Take a photo of a barcode or cover
421 reviews for:
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
Blair Braverman
3.89 AVERAGE
421 reviews for:
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
Blair Braverman
3.89 AVERAGE
i love reading stories, fictional or factual, about wilderness and the frozen climate. i thought this was going to be a different book, honestly, one more technical and surface level in its recollection of adventures in the north. i'm glad i was wrong though. this book is a lot more personal than that. braverman isn't relaying the typical adventures in the wilderness. her stories are honest and deeply personal; this book feels like an exercise in bravery and reclaiming her body and her memories and experience. it's a really incredible, thoughtful read.
I picked this up because I'm preparing to go to Alaska, but it's really not about Alaska at all. It's a much more delicate, unusual meditation on the terror and thrall of the traditionally masculine, which I deeply relate to and haven't seen much in writing before.
This is the story of a girl who feels fundamentally betrayed by the adults in her life and goes to the most northern places she can in order to prove that she can protect herself. So much here resonated with me- from the scenes of her identifying with the dogs, to silently allowing fucked up comments from men just so that she could be in the isolated land she craved, to the sex scenes, most of which were pretty traumatic, but in a way that is so familiar to many women- putting up with sex rather than enjoying it, wanting something but feeling helpless in ones ability to get it, experiencing explosive anger at the ways others, partners, can fail you.
Blair Braverman is a skilled writer. She weaves past and present stories together in a way that builds toward a mutual purpose. I don't know much about dog sledding or the colder places on Earth in general, so I found the natural elements of Braverman's story particularly captivating. Her experience as a woman in these male-dominated spaces was also fascinating, and, in some cases, relatable.
After reading this memoir, I sought out more writing from Braverman, and now have read a good number of her articles for Outside Magazine and her social media feed. I hope she writes another book: it's not every day I read memoirs that I know will stick with me for a long time to come.
After reading this memoir, I sought out more writing from Braverman, and now have read a good number of her articles for Outside Magazine and her social media feed. I hope she writes another book: it's not every day I read memoirs that I know will stick with me for a long time to come.
Blair Braverman is a badass. This book is badass. I can't do it any justice with my own words. Read hers and be floored like I was.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
This reinforces what a lot of us suspected already: the average dog is a better person than a lot of men.
I really liked this book, but let's be clear about what it is. Let's start with what it is NOT. This is NOT a book about dogs! It is not really a book about dog-sledding either, although it contains passages about dogsledding. This is a cross between a travel essay (Norway) and a memoir. But mostly it's a memoir. It concerns itself with Braverman's development of her sense of self from when she first left California for Lillehammer, Norway as a sixteen-year-old exchange student until she was twenty-six or thereabouts. Most of the book takes place in the village of Mortenhals in the Norwegian Arctic but a significant portion is set on Norris Glacier, outside Juneau, Alaska. Here, more so than in Norway even, she learns to deal with toxic masculinity. This book has much more description of Braverman's inner states than anything external, although it contains some endearing character sketches of people she met on her journeys.
Make no mistake; this is a book about Blair Braverman and her choices. And that's not a bad thing at all!
Make no mistake; this is a book about Blair Braverman and her choices. And that's not a bad thing at all!