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A review by marianneo
Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica by Eirik Sonneland, Nicholas Johnson
3.0
Nick was an acquaintance of mine down on the Ice, and so I’m obviously a little biased. He was an incredibly bright guy and had a wicked, dark sense of humor. You can sense this in his writing. I had really been looking forward to both the HBO version of the book and his next book, whatever it may have been. Alas, Nick tragically took his life in 2012.
As far as the stories in the book go, they are a very accurate portrayal experience at McMurdo Station. The absurdly bureaucratic government contractor, stories of people losing their minds, the oddity of both the hostile, eerily beautiful natural environment and of the government-run, remote research station are all described in true-to-experience detail. Nick also had little patience for the hypocrisy and crippling bureaucracy that permeates every square inch of the US Antarctic Program’s delegation, and his sharp criticism of the program is very present.
My only issue with Big Dead Place is that it is a little too focused on the negatives, and a little too dark and cynical (but hey, that was Nick for you). In my experience, there is a lot more to the US Antarctic Program than just the messed up stuff. The community down there is really unique and creative, and I’m not sure that comes through. And there are other things to celebrate; the science that comes out of the program is groundbreaking and fascinating. The environment is, yes, a big dead place, but it’s hauntingly beautiful at the same time.
So this is one perspective of the experience, and at the moment I don’t know of any other books that do a better job. For that reason, if you want to know what living and working at McMurdo Station was like in the 1990s and 2000s, this is the book for you.
As far as the stories in the book go, they are a very accurate portrayal experience at McMurdo Station. The absurdly bureaucratic government contractor, stories of people losing their minds, the oddity of both the hostile, eerily beautiful natural environment and of the government-run, remote research station are all described in true-to-experience detail. Nick also had little patience for the hypocrisy and crippling bureaucracy that permeates every square inch of the US Antarctic Program’s delegation, and his sharp criticism of the program is very present.
My only issue with Big Dead Place is that it is a little too focused on the negatives, and a little too dark and cynical (but hey, that was Nick for you). In my experience, there is a lot more to the US Antarctic Program than just the messed up stuff. The community down there is really unique and creative, and I’m not sure that comes through. And there are other things to celebrate; the science that comes out of the program is groundbreaking and fascinating. The environment is, yes, a big dead place, but it’s hauntingly beautiful at the same time.
So this is one perspective of the experience, and at the moment I don’t know of any other books that do a better job. For that reason, if you want to know what living and working at McMurdo Station was like in the 1990s and 2000s, this is the book for you.