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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
I found this book disquieting. Braverman has known from a young age that she wants to work with dogs and be a musher and to this end, starting in high school she gets herself to Norway as often as she can. She is partly Norwegian and speaks some of the language and picks it up extremely quickly once in Norway. Her high school exchange experience does not go as anticipated. The host father is a creep, continually making sexual advances to her, which beyond an email home and trying to avoid him as much as possible, she does little about. And this sets the pattern for her relationships as she continues in this male dominated world. She attends a folkskol in Norway after high school later and learns about dog-sledding and even more importantly how to endure extreme cold. She proves her courage and bravery again and again, both here and then working for a musher giving dog-sledding tours to tourists in Alaska. And yet she allows herself to be continually manipulated and harassed by men she encounters, never stands up to them and continues to permit such behaviour, and in one situation is raped multiple times by her boyfriend. But to her, as she was going out with the guy, she can’t admit it’s rape. And it continues. She lives in Norway for a year, and while things are better the men are crude and obvious and she just lets this continue as though being in a male dominated world makes it ok. I loved the parts when she is on the ice or snow, mushing, running tours, working for a man she respects and likes in his shop in a village in northern Norway, but found it incredible that she just lets all the harassment and abuse go. At one point she even writes to the man who clearly raped her multiple times, not to confront him but to ask forgiveness for how she behaved and form a tentative friendship. Everything works out for her in the end, and by the end she’s living a life she loves with a man she loves.
The book is not linear which gets a little confusing.
The book is not linear which gets a little confusing.
I have mixed feelings about this book, it was interesting and unlike most books I usually read. But I wouldn't put it in the feminist category. It was more about dealing with sexual assault than the north, which was thought provoking but not what I was hoping for in this book.
reflective
slow-paced
I had the wrong expectations about this book. I expected something lighthearted, but got a confusing timeline and lots of boring stuff. Plus quite a lot of content that needs trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Rape, Excrement, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Alcoholism
As a new #UglyDogs fan, I adore Blair Braverman’s storytelling. I admire that she is able to evoke emotion in a pause and that she always seems to know just when a story should stop. This memoir lets us peek into her relationships with her family, her body, and her sport of dogsledding. The tenderness that we love from her tweets also emerges here. She is, quite clearly, a fan of humans and a champion of dogs.
The parts which resonated most with me were the times she tries to understand how to move about the world in her body—and the times in which she ruminates on bodies in the cold, bodies in sport, bodies in sex.
My only minor critique is that, at times, her writing seems too MFA-y. The refrains are too pointed. The themes just a bit too punchy. I think we’ve watched her writing grow and mature via Twitter since this book’s publication, and I’m excited to see what she has in store for us next. 4.5 stars
The parts which resonated most with me were the times she tries to understand how to move about the world in her body—and the times in which she ruminates on bodies in the cold, bodies in sport, bodies in sex.
My only minor critique is that, at times, her writing seems too MFA-y. The refrains are too pointed. The themes just a bit too punchy. I think we’ve watched her writing grow and mature via Twitter since this book’s publication, and I’m excited to see what she has in store for us next. 4.5 stars
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
I really enjoyed this. Blair's honesty and self awareness were refreshing, and I loved learning about her journey into dogsledding, and also about Norway a bit. The scenes in the Old Store were particularly informative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship
A raw, powerful, and entertaining memoir by an amazing woman who is one of my personal heroes for her generosity, clear-sightedness, and pure joy and love for her sled dogs. This book doesn't dwell as much on sled dogs and mushing as I expected, but what it tackles in terms of misogyny, nature, grit, and just trying to find your way in the world was just as valuable.
I couldn't put this book down. I know of Blair Braverman's work basically through her magical Twitter account and knew that she was a great story-teller and writer. But holy hell this is a great set of stories interwoven in a uniquely successful way that is so captivating. I think she does a really great job of expressing the confusion so many young women feel growing up whether they've experienced harassment/assault in an explicit form or more subtly. She does a wonderful job of making you feel like you're in the North with her and reading this made me want to return to Norway ASAP! What a wonderful country that deserves this tribute.
I stumbled across Blair Braverman's writing via her advice column in Outside Magazine, and loved her writing so much that I knew I needed to read more of her words. Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube was difficult to read at times (themes of rape, sexual abuse, etc.), but so perfectly described the feeling of finding your strength and independence as a woman outdoors, and chasing those experiences at any cost. I saw myself in her book, and am looking forward to reading more of her work in the future.