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| Yukon Alone: The World's Toughest Adventure Race | 
 enlarge | Author: John Balzar
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $1.87
You Save: $14.13 (88%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 600217
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0805059504
Dewey Decimal Number: 798.83
EAN: 9780805059502
ASIN: 0805059504
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: slight shelf wear
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 17 | | NEXT » |
 The Call of the North March 30, 2007
John Balzar is a roving correspondent for the LA Times and as such won the Scripps Howard Foundation Prize for human interest stories. Even so he had an enormously difficult task facing him in writing about the Yukon Quest, the longest, loneliest and most dangerous arctic race of them all.
The true measure of a book like this is how well the author holds up as a companion, introducing people to a world and to people totally outside their experience.
"To spend time with sleigh dogs, and the men and women who dedicate their lives to them is to witness a relationship so primary and so ineffable that the temptation is to reduce oneself to murmurs and tears. John Balzar fights this temptation and tells this story of the Far North and of the unbelievable characters he found there gracefully and with all the humor, honor and slack jawed wonder it deserves."
- Pam Houston
His book becomes an outstanding tale of adventure, one of the books which, hard to put down, will be reread many times, being a skilled and enormously well written eyewitness narrative of a tale of wild adventure in what is probably the most remote and inhospitable land on earth.
"...a wholly true tale that's more suspenseful, riveting and memorable than any fiction."
-David Petersen
And yet Balzar avoids the dreamy metaphors that spoil most writing about the North, displaying a gritty reality in his writing as he describes the race, the country, the incredible charracters who live on the adge of desperation to compete in this race, and above all the real athletes, the dogs.
As Jeff Greenwald said about a similar book, HONEST DOGS by Brian O'Donoghue ( a racer who's the only dog driver to finish both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest by coming in last} "I'd love to try this myself." and "This guy's out of his damn mind."
With this book, as O'Donoghue once told me, you can relive the race without the pain.
Dawson Gratrix
 Patting his own back!!! June 17, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This writer is so self-absorbed and busy patting himself on the back that he doesn't even come close to giving an accurate report on this race. Having a LOT of experience with this race, I can truly say, this is the worst account of this race I have ever read. If you want to learn about what it takes to run this race, or what it's like to go through the training, the work, the effort, what the dogs are like, what the north is like.. then read Running North by Ann Mariah Cook. Now THAT is a good book. I have also met John and found him to be arrogant and self-serving while writing this book. He defeats the entire purpose of this book by spending more time trying to sound like an expert, or a "local", trying to sound like he fit in here, but no matter how hard one tries, sometimes they can NOT succeed... and he wondered why people wouldn't talk to him. This is the worst book on this topic I have ever read. It was tough for me to get through it but I did it because I was there during the race that year. I wanted to see what he was going to write next that wasn't accurate... seems he was more infatuated with Aliy Zirkle than the race itself, or getting to see his girlfriend, or pretending that he was one of the mushers himself. Just his account of his "mushing" experience (disaster) was so unbelievable, it made me laugh. I am an experienced musher and I can tell you, that was the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.... the entire book is just a bunch of garbage... but then again, he didn't do his homework, his research, and it shows... horribly!!! Don't bother with it. If this is the only exposure you have to mushing or the dog world, then you will be most misinformed... best to spend your time and money on a different book. DeeDee Jonrowe's book Iditarod Dreams is excellent. Tracks Across Alaska is also excellent, but this... a sad waste!!!
 Not bad, not great... April 4, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Absorbing book, probably a good recommendation for anyone interested in the far north and outdoor adventure. John Balzar writes an interesting account of the Yukon Quest, the second-best-known dog-sled race in Alaska after the Iditarod, and the result is an entertaining story covering both the `mushers', their dogs, and the environment surrounding the competition.
