Customer Reviews

Edges of the Earth: A Man, a Woman, a Child in the Alaskan Wilderness

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book, a true tale of the ultimate daydreamer's adventure taking on flesh and bones through the personal experiences of the young author, Richard Leo. In many ways the effort is a foolhardy and dangerous ones, and one comes to points of exasperation with his arrogance, frenzies, and almost mystical sensibilities as he turns from a 20's something Harvard-educated urban dweller with less than $1,000 to his name into some kind of hopped-up Alaskan mountain man. This guy actually drags his girl friend deep into the Alaskan wilderness to begin a life of what he hopes will be the real sensations and genuine life experiences of someone unfettered by civilization, and succeeds almost beyond belief. They single-handedly construct a log cabin good enough to live in, forage for food, and finds a way to eke out a living as they struggle to survive. Along the way they have a son, who the author feels he must give the opportunity to grow up naturally, without all the cultural distractions of the modern world.

Of course, there is a price to pay for such bold and foolhardy adventurism, and Leo pays it by way of isolation, deprivation, and dealing with the elements. Before the smoke clears, his girlfriend/wife has exhausted her patience and tolerance for the difficult living conditions and the incredible isolation, and flees in desperation back to something better approximating normal human contact and civilization. Thus Leo and son are left to find their own truths and their own future in the splendid isolation of the Alaskan tundra in sight of Mount McKinley. This is a remarkable tale, told in brash but sometimes soaring prose by a gifted young writer, and I soon recognized that often my frustration was with the fact that he kept succeeding at things I thought were dangerously foolish to attempt.

Finally I realized somewhere along the way that my concern was exactly the reason I am sitting in this armchair reading the book instead of following in his footsteps. I am too settled and "civilized' to try to do what he does with fervor and enthusiasm, and it is this remarkable quality of his, his zany and almost mystical faith in himself that makes the book so interesting and so easy to read. One caution; he is not an easy guy to empathize with, and he sometimes has an annoying arrogance, self-absorption and a tendency toward self-righteousness that is hard to bear, but you will enjoy his tale and all the strange and off-beat characters he bumps into, interacts with, and includes in this superbly well-written voyage of self-realization and discovery. The book is curently 'out of print', but I trust you can find it through a good search as a used commodity. By the way, if publishers can find an excuse to put books like "Running to the Mountain" about a New Jersey suburbanite's silly attempts to become a "mountain man" in rural New York state into paperback, they should also be able do so for this real adventure story. Obviously,I would love to see it come out in paperback, and be much more widely read! Enjoy!

Through Leo's adventures in the city as well as the bush... He writes about his life like it was the greatest thing sence sliced bread. All who like Alaska should read!

This book was throughly enjoyable from cover to cover. It's about a couple that leave New York and moves to Alaska. They know nothing about survival in the Alaska wilderness but somehow they learn and make a go of it. I'd love to see a follow up book! If you like wilderness adventures, dog sledding, nature, and survival stories...you should enjoy this book!

Hard to rate this now. It was a 5 star book when I read it. But after travelling to AK and actually meeting people who know Leo, I find myself very disappointed. Suffice it to say he is a bit of an exaggerator. Like- didn't really climb Denali alone. Had a lot more help than he admits. Treated Melissa poorly at best. Having thus lost respect for him as a person and author, the book becomes less inspirational. But, it got me to Alaska, and Alaska itself kept me here, so that's worth a couple stars right? : )

This is one of those books you will find yourself thinking of long after you have finished it. Rick's escape to the wilderness is better than most accounts because he appears so human. As a city boy, he makes mistakes and he admits he had no idea how to do many of the tasks their survival depended on. He learns, through trial and error, and in the process becomes the wilderness man you read about in other books (as if they came shrink-wrapped with all the instincts and skills already installed). You also feel very bad for Rick and his girlfriend, as their relationship unravels and they ultimately split up. I'm sure Melissa comes out looking worse since Rick is telling the story, but I did want to slap her for being so selfish. Then finally you love the story of a man and his son - it's so obvious that Janus is the center of Rick's world. I loved this book and look forward to reading it again. I highly recommend this book to anyone who dreams of ditching their suburban life and taking off for the wilderness.

This is a dream story. The author does something all of us think about at one time or another - quitting the desk job, grabbing the wife/girlfriend and headingn out to parts unknown for a while. In this case, parts unknown was Alaska and Richard Leo was determined to stay.

Over the course of the book his girlfriend can't take it (don't blame her after listening to all their trials and tribulations) and he keeps his son. The parts of the story dealing with the boy, his reactions to such an upbringing, their relationship are without a doubt the best in the book. As far as is known, he is still in the backwoods of Alaska living the life of a wilderness survivor. More power to him.

Richard Leo paints a fantastic portrait of life in rural Alaska. And by rural I mean no neighbors for a 100 square mile area. It's the story of a man disenchanted with life in the city and a search for something more. His quest becomes fulfilled as a father to a newborn son. To build a new life for himself and Janus takes ever ounce of strength. But the rewards are lasting, as is Denali.

The edges of the earth is must reading for those of us who find North American society a greedy, consumer-driven regime which must be avoided whenever possible; for author Richard Leo chronicles exactly how this can be achieved. Leo's inspirational story of escaping to find a new life in the Alaskan wilderness will have you sitting on the edge of your imagination at times and marvelling at the spirit that lies inside all of us if we reach deep enough. Disillusioned with the mundane rat race of New York, Leo chucks it all in for the unknown wilds of Alaksa with $900 in savings and an extremely resourceful mind. Eventually he literally carves a new life for himself in the Alaskan wilderness, far from the shallow trappings of the society he escaped. His journey is a difficult and heroic one and well worth reading about. Leo's story appeals on many levels, from the psychological to the physical and at its simplest, details what happens when a man tries to strip life down to the barest essentials. Leo shows us the frightening beauty that can exist in the basic struggle to survive on a sometimes hostile planet. Great stuff!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I have lent it to several others who also enjoyed it. If you're a city boy/girl who has considered living in a shack in the woods, this is the book for you.

I attended Sullivan High School with the author, Rick Leo in Chicago in the 1960's. He was always the brightest kid in every class we had together, and I admired his intellect. We weren't very close friends, but 10 years later, I had the privilege of working with his younger brother, John Leo, at a Chicago healthclub. I was actually trying to get back in touch with John, and was "Googling" his name to see if I could contact him, when I put Rick's name into the search engine. I was amazed to find that he had written this great book. I borrowed it from our library here in San Diego (sorry, Rick), and thoroughly enjoyed reading this exciting, informative and often poignant memoir. The other reviews here do a fine job of synopsizing the story, so I won't reiterate it, but what really shone through the pages was Rick's intense enthusiasm, wonderful sense of humor and incredible resourcefulness. I am very proud of my classmate, and hope we can visit him in Alaska sometime. He certainly paints an attractive picture. Hopefully, we can get in touch, maybe through this review! I am buying a copy of the book for my own brother (royalties to you, I hope, Rick) so we can discuss it together.

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