Customer Reviews

NORTHERN LIGHTS AND SHADOWS: Sixteen Years in the Alaska Bush

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Few of us are lucky enough to be able to live out a childhood dream as an adult. Fewer still have the literary talent to bring others along to share their experience and joy. In "Norhtern Lights and Shadows" Lee Basnar has done both. This compelling and lyrically composed story of life in Alaska followsMr. Basnar and his wife Joan on their personal journey of discovery of their landscape and themselves. Introducing us to a life that may no longer exist but which many might feel would have had too many problems for us, Lee describes meeting these as "challenges" to be enjoyed. This is not a "how-to" manual of excruciating detail but akin to a impressionistic canvas to be savored for the mental pictures that it conjurs.

Like telephone poles along a back country road on a Sunday drive, the pages of this book slip effortlessly by .... and you quickly find yourself anticipating what lies beyond the next hill or around the next curve of the story. We're lucky to be along for the ride as the author takes us on the journey of his life.

Mr. Basnar creates vivid word pictures that blend into flowing murals for our mind's eye to watch. Each page is fast moving, full of texture and adventure and fun. This book is so engaging that in the end we, too, wish the story could go on and on.

If you buy this book, prepare to be intrigued - and delighted.

Wow! Captivating from the beginning digging your way out of the cabin. Excellent imagery. Made me want to go there before it is all gone, to breath the air, to see the landscape, to feel the rush of the wind, the chill of the frozen tundra, to taste food that is fresh and wild, free from man's processing. To hear the sounds that nature sings.
This descriptive account of life in Alaska is an eye opener of the fortitude it takes to make it in the Last Frontier. The extreme conditions and the extreme rewards.
This book opens your eyes to the hardships and the little things a tenderfoot wouldn't think of in your survival in the Alaskan wilds. Dotted with humor, sprinkled with love and support of a life mate, along with the daily challenges of self-sufficiency. Here you will find many helpful hints if your dream is to live in the wilds of Alaska. And if it has been your dream it will open your eye to the reality of such a challenge. A marvelous read and an excellent way to experience the wilds vicariously in the comfort and safety of your own armchair, from wildlife survival, to the Elmer's, natures Christening, the antics of the wilds, this books is fascinating, one to read and re-read.
I can only say thank you Lee for writing your experience out in such vivid details.

A great book. The descriptions of the wildlife and landscape are insightful and accurate - I was informed as well as entertained. The book captures the feel of wild Alaska and allowed me to experience life in the bush along with the author and his wife. I felt as if I was in the plane when he was lost during a snow storm. I stood beside him and felt the excitement and fear when wolf or grizzly was encountered at close range. The book gives us an environmental message as well. Wilderness is ours not only to experience, but also to protect. The author's insights into how to live with the land and appreciate its beauty and harshness make this a valuable read.

This book is a pure delight. Lee Basnar's lyrical and flowing descriptions of the spectacular Alaskan bush country are uncommonly poetic. His dramatic stories of encounters with wildlife, from treacherous grizzlies to majestic trumpeter swans, take the reader right into the bush with him. And his tales of day-to-day living amid the splendor of the Alaskan mountains without electricity or indoor bathroom facilities while coping with ten-foot snowfalls are portrayed with humor and charm. A wonderful read whether you're curled up by a warm fireplace or basking in the tropical sun!

A great read! I read books about wide variety of topics, but seldom have I been as captivated by a book as I was when I read Northern Lights & Shadows: Sixteen Years in the Alaska Bush.

The book took me into the Alaska wilderness where the author and his wife lived for sixteen years. His descriptions of encounters with bears, wolves, and other wildlife made me feel as if I was there. His stories about flying his airplane across hundreds of miles of wilderness, and his tales of the severe weather he ran into on several occasions grabbed my attention and wouldn't let me go. His images of the Alaska wilderness, his tales about the birds and animals that were their neighbors, and his casual mention of the challenges that he and his wife met and overcame kept me reading long after my normal bedtime.

This exceptional book appealed to me not only because I was stationed in Alaska as an army aviator and am somewhat familiar with the area where they built their cabin, but because it describes real people living a lifestyle that few folks can imagine. This is the finest book I've read about life in remote Alaska.

Lots of folks have yearned to move to the wilderness and leave the worries of the city behind, living off the land in a beautiful environment. That is What Lee Basnar and his wife did after he retired from the Army when they fullfilled his dream of life in the backcountry of Alaska. In his new book, 'Northern Lights and Shadows,' Lee paints a literal picture of life in the beautiful but harsh environment of Alaska's wilderness where he lived for 16 years. He tells of flying in his little taylorcraft through rugged mountains, fishing for huge trout and hunting moose. He also paints a picture of a changing Alaska as more people find it. The book is a great read for any outdoorsman or woman who longs for what they may think is a less complicated life. But Lee has a few lessons for anyone who might try what he has done. His life in Alaska was not always an easy one. However, it was the life he had sought and understood since growing up in Vermont. The story of his 16 year adventure in Alaska is one that will paint vivid pitures in your mind of wildlife and snow capped mountains tempered with images of 50 degree below zero winter weather and all the problems that need to be solved when living in the bush. There is also a bit of hunmor from time to time that keeps the story light.

If you love to read about the outdoors this book is a must. It will bring Lee's experience to life for you. I couldn't wait to get a little time each day to read a chapter and I was sorry there wasn't more when I finished it.