Having said that, with a book like this, I found it difficult not to compare John Balzar (perhaps unfairly) with other `Adventure' writers, and this is where the Yukon Alone fell a little short for me. Admittedly, I was hoping for something a little more `deep', a la Sebastian Junger or John Krakauer, both of whom do a much better job of bringing in related historical material to place current events in context, and both of whom also seem a little more willing to go the extra mile in regards to research. Not that I found fault with the details of Balzar's book, but I would have liked to hear more about how the far north was settled, for example, or more stories and anecdotes dealing with the inherent dangers of the extreme cold in that part of the world. The `Bigger Picture" material seems to consist of skimpy, slightly politically correct inserts on commercial sponsorship, animal abuse (a valid issue but not fleshed-out too well here) and some thoughts on topics like whether or not it's ok to call the natives `Eskimos'. These points don't make Yukon Alone a bad book, but they, for me at least, kept it from being great.
What I did find directly annoying was Balzar's self-absorbed tangents into his own private life, and his obvious desire to be seen as an Insider; everyone seems to be his best friend, or described as "the best musher" or "best bush-pilot". After a while I couldn't help but wonder whether he had the knowledge to make these claims or if he was just trying to buddy-up to the people who were actually participating as opposed to just watching, as he essentially was. Too many times Balzar can't decide whether he wants to view the events as a neutral journalist or a rough-and-tough `local' (a label it becomes glaringly obvious he doesn't merit), and ends up looking a little pretentious. I guess this is what they call `a writer getting in the way of the material': If, as a writer, your own contributions to the narrative include describing, for example, your not-very-interesting love-life, you should probably consider leaving it out.
All in all a good read, but could have benefited from a tougher editor.
(I'm not sure why the `cursing' has become such an issue in these reviews; there isn't much of it, probably a lot less than there actually could have been considering the setting, and if you can't deal with the F-word quoted once in a while in what is a journalistic piece, then stick to Reader's Digest or some other inoffensive publication. Strange what some people focus on...)
A look into the Great White North July 30, 2003
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a great book. After reading, and now re-reading, this book I wanted nothing more than to pack up, quit my city job, and move to the Far North in search of a life dominated by weather, dogs, and the will to survive. John Balzar does a great job describing a life dependant on dogs and neigbors (even though they may be 50-100 miles away) in the huge landscape of the Yukon and Alaska. Although the book mostly focuses on the Yukon Quest dog-sled race, it gives the reader an intriguing look into the culture of the people in and around the dog-sledding culture and the Quest itself. Definately worth the read!
The Real Scoop on the Worldys Most Challenging Dogsled Race February 9, 2002
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
John Balzar is first and foremost a reporter, with a reporter's unerring nose for news. So it should come as no surprise that word of the Yukon Quest, a 1,023-mile dog sled race through some of the coldest and most challenging terrain in the world, would capture his attention and get him started on the trail of a good story. What was a surprise, as much to Balzar as to his readers I suspect, was the degree to which the race and its participants came to matter. Quirky, devoted to a sport that doesn't translate well to television, and immersed in a way of life that 90% of the population can't begin to fathom, the people Balzar meets when he first heads north have "the power to fascinate." Following the advice of George "Skip" Brink, a construction worker who volunteers at the race, Balzar stops taking notes, sets aside his writing tools, and asks what he can do to help out with the race. Thus begins his stint as a pooper-scooper and veterinary assistant at the race, in which he slowly comes to realize that he is there to learn as much about himself as about the race. Yukon Alone is full of Balzar's characteristically insightful and amusing observations on life as he sees it, but it is not as polished or self-assured as some of his other work. In fact, the reader gets the distinct impression that Balzar is flying by the seat of his pants, figuring things out as the story progresses, which lends an immediacy and intensity to the writing. We are there, for instance, when he loses control of his dogsled team and ends up in a heap on the side of a trail with a nasty gash in his head. We stand by and watch with embarrassment as he asks a friend to fly him to see a woman friend, even though he knows he is risking both their lives. Here is a story that has much to say about what motivates and sustains us, and the importance of meaningful relationships with other creatures and the land. No doubt you will be amused and disgusted, shocked and dismayed, thrilled and touched by this book. The one thing you will not be is bored, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay Balzar.
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