Amazon.com
Peter Stark's Driving to Greenland delivers the many voices of winter with a crystalline clarity. Intensely personal and often electrifying, Stark's collection of essays, now in paperback, share a love for winter with an acute eye for its scientific virtues as well as the grandness of ice and snow. Following the autobiographical introductory essay, "A Life Built on Snow," 11 essays are divided among three sections: "The Way Down: Winter Sports," "The Road North: Arctic Travel," and "On the Surface: Snow and Ice." In "The Way Down," Stark relates his hair-raising adventures--experiments, really--ski-jumping, luge-running, taking on the frightfully steep Aztec run at Aspen, and skiing with World Extreme Skiing Champion Doug Coombs. Writings in "The Road North" evoke a strong sense of place, as Stark hops into a VW bus and heads for Greenland, explores the duality of Iceland's fire and ice, and paddles into the legacy of the sea kayak. "On the Surface" brings the collection nicely to a close with an intimate, and at times magical, sense of wonder. Of midnight ice-boating, Stark writes, "You're released from friction as well as sprung from time and space, aware only of raw speed--a slender projectile wrapped in the scream of the wind and the roar of the runners."
Within these covers Stark relates life's lessons learned at the brink, often at high speeds, as he slips, regains an edge, and rights himself again and again. An elegant and wise book. --Byron Ricks
From Publishers Weekly
Snow and ice warm Stark's heart, and in this collection of a dozen essays, most of which appeared in the Smithsonian and Outside, he envelops readers in the frigid charms of ski jumping, narwhal hunting, dogsledding, iceboat sailing, skating on thin ice and kayak-making. One chapter is gleefully devoted to connoisseurs' names for different kinds of snowflakes and the mysteries of their structure, another to descriptions of bad and good ice and prescriptions for making the latter. Besides providing appreciations of the beauties of snowflakes, newly fallen snow and good ice, Stark's account of his journeys to Greenland and Iceland is filled with rare tidbits about both countries and his daring adventures there. Instructive and enchanting. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Part autobiography, part travelog, this book energizes and invigorates the reader with vivid descriptions of ski jumping, sledding, skating, sea kayaking, and hunting in the coldest regions of North America, Greenland, and Iceland. Stark loves snow and shares his passion in 12 delightful essays. His descriptions and emotions are especially strong in the title essay, a fascinating account of his trip from Missoula, Montana, to Greenland in the endless light of summer. He even includes an entire chapter on different types of snow. An interesting purchase for the lover of winter sports and armchair travelers.Janine Reid, Jefferson Cty. P.L., Lakewood, Col.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The spirit of George Plimpton is alive and well. But whereas Plimpton experienced the bruises inflicted upon professional football players as well as the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat of other professional sports, Stark did the same kind of things on snow or ice. He luged down a hill, flew off another (hill, that is), and, as the title reveals, drove to Greenland, which is literally impossible according to standard and nonstandard maps--but, hey, artistic license. His book probably should have been brought out to coincide with the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, but the marketing mistake in no way diminishes its entertainment value. In how many other books can you share someone's travels to Greenland and Iceland, hear tales of skiing down a mountain, learn about the many types of snow, and find out what it's like to ride on a dogsled? OK, there are a few, maybe, but if one purpose of books is to take you to far, far away places, at that Stark succeeds very well. Jon Kartman
From Kirkus Reviews
Stark joins the ranks of hands-on journalists who willingly, shamelessly, risk life and limb at extreme sports, all because it keeps them where they like to be: out in the cold and over their heads. Lyons & Burford seems to have a direct pipeline to Outside magazine, publishing collections by David Quammen, Randy Wayne White, Jon Krakauer, Michael McRae, all crackingly good writers. Add to that list Stark, also an Outside contributor, a man deeply smitten by snow and ice, who likes his wintry doings on the wild side, the endorphins going full tilt. Although the approach of middle age has slowed his step (he graduated from college in 1976), you'll still find him on the black diamond slopes, flashing the crux down the radical chutes (translation: skiing hell for leather down boulder-strewn, shoulder-width, near-vertical canyons), sandpapering the back of his skull on Lake Placid's luge run, or planting his face rather than his skis in the landing zone of a ski jump called Pesticide. Stark sometimes slips into a more contemplative mode, brooding over sleds, mesmerized by snow types, trying to render the lunarscape of central Iceland. And he really does drive (well, much of the way) to Greenland; his account of that trip is one of the best pieces in the collection: unpretentious, tack-sharp writing that clearly summons up a place and a people, travel literature as it ought to be. Best of all, and very rare in this breed of daredevil writer, he doesn't let his ego crowd out the surroundings; rather, he melts into the landscape like a flake into a snowbank. Stark brings you to places you never dreamed of going, takes all the lumps, and gets you home safe and sound. A more self- sacrificing guide an armchair traveler never had. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
This essay collection showcases Stark's infatuation with snow and ice, winter sport, and arctic travel.
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