Customer Reviews

Arctic Aurora

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Arctic Aurora, John Holt has surpassed himself in this energetic, powerful book. This is the most impassioned title about the Far North, the last true wilderness on the continent, that I've read. Holt nails the beauty, the fear, the fierve wildness and the enormity of this incredible country like no other writer. Arctic Aurora holds its own with Dangerous River, The Rifles and Arctic Dreams. If you care about wilderness, buy this book.

Arctic Aurora is a delight. Holt careens around the hidden Canadian northwest in a joyous rage, remarking on the land, the fishing, and the people, good and bad. From ice roads, to mosquitoes, to arctic grayling, and the native Dene, this book gives the reader a true taste of the Canadian north. There have been a number of books written about the arctic these days, but damn few good ones...and Arctic Aurora truly is.

Adventurer and nature lover John Holt shares his experience from nine trips into the arctic wilderness in Arctic Aurora: Canada's Yukon And Northwest Territories. John tells of encountering miners, trappers, bush pilots, and the rare tourist amid pristine natural beauty and havens for cold-water game fishing. Black-and-white photographs and sixteen-page selection of color plates enhance this majestic tale of exploration and putting personal survival and fishing skills to the test. Arctic Aurora is very highly recommended as informative and entertaining reading.

Holt does it again. Artic Aurora shows us the intensity of the country and the love that Holt has for it. Reading the book made me, a man from the city sprawl of Delaware, want to go up and see the country for myself before it is touched by the outside world. Perfectly detailed, I couldn't put the book down. I felt that the added pictures that only hinted at the beauty of the land helped in imagining what it's like up there. I write this in that John Holt did what he does so well, give us a deep and honest look into the last of the untamed country. It's a must read for those trying to find the last great wilderness.

Holt takes you on a ride through the Northwest Territories and the Yukon with great humor and depth of thought regarding the land and the Dene, and Inuit who inhabit this beautiful country. He travels in a vintage 1983 Suburban which holds up to the rigorous roads, especially the Dempster Highway, a tough road with spectacular views. Holt's descriptions of the land are the best I've read in any book on the Arctic or any land for that matter. This book is filled with heart, mind and soul of the author. A great read!

Most of the reviews here seem to either worship this book or hate it. I enjoyed it, though probably not as much as the "worshippers". I chose the book because I'm interested in the Canadian far North, and the author does a fine job bringing a huge, blank region of the map to life, with interesting tales of camping, landscape, environment, people, development, and bits of natural history. Oh and fishing. (A LOT about fishing...)

I have 3 fairly minor criticisms of the book, none of which are huge nor change my recommendation to read it. The first is that the story flirts with themes of personal history, disappointment and related recovery as the author travels the region, but we never have enough info or insight about the author's history to really make any kind of emotional connection to these themes. The second is that the second-to-last chapter, which details the environmental threats to the far North, feels forced, sort of like a couple hundred pages of the wonder of the region, followed by a compressed polemic of "oh yeah, it's really in trouble..." The chapter is indeed full of compelling and concerning info, but would have worked better if the themes of environmental threat and exploitation had been somehow woven into, or better linked with, the other chapters/essays. Lastly is a minor stylistic criticism: the frequent use of "Author's Notes", especially later in the book. In a book with a style as casual and familiar as this (a good thing) the "aside" nature of these notes really isn't necessary.

Artic Aurora, Holt's latest and greatest literary work, guides us through Canada's Northwest Territories and the Yukon. For certain he describes where to find good food, good fishing and interesting places to visit, but this is no travelogue of where to go, what to do or how to catch fish. Instead, as he journeys through this wild, untamed and unfenced area of immense size in his 1983 Suburban, he discovers raw visceral power flows through the land in the Far North. A place where one can gaze out over the beautiful, intrepid landscape and see forever and beyond. Overhead, the aurora borealis dances and flickers with palpable energy. Immense rivers surge over countless waterfalls as they carve and gouge their way towards the ocean. An unseen power sizzles through the land.

As Holt relates his many wanderings across the Far North he writes with a clarity and detail that create rich, mesmerizing visions that roll through the mind. The book is chock full of interesting details about the land, the people and their history. Several amusing anecdotes and stories had me laughing out loud.

As in his book Coyote Nowhere, a precursor to Artic Aurora, Holt reflects on his life and also looks into the future as he bares his soul, warts and all. He shuns glitz, glitter and hucksterism. He hates the exploitation of the land and the people who inhabit it. He is passionate but not preachy. Holt is maturing; evolving as a writer and Artic Aurora deserves a place on the bookshelf next to authors like MacLean, Gierach and Travers.

I put this on my X-mas wish list based on the positive ratings. I ended up with two copies and having read as much as I could handle, can say I'm doubly disappointed. If you want some useful info on north country fishing and more than vignettes as stale as the air in a backcountry bar at 10 am, shop elsewhere. The first couple of chapters held my attention as I waited for some character development of the author's daugher as they travelled together in NWT but waited in vain as she comes off a shallow silhouette making and breaking camp or fishing with dad (some distance away in several senses of the word). I don't mean to impy anything about what she may be in reality, just how she comes accross in this work (albeit I wonder how she will make better choices than caretaker-of-dependant-personality-role in her own life). The balance of the book is strong on the tedium of driving long distance, booze, and a high fat, high sugar series of meals recounted in far too much detail. John McPhee this guy ain't, despite the detail of numerous turnouts and other attractions of Canadian roads. I hate to say it but my lasting impression is that the reality of the trips was a 'vehicle' for the booze and smokes and stoney sleep, lacking much meaning to relate after the guy sobered up. He'll make a buck on this book (or two in my case) but that ain't the same as making amends. As a parting shot, an angling writer who touts all the 3 pound grayling to be caught with ease in various road accessible streams (even in NWT or YT) does the resource a disservice.

I started out liking this book but was soon tired of its pedantic preaching. It gets tiring very quickly. Good heavy editing of the text (I'm the CEO of a publishing company) and a lot more photos would have greatly improved it. By his own admission and example his life is so void of virtue and character that he can only find meaning in escaping to the wilderness to some how start over again. He decries those in RVs as polluters and spoilers yet his virtue is enhanced as he dashes around all over the wild northwest in his Suburban. A SUV yet! My last complaint is that I like to pass on my outdoor books, good and bad, to one of my 14 year grandsons, as he and I hunt and fish together, but alas the R rated verbage in this made it fit only for the circular file! I would have preferred my money back!