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enigmadame's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I was fascinated by this book. Could have been because I had a couple of “meh” books before it, but could have been because it was that good. The topic was interesting, the drama was interesting, and I love reading about the North.
positivewoman2013's review against another edition
3.0
3,5 It was amazing to read the true accounts. Even interesting to read how it effected her life long after returning home.
jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition
4.0
In 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson led an ill-fated voyage into the Arctic. The team was separated and one group spent time on Wrangel Island, 200 miles northeast of Siberia and 400 miles northwest of Alaska. After essentially rescuing themselves, the survivors of the smaller group told stories of the rich wildlife they encountered on the island. Stefansson, a proponent of the idea of the “Friendly Arctic,” soon had dreams to claim the island for Canada and Great Britain and use it as a waystation for people making their way through the frozen north.
Stefansson sent a group of four young men and Ada Blackjack, a young Eskimo seamstress, to lead the way for colonizing efforts in 1921. (The author chooses to use terminology appropriate to the time period.) Russia had claimed Wrangel Island decades earlier but Stefansson felt that his earlier team’s extended occupation of the island called that claim into question. The 1921 team was too small, too untrained, and didn’t find the same amount of wildlife that the earlier crew did. When rescuers finally made their way to the island two years later, Ada Blackjack was the only person who had survived. Ada only told her story publicly one time but Niven has pieced together primary source material, newspaper articles, and interviews with one of Ada’s sons to present a record of that harrowing voyage.
First of all, this isn’t a sequel to Niven’s book, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk, but it is set partially in the same place and features a few of the same people. I haven’t read The Ice Master and I followed this just fine; I do feel that my understanding would have been a bit deeper if I’d read the earlier work first though. I’d recommend taking that approach.
I found this book absolutely fascinating. The remarkable thing about Ada’s survival is that she knew very little about surviving Arctic conditions. She was raised in the village of Nome. She’d seen some Inuit (the preferred term now) elders hunting and employing traditional skills when she was very young but she attended a missionary school, where she learned how to clean houses and sew. She never had the opportunity to learn the ways of her people so she was spectacularly unprepared for the conditions on Wrangel Island. And yet she survived.
My heart ached for this little expedition. The four young men (Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, Fred Maurer, and Allan Crawford) were all in their twenties and boyishly excited to embark on such a grand adventure. Only Knight and Maurer knew anything about Arctic survival. They did their best but when wildlife was scarce and a rescue boat couldn’t get to them because of ice floes the first summer, they didn’t stand a chance. The author includes passages from their diaries and letters from their families reassuring each other that their “boys” must be safe. These were hard to read, knowing that the group was suffering.
Stefansson, the backer of the expedition, is infuriating. He continually tells reporters and the families of the expedition members that the group is safe in the Arctic. He actually wrote a book called The Friendly Arctic, detailing his belief that reports of the inhospitable conditions of the far north are essentially fake news. His theory states that game is abundant and anyone with common sense can survive. What an insult to his young explorers.
The book goes on to describe Ada’s life after her rescue. That’s heartbreaking too. She was a very private person but everywhere she went, reporters recognized her and tried to interview her. Expedition leaders ordered her not to speak to reporters before leaving for the island or else they wouldn’t pay her. She was always afraid to speak to anyone about her experiences after that. She finally spoke out when the man who rescued her published some libelous rumors.
I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in stories of exploration and survival or stories of women history almost forgot. Ada and her other crewmates will earn your respect and admiration.
Stefansson sent a group of four young men and Ada Blackjack, a young Eskimo seamstress, to lead the way for colonizing efforts in 1921. (The author chooses to use terminology appropriate to the time period.) Russia had claimed Wrangel Island decades earlier but Stefansson felt that his earlier team’s extended occupation of the island called that claim into question. The 1921 team was too small, too untrained, and didn’t find the same amount of wildlife that the earlier crew did. When rescuers finally made their way to the island two years later, Ada Blackjack was the only person who had survived. Ada only told her story publicly one time but Niven has pieced together primary source material, newspaper articles, and interviews with one of Ada’s sons to present a record of that harrowing voyage.
First of all, this isn’t a sequel to Niven’s book, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk, but it is set partially in the same place and features a few of the same people. I haven’t read The Ice Master and I followed this just fine; I do feel that my understanding would have been a bit deeper if I’d read the earlier work first though. I’d recommend taking that approach.
I found this book absolutely fascinating. The remarkable thing about Ada’s survival is that she knew very little about surviving Arctic conditions. She was raised in the village of Nome. She’d seen some Inuit (the preferred term now) elders hunting and employing traditional skills when she was very young but she attended a missionary school, where she learned how to clean houses and sew. She never had the opportunity to learn the ways of her people so she was spectacularly unprepared for the conditions on Wrangel Island. And yet she survived.
My heart ached for this little expedition. The four young men (Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, Fred Maurer, and Allan Crawford) were all in their twenties and boyishly excited to embark on such a grand adventure. Only Knight and Maurer knew anything about Arctic survival. They did their best but when wildlife was scarce and a rescue boat couldn’t get to them because of ice floes the first summer, they didn’t stand a chance. The author includes passages from their diaries and letters from their families reassuring each other that their “boys” must be safe. These were hard to read, knowing that the group was suffering.
