Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 WOO! December 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sara Wheeler went to Antarctica as part of the American National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists' and Writers' Program, and found herself virtually the only creative type in a boys' club of Beards (scientists). She hopped all over the continent in a variety of planes and helicopters, learnt survival and other skills, and generally had a great time.
This is an engaging, informative book by a writer who is as capable of poking fun of herself as at everyone else. Even when she's writing seriously about the spiritual aspect of life out in the snow and ice, she doesn't come across as preachy or pompous. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, yet at the same time I felt she'd failed to communicate the beauty of Antarctica to me. Perhaps you have to go there and see for yourself.
Now I've finished reading this book, it feels a bit like parting with a friend, that friend who sits with you in the dark watches of the night, and tells you stories.
A guide to two worlds: inner as well as outer August 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Sara Wheeler got a first glimpse of Antarctica when she completed her north-to-south journey through Chile ["Travels In A Thin Country"] by visiting the Chilean base on the Antarctic peninsula. She wrote the title of this book on a new notebook as she flew north again from the Chilean base. It took her two years to arrange to return. For the reader, this account of her adventure was worth every minute and all the effort.
The result is enormously interesting and entertaining. Her writing is a pleasure to read, whether dealing with historical background material, describing childish horse-play and lavatorial school-boy pranks [mostly perpetrated by the British, sadly], rhapsodising over the Antarctic landscape or reflecting on her own inner landscape of fear, depression and faith.
Her style is succinct and humorous when describing life in the bases and in the field, and close to elegiac when treating with the landscape and her own thoughts and feelings about it all. It's clear that Antarctica is spectacular in the extreme. Sara Wheeler has described it without becoming carried away or over-blown but has nevertheless given us a picture lacking nothing in colour, detail and texture.
There is a large library of books on Antarctic exploration. I have quite a number myself, including "South With Scott" by Teddy Evans, signed by the author. Sara Wheeler's book is eminently worthy of taking its place amongst those of Evans, Wilson, Shackleton and Cherry Garrard.
Sara Wheeler is not an explorer or a scientist or an obsessive. She has not written a book describing the events in the moments of the creation of a myth or the miseries endured whilst accomplishing some heroic but essentially meaningless quest [what she refers to as the how-dead-can-you-get tendency]. She has given us a book by an engaging, percipient, thoughtful lay person who describes, for those of us who are entranced but will never go there, what Antarctica is like.
 Enjoyable and Easy to Read July 12, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is extremely well written and enjoyable. Despite containing a lot of historical detail it still manages to entertain, and as I say in my review title it is easy to read. I thoroughly enjoyed the insights into the lives of the historical explorers. I am not a cold weather person but I found myself wanting to go there. The descriptions of the people are well crafted and you feel you know each of them intimately. I particularly like the descriptions of the English v the Americans and I can imagine each one. Why four stars instead of five. I found some of the scientific discussions difficult to understand but don't let this put you off, as the book is an excellent read.
Brilliant July 6, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The author mixes an account of her visit to Antartica with a potted history of exploration around that region. She makes the science interesting and even the daily routines of the people who work on the bases, fascinating.
An insight into a mystery most of us will never see March 7, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed Sara Wheeler's insights into a strange and unforgiving world that very few of us will ever have a privilege to see. Perhaps the book doesn't cover the controversies of Antarcitca enough - the constant battle to turn the continent into a giant oil field is one of the last great eco-battles. But in essence, no-one could read this book and be unmoved by the beauty of the place, and feel a little jealous.
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