Last Places: A Journey in the North [Paperback]

Lawrence Millman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 2000

A classic of northern exploration and adventure, LAST PLACES is Lawrence Millman's marvelously told account of his journey along the ancient Viking sea routes that extend from Norway to Newfoundland. Traveling through landscapes of transcendent desolation, Millman wandered by way of the Shetland Islands, the Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador. His way was marked by surprising human encounters--with a convicted murderer in Reykjavik, an Inuit hermit in Greenland, an Icelandic guide who leads him to a place called Hell, and a Newfoundlander who warns him about the local variant of the Abominable Snowman. By turns earthy and lyrical, LAST PLACES is an ebullient celebration of the exotic North.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who are captivated either by offbeat adventure or by the Far North need look no further. Novelist and poet Millman followed the Vikings' route from Norway to Newfoundland and Labrador, journeying by ferry, mail boat and cargo vessel to the Shetlands, Faeroes and Iceland, with side trips to isolated islands (Foua, Grimsey). From Iceland, he flew to a former air base in Greenland, where he explored Viking sites in the south on both coasts. Flying to Newfoundland, he traveled by ferry to Goose Bay, Labrador; in this lonely place, peace was shattered by NATO planes running test flights into the interior. Returning to Newfoundland by ferry, Millman completed his journey at the Vikings' last-known settlement, L'Anse aux Meadows. The volume paints a bleak portrait of such dwellings, especially in Greeland, of a primitive people no longer self-sufficient, herded into ghettos. The author tells also of the region's natural wildness, embattled at times by humans: he witnessed whale-bashing in the Faeroes and endured attacks by nesting skuas in the Shetlands. Millman's descriptive writing borders on the florid, but he captures the beauty and fragility of an austere landscape. Author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Known for his travel writing, Millman chronicles his journey across the breadth of the North Atlantic, following the route of the Vikings. The armchair traveler accompanies Millman on board various ships from Bergen, Norway, via the Shetland Islands, the Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland, to Labrador and Newfoundland. The author not only describes the beauty of these remote places but relates the history of their land and people, tells tales of the local mythology, and has heartwarming encounters with the native residents. He never fails to point out how environmental and social changes are endangering these far away and forgotten lands. Millman's acerbic wit makes the book extremely entertaining. He imparts his love and respect for the primitive radiance of the landscape and the hardy character of the region's often eccentric residents.
- Melinda Stivers Leach, Precision Editorial Svces., Wondervu, Col.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (November 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618082484
• ISBN-13: 978-0618082483
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curmudgeon On Ice, June 8, 2001

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Places: A Journey in the North (Paperback)

It is appropriate that Paul Theroux, that globetrotting curmudgeon who gave us THE OLD PATAGONIAN EXPRESS and so many other great travel books, should write the introduction for this edition of Millman's LAST PLACES. Millman takes Theroux's world-weariness to higher latitudes -- from Norway across to the Shetlands and Faroes, from there to Iceland and Greenland, and ending up in Labrador.

But like Theroux, Millman is wonderfully entertaining. See him witness a Faroese "grindadráp," or mass slaughter of a whole pod of whales, by throngs of gleeful Faroese bearing hooks and knives. See him wake up naked and hung over in a drainage ditch after a night of carousing in Reykjavik. And, most funny of all, see him fend off love-starved Inuit maidens in Nuuk who crave his bod and are not too dainty about their seduction technique.

Millman is a bit of a loner, and yet his book sparkles most when he is interacting with the locals. Because this happens hardly at all in the Shetlands, this is the weakest part of his book. LAST PLACES picks up steam as he visits an isolated lighthouse keeper in the West Fjords of Iceland whose library extends to 16,000 volumes. His encounters with Inuits in Greenland are priceless. And the episodes in Labrador show us a land of isolated cranks and eccentrics attempting to protect their way of life from do-gooder government relocation projects.

When the thermometer rises, pick up this book to cool you off. It makes for great summer reading. And it is excellent preparation for my upcoming trip to Iceland. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Iceland, "wish you were here"..., August 23, 1998

By 

Jim [e-mail] (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Places: A Journey in the North (Hardcover)

Lawrence Millman displays a rare ability to capture the shadows seen from the corner of his eye, our walking guide to Iceland's "back roads". He carefully meters the methodical pace of icebound survival with a traveler's fascination for all living things, without need to hold back any random or contrary observations. Many "naturalist travels" books describe places, people, and ancedotal passages, but "Last Places" really does draw the reader to this unlikely destination with its insight and humor.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Northern Journey, November 29, 2000

By 

Sharyn Ekbergh "Zuleme the Reader" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Places: A Journey in the North (Paperback)

A truly wonderful book about traveling in the North from Norway to Newfoundland. Millmand sets out to trace the Viking Route across the North Atlantic and along the way comes up with tales magical and gritty at the same time. My favorite is his meeting with the lighthouse keeper who lives with his library of 16,000 books. Millman has the ability to be open to every experience, take it all in, meet all kinds of human beings and make it come alive in words. This one goes on my short shelf to be read over again. A great book for travelers dreaming of a northern journey and for armchair travelers alike.