Non-Fiction Book Reviews

Book Review: Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life

By Sandy Amazeen Sep 14, 2009, 2:39 GMT

For Nancy Lord, what began as a yearning for adventure and a childhood fascination with a wild and distant land culminated in a move to Alaska in the early 1970s. Here she discovered the last place in America "big and wild enough to hold the intact landscapes and the dreams that are so absent today from almost everywhere else.? In Rock, Water, Wild, Lord takes readers along as she journeys ...more

This sweet collection of essays begins with a thoughtful, deeply personal look what led author Nancy Lord to pursue a career as a writer and move from the forty-eight to Alaska. While relating her experiences in the bush tromping through the Brooks Range, fishing, talking with the natives or encountering the wildlife, Lord gently leads readers to a deeper appreciation of the sheer size and diversity that is the Alaska. From ruminations about the role of open spaces countered by the need for roads to a look inside what was then still known as the Soviet Union, Lord’s insight and gift for seeing deeper then most, rings true. Especially poignant is the last essay entitled Enough which illustrates with heartbreaking clarity the sense of loss that comes with watching a parent succumb to Alzheimer’s. The overlying message is simple, everything is connected and matters so step lightly, live accordingly.