From Publishers Weekly
Thirty-odd years ago, adventurer and environmentalist Turk (
Cold Oceans) watched his dog root around in newly thawed dirt and jump wildly in response to some primeval scent in the earth. In that moment, Turk had a clear vision that the margin between life and death depends on a tactile, sensory awareness of the environment that incorporates but also transcends logic. Although he gradually forgot this lesson, it came hurtling back to him one day in July 2000 when he met Moolynaut, a Siberian shaman who introduced him to the Other World and the ways it impinges on the Real World. In prose by turns ponderous and lively, Turk narrates his journey to Siberia, the people he meets, and his introduction to the mysterious Moolynaut, who seems, like Shakespeare's Prospero, to have created a storm that washes Turk and his companion onto the shore of her village. Eventually, Turk finds himself standing naked, balancing on one foot, holding his right hand behind his back and pointing straight in front of him with his left arm as Moolynaut heals his fractured pelvis. During these moments, Kutcha, the Raven Spirit, teaches Turk to see that the Other World and the Real World are united. In what could have been an intriguing memoir but instead is mundane and uninspiring, Turk unconvincingly rehearses many of the mantras of New Age spirituality magic—even as he offers a breathtaking glimpse of life in a small, forgotten Siberian village.
(Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
*Starred Review* Turk, a research chemist, gave up lab work decades ago for a life of writing and arduous wilderness expeditions. Not even a near-death experience in an avalanche, which left him with a metal plate holding his pelvis together, slowed him down. By the time he embarks on an Arctic kayaking adventure in 2000, however, he is in serious pain. He and his Russian friend have no intention of visiting the village of Vyvenka on the Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka, home of the Koryak people, but a sudden storm forces them ashore, where they learn that they’ve been expected by Moolynaut, a healer and shaman in her nineties. She not only frees Turk from physical pain but also guides him into the realm of the Arctic spirits. Turk writes with prowess, nerve, and precision, whether he is telling the tragic story of the suffering of the Koryak as Soviet and Russian regimes severed the ancient bond between the tribe and their reindeer or chronicling such perilous exploits as approaching Kutcha, the raven spirit, with the aid of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Balancing between “logic and magic,” Turk attests to the innate powers of body, mind, and soul that are awakened when we immerse ourselves in “Wild Nature.” --Donna Seaman