Have you ever been to Alaska? Have you ever wanted to go? Read this book and you will be instantly transported to that magical place. You will be there. You will share life with Lee and his wife Joan, from the compelling reasons why they chose to move to a place where no road goes, to their poignant departure seventeen years later.

The book is written in chapters, each chapter focusing on a segment of living unique to the Alaskan bush. The story flows easily and often humorously, as they integrate their life to become one with the environment, the wildlife, the unrelenting sub-zero cold and mountains of snow, the solitude, and the majesty and beauty of Alaska. It's all done from the perspective of the challenges of daily life for two very real people.

Lee takes the reader with him on spectacular, often harrowing, flights as he explores the region in his floatplane. You will learn how Joan hangs clothes out to dry when the clothesline is buried under several feet of snow. He chronicles their daughter's wedding at the cabin in the bush, when the guests had to be transported in by snowmachine. You will become as closely acquainted with Alaskan wildlife as if you were there; a family of loons on their pond, elusive wolf packs in the wilds, moose as their source of food, small animals providing entertainment. Then there are, of course, the bears; black bears and frightening grizzly bears, and how Lee and Joan balanced safety of life and limb with respect for the animal in its own habitat.

I have read numerous books on Alaska, but this is, by far, the best. It invites the reader into the wilds and in picturesque detail shares a glimpse of life that most of us will never experience,. It is, like Alaska itself, awesome!

From earliest childhood Lee Basnar loved nature. Basnar was born in Vermont in 1938. Stories of Alaska created a fascination for Lee. He wanted to experience the last frontier.

Lee's father had plans for him to graduate from college. Instead Lee married his high school sweetheart, Joan. He worked for his father as an apprentice carpenter. It was seasonal work. Tired of menial jobs and unemployment checks during the winter months, Lee again disappointed his father. He joined the army in 1961.

Lee's service career took him to Germany and France. In 1968 he was transferred to Viet Nam where he served as advisor to the South Vietnamese infantry division and later as an infantry company commander.

In October of 1971 Lee was assigned duty at Fort Richardson. His dream of seeing Alaska had finally come true. However, in 1974 he was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia. Soon Lee was seeking reassignment to duty in Alaska. An opportunity opened and Basner became senior advisor to the 207th Infantry Group of the Alaska National Guard, near Anchorage, for the remainder of his Army career.

As time drew near for his army enlistment to end, Lee began to plan his retirement. Together, with Joan, he looked for a site that would accommodate a cabin home. They both were ready to take on the challenge of the Alaskan frontier by living in the bush.

Lee is a gifted story teller. His descriptions of animal life, nature trails, mountains, and rivers in the vast Alaska wilds are spectacular. In breathtaking word pictures Basner creates new vistas for the reader. "Snow sprinkled the mountains like powdered sugar on cupcakes, and each new snowfall frosted the slopes a little lower." Each chapter includes a photo which depicts something of its contents.

Narrow escapes and life threatening experiences mount up as one after another Basner chronicles his story. He tells of a smoke filled cockpit in his small Taylor Craft airplane. After an emergency landing and repairs he had to battle river rapids for a dangerous take off at 2:30 AM to return home. After landing, securing the plane in a blinding snowstorm, having had no sleep for 24 hours, Lee, the master of understatement put it this way, "For some reason I felt a little tired."

Adventure stories of trapping, hunting, fishing, and photographing moose, wolves, bears, and other wildlife fill the chapters of this rapid paced narrative. The unpredictability of grizzly bears, a midwinter chimney fire, and other narrow escapes will keep you turning the pages of this fascinating account of the Basner's life in the bush.

Lee related how after surviving his tour of duty in Viet Nam, he was plagued by survivor guilt. He hoped to exchange combat nightmares from Vietnam for a new sense of freedom peace and contentment by living in the bush. After some years of roughing it, Lee wrote: "Vietnam intruded less frequently as the years accumulated...the demands of bush living shoved Viet Nam aside, leaving room for healing. The nightmares, less frequent now, retreated to a hidden place, emerging rarely. Drifting and pondering gave me time to realize that I had truly survived and shouldn't feel guilty because of it".

This is a book for everyone who ever had a dream of adventure on the last frontier. It is a book for Veterans, who experienced the ravages of war. Every school library should have a copy. It is for the sportsman, the hunter, and the environmentalist.

This is an incredible read.

I wish Lee Basnar had written more books. I liked this one even better than his Vietnam Vignettes. Thoughtful, humorous, intelligent - a good read even for those who know nothing about Alaska, exactly my case before I read this. I was sorry to reach the end.

The vast majority of the 32 chapters were narrative treasures, full of adventure (grizzlies, blizzard travel, the smoking engine of a small plane with nowhere to land...), observations on the various animal personalities, creative problem solving, humor ("The Cabin Sitter"!), poignancy (a wedding in the bush; the decision to finally leave after 16 years); healing and self-questioning (leaving Vietnam behind; the questionable ethics of trapping for fur). I'd only dock half a star for a couple of chapters that were descriptive without event; I kept waiting for a punch line that never came.

This book transported me to Alaska and made me feel as though I had been there, with all the joys and challenges of living 200 miles from the nearest population center. If I'm ever confronted with six feet or more of snow, I'll know what to do! I enjoyed the book very much and hope you will too.