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Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
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About Winterdance: The Fine Madness Of Running The Iditarod
Product Description Paulsen and his team of dogs endured snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, and hallucinations in the relentless push to go on. Map and color photographs. From Publishers Weekly The scene was unnerving to a novice: television cameras, loudspeakers, crowds and nearly 2000 excited dogs all jammed a street in downtown Anchorage. It was the start of the Iditarod dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome over 1180 miles of rugged terrain. Paulsen ( Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass ) had run dogs in Minnesota, but was woefully unprepared in 1983 for his first Iditarod and for conditions in Alaska. After getting lost with his 15-dog team in Anchorage at the start, he and the dogs later took a wrong turn again, adding 120 miles to the journey. Attacked by a moose, suffering frostbite and sleeplessness, he nevertheless completed the race in 17 days and was eager to run another. Paulsen presents a fine depiction of the landscape and of dogs at work in this gripping story of adventure and endurance. Photos. First serial to Readers Digest; author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal The Alaskan Iditarod is an annual 1180-mile dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome that generally takes two to three weeks to complete. Paulsen, a popular YA writer, ran the race in 1983 and 1985 and was again in training when a heart condition forced him to retire. This book is primarily an account of Paulsen's first Iditarod and its frequent life-threatening disasters, including wind so strong it blew his eyelids open and blinded his eyes with snow, cold so deep matches would not strike, and packages of lotions kept next to his skin that froze solid. However, the book is more than a tabulation of tribulations; it is a meditation on the extraordinary attraction this race holds for some men and women. In a style reminiscent of fellow nature writer Farley Mowat, Paulsen deftly examines careening on a precarious edge. Highly recommended for all libraries. - John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, N.J. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Paulsen's survival adventure is in the tradition of Jack London: one man and his dog team together against the Arctic wilderness. With everything stripped down to the barest essentials, Paulsen finds elemental connection with a world beyond cities, family, and work. His prose is spare and physical; at its best, it has the fluid simplicity of Hemingway. On the other hand, there is too much reliance on the pattern of menace beneath the surface. Paulsen is always teetering on the edge of a precipice, waiting to be dragged, dropped, crashed, frozen, torn apart, and buried alive. Fortunately, however, he also has a sense of farce, and there's a lot of the Marx Brothers here. As Paulsen makes clear from the start, the Iditarod race is itself an absurd undertaking--to run with a dog team for 1,800 miles through unimaginable cold, "winds beyond belief, roaring waters and deadly dreams." What's most moving is his behavior at the end of the race: "I didn't want to go in," he says. Armchair travelers will understand. Hazel Rochman About the Author GARY PAULSEN has written nearly two hundred books for young people, including the Newbery Honor Books Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room. He divides his time between a home in New Mexico and a boat on the Pacific Ocean.
