BACK TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD

by Hans Ruesch ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1973

In 1950 Hans Ruesch wrote the very successful Top of the World -- ""strewn with little igloos that have turned to graves"" -- the home of the Eskimos which means Eaters of Raw Meat (it might be the one who ate his own frozen feet), the Eskimos who call themselves the Men ""to let the world know they are the only real ones."" Essentially this is more of a documentary than a novel (as against James Houston's The White Dawn, 1971) and it is full of fascinating, indigenous, informative material on this childlike, happy people who lead ""the hardest life known to mankind"" which reduces to a matter of survival; their taboos and charms and angakoks; their isolation from a faster changing world -- particularly that of Papik and Vivi who with some 200 others, all that's left, still live on the ice which never melts. Perhaps closer to animals than human beings; certainly more acceptant -- putting their worthless girl child out to die, stuffing her mouth with ice to make her freeze more quickly; submitting to the old customs which sometimes help to achieve perpetuity. Ruesch has told their story with a compliant and consonant simplicity -- an inductive realism which further serves to light up this world of the long polar night.

Pub Date: June 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION