarling huskies, 1000-lb. white bears, and the kerosene lamp held against the three-month Arctic night, it may snare those who feasted on Grizzly Adams and The Adventures of the Wilderness Family. Environmentalists will be less enchanted, since the killing of foxes for their pelts seems to have been Ruud's main business up there.