The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Alaska History > Item 109
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The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska
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by Kim Heacox
Sales Rank: 198243
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List Price: $16.95
$11.53
At Amazon
on 8-5-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 280 pages
Published by: The Lyons Press April 1, 2006
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 1592288944
ISBN 13 Number: 978-1592288946
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 14.4 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Writer and photographer Heacox delivers a genuine, deeply moving account of the past 25 years he has spent living in Glacier Bay, Alaska, "the last wild shore, nine hundred miles north of Seattle and nine hundred years in the past." This work's title comes from the first kayaking trip Heacox took there in 1979. As he explored the bay with a friend, they found themselves the sole kayak in that body of water, "alone, and escaped, left to wonder how long it could last, this wildness and grace." Heacox's ability to use this tension—between the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness and the creeping encroachment of modern life—is the thread that unites his varied observations, and it's what gives the book its uniqueness and keeps it from being another pale imitation of Coming into the Country, John McPhee's late-1970s classic on Alaska. Heacox (An American Idea; Shackleton; etc.)deftly renders highly personal accounts of life with his wife and constant companion—especially a horrific account of her near-death from hypothermia in a winter storm—and the development of his friendship with Michio Hoshino, who became a famed photographer of bears before an untimely death. He also offers a fascinating look at his own development as a conservationist. The combination of these various elements makes for a charming reverie on Alaska's past and a thoughtful look at its future. Map. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
One hundred years after naturalist John Muir made his first trip to Alaska, National Park Service employee Heacox is paddling the waters of Glacier Bay with Richard Steele, a fellow summer recruit. The year is 1979, and their goal is to visit untrammeled wilderness, and to be the only kayak in the bay. Although some 25 years have passed since that summer, Heacox is still enamored of Alaska, and the valuable friendships he made there. He is an intrepid spirit well suited to Alaskan life, and has little patience for those who don't meet his standards. "Make access easy, and a place dies," is his motto, and therein lies the paradox that Heacox tries to resolve in this book. He knows that cruise ships are damaging to the bay's ecosystem, for example, yet he also realizes that it would be nearly impossible for the elderly visitors to enjoy the coastline by kayak as he does. As he wrestles with such conundrums, Heacox creates a nicely balanced environmental portrait of Alaska's ice-cut coast. Rebecca Maksel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska (Hardcover)
Kim Heacox has outdone himself. This book is funny, sad, erudite, and beautifully written, and an important contribution to Alaska literature. It's a rarity--a book that manages to convey an important environmental message without sliding into self-absorbed intellectualism. Heacox does it all this time around. His voice is relaxed and the prose beautifuly crafted, and the landscape of Glacier Bay, present and past, lives and breathes around the reader. There's plenty of food for thought about the effects of industrial tourism, but Heacox manages not to preach--at least, not any more than he (as an insider who knows and loves Glacier Bay) should. As a student of Alaska literature and a professional writer, I'm grateful for this book.
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The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska
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