9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rivetting psychological portrait and disaster adventure, January 3, 2001
British author James Vance Marshall, best known for his novel of the Australian outback, "Walkabout," has written a riveting psychological study of an ordinary man's struggle for survival through an Antarctic winter in 1942.
The novel begins after his rescue, in the office of a military psychologist assigned to treat the uncommunicative Lt. James Lockwood, sole survivor of the Royal Navy's secret mission to the forbidding continent. The doctor, directed to break through Lockwood's suspect amnesia and uncover the results of his top-secret mission, sympathizes with his patient's obvious trauma and recommends he be left alone.
Later, the case haunts him. "I am afraid that if Lockwood keeps his secrets (whatever they are) perpetually bottled up, they will become an incubus, like a dead albatross tied for the rest of his life round his neck."
The novel then drops back to the beginning of the mission, ostensibly a military weather station, but also an urgent, secret hunt to find uranium for Britain's nuclear bomb project. Meanwhile, a German U-boat, forced south by an Allied ship, discovers the station and destroys it, killing everyone but the commander, John Ede, who is badly wounded, and two men out fetching rock samples, Lockwood and Petty-Officer Ramsden.
Returning to the devastation, Lockwood and Ramsden realize their only hope is to reach the Antarctic Peninsula before it's iced in - 200 miles in two or three weeks. Carrying their helpless commander and the uranium rock samples will render their task even more hopeless. But Lockwood cannot abandon Ede and Ede will not abandon the uranium, so the two able-bodied men take turns dragging the heavy sledge.
Weather favors them, giving rise to hope. Each day Ede grows weaker but remains alive. Ramsden, more practical than Lockwood but accustomed to following orders, would abandon Ede to save themselves and their mission but Lockwood will not. Their streak of luck falters, fails, and the continent batters them.
Marshall slowly strips Lockwood of the accoutrements of civilization - bodily comfort, companionship, food, light. Isolated in the frozen dark, on a continent abandoned by all forms of life, Lockwood falls back on the primal instinct to survive. His mind becomes his only solace and his greatest peril.
The vast, majestic, terrifying beauty of Antarctica comes alive in this penetrating and sympathetic portrayal of a man thrown upon his deepest resources. Instinct and spiritual epiphany meet and mesh in a manner impossible in civilized society, a contradiction Lockwood must reconcile upon his return. But can he? And if he could, would anyone understand?
Marshall's plain, simple style, and attention to detail, reflective of Lockwood's mind, makes a perfect foil for the immensity of the landscape and the man's ordeal. Powerful, suspenseful and moving, "White-Out" succeeds on many levels.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable Read, November 29, 2007
This is a book I happened on by chance. I picked it out of the new book section of the library by the title and checked it out after reading the inside cover. I'm glad that I did. While I only rate it 4 out of 5, it was an interesting book and worth reading.
The book is centered on telling the story of a Royal Navy officer and his trials to survive against impossible odds. The main story is set during the Second World War on the continent of Antarctica. The British Royal Navy sends a small force to establish a weather station while also carrying out a top-secret mission. A German U-Boat intercepts the periodic weather forecasts and is able to triangulate the stations position. The station is attacked when the protagonist and a junior man are off taking core samples. Upon returning, they find the station totally destroyed and the commander barely clinging onto life. As they race for the northern peninsula, the adventure begins. If they don't make it in time, the ice will make rescue impossible. And a winter without a proper shelter is impossible to survive in this harsh continent. In the end, only one man survives. He claims to have lost his memory of the events before his rescue and he longs to return. Then we are able to learn why.
I have often wondered why anyone would want to visit or live in Antarctica. It seems like a barren place, devoid of life. But this book has shown me the beauty and wonder of that most untouched of our continents. I did not realize the amount of life existing during the summer months, that can exceed almost all other places on earth during the peak. It was truly a memorable story that was as shocking at time as it was touching.
There is only one complaint that I have about the book. It seems quite petty, but it was a major detraction as I was really getting into it. The setting is 1942. I am in a mindset of World War Two. All surrounding are described with the technology available then. The tent material wasn't modern day synthetics. But, at one point, the penguins jumping over a 5 feet ridge are described as "jump jets". This really hit me wrong. I was taken out of the 1940's mindset and propelled back to modern day, with one poorly chosen metaphor. This is a minor issue and you will certainly enjoy the book.
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