Stefansson, the backer of the expedition, is infuriating. He continually tells reporters and the families of the expedition members that the group is safe in the Arctic. He actually wrote a book called The Friendly Arctic, detailing his belief that reports of the inhospitable conditions of the far north are essentially fake news. His theory states that game is abundant and anyone with common sense can survive. What an insult to his young explorers.
The book goes on to describe Ada’s life after her rescue. That’s heartbreaking too. She was a very private person but everywhere she went, reporters recognized her and tried to interview her. Expedition leaders ordered her not to speak to reporters before leaving for the island or else they wouldn’t pay her. She was always afraid to speak to anyone about her experiences after that. She finally spoke out when the man who rescued her published some libelous rumors.
I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in stories of exploration and survival or stories of women history almost forgot. Ada and her other crewmates will earn your respect and admiration.
cmwilso3's review against another edition
5.0
Though a lot of the story centered around the other members of the Wrangel Island Expedition, I feel that Jennifer Niven did an excellent job in telling the tale of a particularly enigmatic and private woman.
searobin56's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting history, tragic, heartbreaking. Very good read!
hskrkelle's review against another edition
4.0
A great work of nonfiction about a little-known survival story of a woman in the Arctic. A bit repetitive at times as all points of view were written into certain events, but nonetheless the research completed for the book is quite impressive.
geve_'s review against another edition
4.0
Kind of all over the place. I wish I had understood what the thesis of this thing was from the start.
I had not known of this story going in, so I didn't know what the outcome was gonna be, and it was really interesting reading this, having read many other polar exploration books already, thinking to myself "wow, they don't sound at all prepared for what they're proposing to do." Spoiler alert: they weren't.
What's crazy is like, one of them had already been on a previous, and very difficult expedition, and the "leader" of the expedition, who planned it and wanted the glory of the final outcome, was in the explorers club and had been on other trips himself. Like they for sure should have known better. The other two original members were both green and young and looking for adventure and glory (lol). They were told to hire several Inuit families to help them overwinter, hunt and make clothes, but when they couldn't find people to agree, they decided to set off with one woman, who was a city girl and didn't even know how to use a rifle (although she was a well known sewer at least). They only bought six months worth of food, knowing they would overwinter, and decided they would be able to hunt enough to keep them alive. It seemed very clear to me that rather than making the prudent decision to wait until the next season, they just wanted to go forward, too excited for the adventure etc to follow through with their planned preparations.
I have never read an exploration story where I wanted the people to die more. Wow what giant fucking pieces of shit these men were. Like for real. not gonna go into the details but they straight up tortured Ada.
No one in this situation was good. None of the explorers, none of the rescuers. Everyone was total trash, and wanted everything to enrich themselves, or give themselves credit for everything bring glory to themselves personally. Even Ada, though it seems the author wanted us to think she was just a naive, backwoods woman who was taken advantage of at every turn, wasn't necessarily. I am not sure if she was or wasn't but there were hints that she was also manipulative. One thing I will say about her, every single thing she did was to make sure she had money to get her ill son medical care, and to take care of her children.
The story dragged on for a long time after the expedition, some of which was interesting, but a lot of which became tiresome, as it just continued to reinforce how trash everyone was. Could have been edited down some imo, esp since I assume most people are going into this hoping for a polar adventure, which was at most, half the book.
Still, a good read in general, even though it really wasn't what I thought it was gonna be.
short spoilery tldr below:
I had not known of this story going in, so I didn't know what the outcome was gonna be, and it was really interesting reading this, having read many other polar exploration books already, thinking to myself "wow, they don't sound at all prepared for what they're proposing to do." Spoiler alert: they weren't.
What's crazy is like, one of them had already been on a previous, and very difficult expedition, and the "leader" of the expedition, who planned it and wanted the glory of the final outcome, was in the explorers club and had been on other trips himself. Like they for sure should have known better. The other two original members were both green and young and looking for adventure and glory (lol). They were told to hire several Inuit families to help them overwinter, hunt and make clothes, but when they couldn't find people to agree, they decided to set off with one woman, who was a city girl and didn't even know how to use a rifle (although she was a well known sewer at least). They only bought six months worth of food, knowing they would overwinter, and decided they would be able to hunt enough to keep them alive. It seemed very clear to me that rather than making the prudent decision to wait until the next season, they just wanted to go forward, too excited for the adventure etc to follow through with their planned preparations.
I have never read an exploration story where I wanted the people to die more. Wow what giant fucking pieces of shit these men were. Like for real. not gonna go into the details but they straight up tortured Ada.
No one in this situation was good. None of the explorers, none of the rescuers. Everyone was total trash, and wanted everything to enrich themselves, or give themselves credit for everything bring glory to themselves personally. Even Ada, though it seems the author wanted us to think she was just a naive, backwoods woman who was taken advantage of at every turn, wasn't necessarily. I am not sure if she was or wasn't but there were hints that she was also manipulative. One thing I will say about her, every single thing she did was to make sure she had money to get her ill son medical care, and to take care of her children.
The story dragged on for a long time after the expedition, some of which was interesting, but a lot of which became tiresome, as it just continued to reinforce how trash everyone was. Could have been edited down some imo, esp since I assume most people are going into this hoping for a polar adventure, which was at most, half the book.
Still, a good read in general, even though it really wasn't what I thought it was gonna be.
short spoilery tldr below: