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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
After hearing Braverman twice on the You’re Wrong About podcast, I dove into her writing. I absolutely loved her new novel, Small Game. I thought I’d love her memoir too, but it honestly didn’t do much for me.
It took a long time to read because it’s surprisingly dense and I was never super eager to pick it up. It jumps back and forth in time a lot and I found it quite confusing. I’m still unclear on the timeline, frankly. Just as you’re getting interested in the folk school she attended, we jump to a glacier in Alaska. As you get invested in that, we jump to working at a store in Norway. No wait, now we’re talking about her high school study abroad experience. So confusing!
I appreciate how crappy what she went through with men was—both Far, her host father, and Dan, her boyfriend on the Alaskan glacier. We never get a true condemnation of either of them though, just muddled thoughts on “was it really that bad?” (totally get that too). She clearly has tons of trauma though and never brings herself to call what Dan did rape! I can understand using writing to process your experiences, but it almost feels like something is missing here. She seems to have gained confidence and moves on by the end, but it’s a bit of a muddled mess.
Sometimes I got the vibe that Blair wants to be seen as “not like other girls,” which is annoying. A “cool girl” and a “tough girl” — but as she points out, it’s hard to know what that even means. I’m glad she was able to find home in Norway and make her own home in Wisconsin. Quince seems like a lovely partner. I’m still thrown off by Arild making that one joke about rape though when he was a father figure and the whole book is dedicated to him???
Super meandering, only marginally interesting. I don’t care about Helge Jensen’s boat!! So many irrelevant, wandering anecdotes. Will definitely read more of her work if she writes more fiction as I liked her novel better!
It took a long time to read because it’s surprisingly dense and I was never super eager to pick it up. It jumps back and forth in time a lot and I found it quite confusing. I’m still unclear on the timeline, frankly. Just as you’re getting interested in the folk school she attended, we jump to a glacier in Alaska. As you get invested in that, we jump to working at a store in Norway. No wait, now we’re talking about her high school study abroad experience. So confusing!
I appreciate how crappy what she went through with men was—both Far, her host father, and Dan, her boyfriend on the Alaskan glacier. We never get a true condemnation of either of them though, just muddled thoughts on “was it really that bad?” (totally get that too). She clearly has tons of trauma though and never brings herself to call what Dan did rape! I can understand using writing to process your experiences, but it almost feels like something is missing here. She seems to have gained confidence and moves on by the end, but it’s a bit of a muddled mess.
Sometimes I got the vibe that Blair wants to be seen as “not like other girls,” which is annoying. A “cool girl” and a “tough girl” — but as she points out, it’s hard to know what that even means. I’m glad she was able to find home in Norway and make her own home in Wisconsin. Quince seems like a lovely partner. I’m still thrown off by Arild making that one joke about rape though when he was a father figure and the whole book is dedicated to him???
Super meandering, only marginally interesting. I don’t care about Helge Jensen’s boat!! So many irrelevant, wandering anecdotes. Will definitely read more of her work if she writes more fiction as I liked her novel better!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Solid read, raw in the right ways. Plus sled dogs!
adventurous
emotional
funny
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
For those readers coming to Blair Bravermans book from her delightful twitter presence or after hearing of her successes as a dogsled racer, I offer this warning: when this book beguiles you, it will not be for those reasons. In fact, this story—written seemingly before her professional turn to dogsled racing—centers on her experiences in high school, college and after as an American living in rural Norway working at a small general store. She additionally shares experiences working as a tour guide in Alaska and as an exchange student in Lillehammer, which serve as two loci of trauma from which the Norwegian north provides a contrast and space of growth.
Thus, we find in this book not a Jack London adventure, nor dispatches from the sled, but a winding and unfurling map of one person’s relationships with others and with place. By journey’s end we see a deep and abiding connection between Blair, the shopkeeper with whom she lives and works, the store regulars, and the daily practices that structure her life in the north. Heard as an audiobook read by the author, we develop a personal connection that propels a story otherwise light on narrative.
So please, read this book as you might a travelogue from a dear friend or aspiring friend-to-be, rather than as the memoir of a celebrity athlete. You will be enriched all the more.
Thus, we find in this book not a Jack London adventure, nor dispatches from the sled, but a winding and unfurling map of one person’s relationships with others and with place. By journey’s end we see a deep and abiding connection between Blair, the shopkeeper with whom she lives and works, the store regulars, and the daily practices that structure her life in the north. Heard as an audiobook read by the author, we develop a personal connection that propels a story otherwise light on narrative.
So please, read this book as you might a travelogue from a dear friend or aspiring friend-to-be, rather than as the memoir of a celebrity athlete. You will be enriched all the more.
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Mental illness
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Competently written, provides a clear-eyed view of what it's really like to travel alone as a woman, free of the projection people overcompensate with on social media. Ultimately, not a very satisfying read, even though I was, like the author, obsessed with the great white North as a kid. Sort of lacks structure and resolution.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective