Fitfully laced with interior monologues, a chronicle of a distraction-laden trip that never lives up to its pretensions.
Journal of a kayak expedition on the largely unmapped, unexplored Lugenda River in Mozambique: something of a comedown from Stark’s adventure reporting in Last Breath (2001).
For starters, his 15-day trip—down the Lugenda from Belem to its confluence with the Ruvuma some 200 miles to the northeast—is less than the epic journey suggested by the book’s inflated subtitle. The faint aroma of compromise, which Stark himself is quick to identify, is present from the start. He has been invited to join the kayaking venture by Cherri Briggs, an American tour operator based in Botswana who implies that someone who can write like Stark could boost her business. Group dynamics are roiled by two unpaid South African guides, Rod and Clinton (the latter raised in Zimbabwe), who accompany Briggs, her brother Steve and the author. Stark is immediately appalled by the pair’s racist humor and open attitude of white superiority when dealing with the locals. What’s worse, inexperienced kayaker Briggs at the outset seems to see herself as the river boss as well as the sponsor. That misconception gets straightened out over a series of portages, dashes through rapids and random misadventures. Constant allusions to the threat of crocodiles and hippos with teeth like “railroad spikes” remain mostly allusions, although both are observed in number. In the absence of mortal danger, Stark’s recurring diarrhea becomes a subtext; after one harrowing day, he has the epiphany that a native African hunter of his age (48) would be relegated to tending the fire while younger stalwarts (a somewhat rueful nod to Clinton and Rod) do the manly stuff. His interjected tales of original African explorers like Ledyard, Mungo Park and even Vasco da Gama, presumably intended to add dimension to the two-week experience, are only marginally effective.
Fitfully laced with interior monologues, a chronicle of a distraction-laden trip that never lives up to its pretensions.Pub Date: June 8, 2005
ISBN: 0-345-44181-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
Jaunty, artless dispatches from some very unusual skiing locales—Iran, northwestern China, Bolivia, etc.—by outdoor writer Finkel. The most outrageous skiing venues are Finkel’s chosen terrain, and as skiing is often an unknown activity thereabouts, he fancies himself part powderhound ambassador without portfolio, part merry prankster, forever trying to ignite a gag about the circumstances. It feels almost accidental that he also conveys a sense of the remote, or at least wild, landscapes he engages with, but he does, after a fashion: a roof-of-the-world herder’s encampment where he gives ski lessons to Kazakh horsemen; a flash down the snowcap of Kilimanjaro; the northern lights zapping his circuitry as he skis the night above Yellowknife; hairy tree-dodging on the diamond slopes of Mad River Glen in the Green Mountain State; testing the properties of friction on the PVC bristles in the Pentland Hills of Scotland, where people ski despite the absence of snow, and where his tumble “was relatively minor, though remarkably painful,” and “a vicious fall can not only leave permanent scars but also destroy a ski outfit.” Finkel doesn—t display a subtle intellect in his writing; he reports things as he sees them, which can be refreshingly without pretense and maddeningly ignorant, the result being ahistorical, decontextualized snapshots that suffer from frivolity when overexposed. His visit to the ski resorts north of Tehran is a rich opportunity to investigate the diverse culture of the slopes, but he squanders it with a litany of old jokes about Islamic restrictions. Then he will redeem himself with some straight reportage on snowboarding the verticalities—rock-strewn deeply crevassed 60-degree slopes—of Alaska’s Chugach range, or a disarming tale of off-piste powder runs in the north of Iceland. Finally, Finkel’s adventures, no doubt fertile ground for soul-stirring, life-changing episodes, come off as unadorned tomfoolery.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-55821-942-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999
From deep in the Ecuadoran rainforest, from the heart of the Cof†n Indian lands, comes Tidwell's (In the Shadow of the White House, 1992, etc.) spirited firsthand report on the indigenous peoples' struggle to survive. Eastern Ecuador perhaps defines the notion of biodiversity, a natural habitat agog with every manner of creature, and the home of the Cof†n Indians. It is also the resting place of petroleum products, which Texaco wished to exploit as far back as 1965 and which are now eyed covetously by the Texas-based Maxus oil group. Tidwell paid a visit to the rainforest to gauge the effects of ecotourism and fell for the place wholesale, rapt in the ``macaws and kapok trees, dolphins and sherbert butterflies.'' He was equally smitten by Randy Borman, son of white missionaries and now leader of the Zabalo Cof†n, and his efforts to protect the diminished Cof†n acreage from further assault by oil interests. But this is not just a David against Goliath story—though it is a blow-by-blow account of the canny Cof†n challenge to forays by the government-controlled Petroecuador into their territory. It is also the sad tale of ruined Indian villages, where wildlife was out and oil spills were in. Amid all the mayhem caused by the oil companies, Tidwell treats readers to the episodic theater of the jungle, with one fantastic siting tripping over another. By turns wry, morose, upbeat, and blue, Tidwell writes with admirable restraint (it must have been hard not to go ballistic when confronted with all the outrages) and with an appealing personal touch: He was always crushed when the quixotic Borman treated him brusquely. A tale with enough punch to turn a few heads and enough storytelling talent to keep the converted charmed. (First serial to Reader's Digest)
Pub Date: May 6, 1996
ISBN: 1-55821-406-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
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