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Going Inside
By Alan Kesselheim.
McClelland and Stewart, Toronto. 292 pp. $28.99 (Cdn)
May 1995.
Review by MICHAEL PEAKE --
Che-Mun Editor
Canoelit Home Page
This is the latest - and best - offering from prolific Montana author Alan Kesselheim. He is once again writing about one of his year-long northern adventures undertaken with partner Marypat Zitzer.
Veteran readers will be familiar with this pair of adventurers who first came to our attention in 1986 with their overwintering trip down the Athabasca and Dubawnt and Kazan rivers. Alan wrote the book Water and Sky about that journey. He has also written many letters to Che-Mun giving us a first-hand look at their experiences. Now Going Inside looks at their second year-long adventure, this time down the Smoky, Peace and Kazan rivers in 1990-91.
There's a special sub-plot to this story and it indeed adds a unique twist to this outdoor adventure story. Halfway through the trip, spending long, dark nights in a cabin on bitterly cold Lake Athabasca, Marypat became pregnant - after years of trying. Their fertility ritual is delightfully woven throughout the whole tale and really adds to the book's interest.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It's a wonderful, comfortable read. Kesselheim's prose is straightforward and clear and simply begs you to keep reading. He doesn't try to over describe things and usually has a newspaper writer's succinctness in summing up a scene. Kesselheim is of the Sig Olson school of writing; a strong narrative, artfully dressed.
The story begin on the upper reaches of a flooded Smoky River in the foothills of the Alberta Rockies. The narrative begins moving as quickly as the river. There is gripping drama in Kesselheim's description of their running rapids down the water-choked channels of the Smoky. He conveys well the feeling of the teamwork that is necessary and obvious from their years of wilderness travel together.
These epic journeys of Kesselheim's are always neatly divided into two distinct segments - half through civilized areas and half through complete wilderness. They meet an interesting array of people while paddling down to Lake Athabasca, including one man who was swimming several hundred miles of the river to raise money for a charity. They experienced benevolence and indifference along with a few million gallons of muddy, fastmoving water.
They once again were winter caretakers in a fishing lodge near Stony Rapids where they'd wintered before. This time their relationship with the locals was different on many levels. Near the end of their stay the newly elected native chief told them to get out of town at once after he identified Kesselheim as the author of Water and Sky. He didn't like the frank comments about the town that appeared in that book. They also had to deal with Marypat's pregnancy which required visits to the northern health system.
If bad weather makes for good stories, then Kesselheim is lucky as an author and less so as a tripper. They were certainly dogged by big winds for much of their trip including a rough paddle down Lake Athabasca. They had more bad weather than I have ever encountered (knock wood) although, like most canoeists, we block out all the bad stuff or we'd probably never go back.
Their big decision was to continue with the journey after finding out they were going to have a child after years of trying. Kesselheim continues his very readable story throughout the second half of their trip which takes them down the Ferguson River, a tributary of the Kazan, which they then follow to Baker Lake. By this point Marypat is seven months pregnant and reaching the limit of usefulness on a two person trip. You really admire her spirit and pluck in carrying on what must have been a exhausting regimen. .
The book's final, and most excruciating, chapter is the natural fruition of their travels - the birth of their child. They had already decided to give their child the middle name Kazan, while paddling the river. Strangely, they never mention their first born's name in the book, but Che readers know it is Eli Kazan Kesselheim.
That trip must have done the trick. This spring Marypat will give birth to their third child and the great irony is that those northern trips will be on hold for a while. That's too bad. Going Inside was a treat to read and one of those rare books I look forward to reading again.
By the way, we were given a manuscript copy of the book to review since it's not out until May. So we haven't had a look at their cover or the maps and 16 pages of colour photos that will appear in the final printed version.
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