Customer Reviews

The North Pole

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Kathan Brown's, The North Pole, is a unique and profound book. The interweaving of present, past and (potential) future, create an ephemeral sense of time and place. Brown's direct documentary style allows the reader to draw their own conclusions, to participate and experience for themselves the layers of metaphor that abound in this unique journey. The reader traverses the terrain of the physical and the ethereal, the dark and the light, the unknown and the known, the beautiful and the terrifying. Blocks of wonderful color photos interlace with the
structured sections of Brown's journey account, the journal excerpts of early explorer, Fridtjol Nansen, (unbelievable!) and the conversations Brown records with fellow travelers, scientists, and naturalists. This book is simply, yet brilliantly, organized. It is beautiful. It evokes a sense of vast spaciousness and wonder and raises provocative haunting questions regarding the future of the planet. It is a gem!

Very well-written, with excellent photo sections that illustrate previous written sections. Chapters alternate between gripping diaries of early historic explorers, the author's own North Pole experience on a nuclear-powered Russian ice breaking ship, and lively interviews with scientists who study the arctic and global climate.