Description:
A rich and revelatory memoir of a young woman confronting her fears and finding home in the North.
Blair Braverman fell in love with the North at an early age: By the time she was nineteen, she had left her home in California, moved to Norway to learn how to drive sled dogs, and worked as a tour guide on a glacier in Alaska.
By turns funny and sobering, bold and tender, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube charts Blair's endeavor to become a "tough girl"--someone who courts danger in an attempt to become fearless. As she ventures into a ruthless arctic landscape, Blair faces down physical exhaustion--being buried alive in an ice cave, and driving a dogsled across the tundra through a whiteout blizzard in order to avoid corrupt police--and grapples with both love and violence as she negotiates the complex demands of being a young woman in a man's land.
Brilliantly original and bracingly honest, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube captures the triumphs and the perils of the journey to self-discovery and independence in a landscape that is as beautiful as it is unforgiving.
Brief description:
Blair Braverman is a writer, dogsledder, and adventurer. She is the bestselling author of Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, Dogs on the Trail, and Small Game, a contributing editor to Outside magazine, and a contributor to the New York Times, Vogue, This American Life, and elsewhere.
Review Quotes:
"[Blair's] external experiences are extraordinary, but it's what happens internally that both sets this memoir apart and gives it universal resonance. Indelible characters, adventurous spirit, and acute psychological insight combine in this multilayered debut."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"