Customer Reviews

Going to Extremes (Plume)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This magnificiently written "fly-on-the-wall" narrative about The Last Frontier is pretty dead-on and holds up after 20 odd years later. I have travelled many portions of the state on leisure expeditions and felt his emotions throughout each page. The most valuable asset of this book is its ability to both entertain the sourdough among us and in addition vividly depict the Alaskan aura for those who have never been. There are no slow moments: witty, poignant, and eloquent structure make this the most enjoyable book I have ever read - in actual fact, it is the Only book I have ever read whereas upon finishing the last page, I immediately began reading again! Favorite anecdote: In describing the residents of Alaska as thinking about Alaska all the time as if it was an entity onto itself in their lives, he states that this is a unique state of mind in that you would not, say, find people walking around Toledo contemplating the "Essence of Ohio".

The "top note" of Joe McGinniss' story "Going to Extremes" is about what happens when a lot of folks from the lower 48 and a lot of money are thrown into Alaska at the same time--the late 1970s, when the pipeline was being built. McGinniss casts an urban reporter's jaundiced eye, for example, toward the drinking and drugs that seem like an inevitable consequence of people in the cold wilderness with nothing to do and some money.

Sometimes he intends to be virtually comic, as when a newbie pipefitter offloads his pickup truck from the ferry in a Panhandle town unconnected to the rest of the world by road, or when a drug-addled prostitute runs in to a travel agency in Valdez, Alaska, pointing a gun at the travel agent demanding an immediate trip out of town (to get away from creditors). The agent settles her down and puts her in his truck--as though this sort of thing happened everyday-- while he finishes out his conversation with McGinniss inside.

A long essay documenting McGinniss' trip to the far northern Brooks Range is dominated by his fear of bears (that's logical, I guess) and his city-slicker mountaineering inabilities, although it eventually rises to suggest the majesty of the land he was touring.

In contrast to John McPhee's "Coming into the Country," written in the same era, McGinniss seems determined to remain a sardonic outsider, an observer of people and their weaknesses primarily, rather than an observer of nature. It's an insightful approach although I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of real Alaskans objected to it, and certainly I am hoping to avoid the gun-toting ladies of the evening on my upcoming trip to tour the state.

I don't know anything about Alaska until I read this book. I have no idea whether it is accurate or not the way he described that remote area. But my heart was following him everywhere he went and every feeling he got. I chewed on every word, and was totally lost in the last episode when they found this beautiful meadow. I was speechless after I closed the book. I sat at the beach, and had it to myself again and again, that beautiful meadow, the peace, the harmony...

Thank you, Joe!

My wife and I happened to be included in Joe's book. I spent time with him during his Brooks Range hike. Joe was a great companion and had a unique way of making us all laugh. His version of the hike is amazingly accurate and sensitive to the character of the land. He has the unique ability to make you laugh at him and youself.

I read this book in the early 90's, just before I moved to Alaska. After spending 9 years in the Last Frontier, I still loved this book. One of the things I like best about it is that McGinnis doesn't romanticize the state and its people, as so many seem wont to do. His characterization is right on, and his descriptions are accurate...a number of folks ARE quirky, eccentric, social misfits looking to escape the trappings of "down south", and not everything works the way it's supposed to. You never know what to expect in Alaska, and I think McGinniss paints a humorous and accurate story of our 49th state.

Joe McGinniss divulges Alaska---its geography, its people and socioeconomics, and its image as seen by residents, transients, and visitors---in vivid prose that is simply hard to put down. Here is a guy who loves reading maps and pays close attention to a land's features that are way beyond ordinary: coastal glaciers, unnamed and perhaps unexplored mountains, and details of an unforgiving climate and extended summer daylight that are alien to most readers from the lower 48 states. He describes the interplay of sun, clouds, and the land and always comments on the mountains that are visible from any one of his destinations. McGinniss not only has a powerful sense of place but also has an uncanny ability to share this sense to his readers, allowing them to form a mental image of the beauty and mystery that he sees and experiences. Some of the most interesting parts of the book include his encounter with Olive, a native American girl who is torn between staying with her family in western Alaska and trying out the "other life" in Washington DC, a place where hardly anyone from her group can be found.

Another interesting thing about the book is that this was written by this guy who was hardly a hiker, who later dwells in deliberate isolation for a few days at a cabin by a lake fringed by mountains where not another soul was present, and who, at the end of book (a climactic end, I should say, and where finally he mentions grizzly bears after I started wondering why he never mentioned them before!), finds himself hanging on to dear life in pursuit of a ledge that could get him closer to the goal of his companions in the scarcely explored hinterlands of the Brooks Range. This last chapter was lengthy---but for a good reason. After the establishment of Gates of the Arctic National Park, I bet that the grizzly bear territory that McGinnis and his hiking companions, and the breathtaking meadow that they stumbled upon, have been rediscovered by many a hiker or backpacker. Nevertheless, reading a book like this 25 years later after its inception, gives me the vicarious experience of fresh discovery and makes me hope that one's personal discovery is enough for the rest of us to be comforted with the existence of untouched and untrammeled wilderness. Which, I do hope, Alaska still has vast reserves of it.

I really liked this book. McGinniss has a knack for inviting us along without being too "reporterish". Having spent quite a bit of time working in Alaska in the 1990's I came to recognise the odd, quirky, somewhat misfit type of individuals that populate this amazing place (The characters in the television program "Northern Exposure" weren't that exaggerated). McGinniss has captured this oddness without being judgmental. It's so matter-of-fact that the reader connects with McGinniss's experiences and ultimately finds the pull of Alaska, with it's unique population, almost irrestible. It is unavoidable that many readers will compare "Going to Extremes" with John McPhee's "Coming into the Country". While McPhee's book is good, he never seems to get the flavor of the whole "Alaska" the way that McGinniss does.

This is an essential book on Alaska, both an extreme adventure book and a book that starts to tell the story of why Alaska attracts the people it does. Many great people and stories, I only wish it were much longer and even more detailed. By the way, be warned but actually I think you'll appreciate the old-fashioned politically incorrect tell-it-like-it-ism.

Joe McGinniss catches the heartbeat of Alaska during pipeline days. He is right on the money! (No pun intended). It would be interesting if he wrote another book about Alaska now, with oil at its high, with our Governor running for Vice President, with many of our elected representatives under indictment or already indicted for a variety of crimes. It would make a real pot-boiler & page-turner! Please think about it Mr. McGinniss.

Alaska is a state that accepts differences and welcomes eccentricity. No one judges you by how you dress, what zip code you live in or your last name. It is a place of extremes in many ways. I can't say that I fact checked all of what Mr. McGinnis writes about but I can say that I have heard some of the same stories and other stories that are close enough to those he tells that I believe him. If you want to read a book that is off the beaten track about Alaska, this is it.

I enjoyed this book. It doesn't tell you everything about Alaska, but it gives you a good feel for what Alaskans share in common. I have since traveled to Alaska and I think this book captured what I got out of our wonderful trip there. I remember meeting a lady in Wasila who told me how she was drawn to Alaska. She said that her brother from Anchorage sent her a picture showing the midnight sun. She arrived in Alaska in the winter and there was a blizzard and over 3 foot of snow. She said she just loved it and never went back to where she came from. Alaskans have a certain mindset that draws them there and it is rather unique and interesting. McGuiness is a good writer and does a good job of getting us to understand the Alaskan mentality.