Rating: 
Summary: A Riveting Study in Character and Writing
Review: This novel operates on myriad levels, and there is enough here to make you think for years. Multiple readings will only raise more questions, and/or cause you to rethink the conclusions you've previously thought solid. Merely for the fact that this is a book that makes one think and ponder and consider, it is a great book.The basic story is that of a WWII bomber crewman shot down over Tokyo immediately prior to the great firebomb raids of Spring 1945. He is utterly alone on a hostile foreign island, likely listed as missing, presumed dead, with the book's opening pages promising a superior adventure as our protagonist struggles to stay alive and eventually repatriate. But, as the story matures and we gradually learn more about Muldrow, we see that repatriation has been only a fleeting inspiration. Mudrow has been freed, and he pushes north toward a place that is much more imagined than real. As he struggles north Muldrow changes from serviceman to fugitive, from survivor to predator, from endangered hero to questionable protagonist to a perplexing and difficult-to-like principal character. To my reading, Muldrow is an unpredictable, dangerous psychotic, with only the regimen and discipline of societal interaction and military service having kept him in check during brief periods of his life. When in his element, out in the wilderness relying only upon himself, he is a nation unto himself, free to make any choice which suits his needs and his whims. We see it in the flashbacks to Alaska, and we see it in his maniacal odyssey to Hokkaido and the White Sea, and to a mental and physical place which of course does not exist. In the end where does Muldrow go? This is as debatable as the nature of his character, the origins of his actions and thoughts, and his motivations. Dickey takes us from a strong, pulsing adventure narrative in the opening pages to a lyrical, poetic, almost mythical climax as Muldrow finally dies/transforms/transcends. It is a fascinating transformation for the character, for the narrative, and for the experience of the reader. I wholeheartedly recommend this riveting, expertly written book.
Rating:
Summary: Is this a work on ethics?
Review: This review is of both the hardback edition, read in 1993 and the unabridged tape edition, listened to recently. Dick Hill's reading is awe inspiring, especially the nuance given by correct pronunciation of Eskimo words. I realize that when I read to myself, I projected more than was warranted. Mr. Hill provided reality to the character I never would have thought to create. The depth of the book seems too great to easily fathom. After having read the book once and listened to the tapes three times, I still do not know the answers to the following questions: 1. Is Muldrow's fictional experience "real", or is it a Jacobs Ladder-like confabulation? 2. Does it matter? The exact details and narratives of conversations, talks by "the colonel" and Major Sorbo's command remarks certainly made me feel that this is intended to be a narrative of events through which Muldrow lived. The experience in the aircraft rings realistic, and the bailout seemed authentic as did the description of actual events in the firebomb raid of March 9-10, 1945, superimposed upon the one-day stay in the sewer pipe. But, little details sort of collect in the back of the mind as the adventure unfolds. Doubts about the "reality" of the experiences rushed in upon the description of Hokkaido as an arctic-like landscape with snowdrifts available for spear-throwing practice. The apparent sequence of events, though a bit vague, would have put Muldrow up there no earlier than very late April or early May, 1945. Maybe Hokkaido is like that, but my guess is no, since its latitude, although is about that of Oregon. But, maybe Muldrow stayed with the tribe longer than he lets on; it began snowing as he left, or maybe Muldrow forgot to let us know that he had really made it as far north as Sakhalin or Siberia and he really finally was tracked down by some army in winter, 1947 or so; which is maybe what does him in as the book ends? Dickey seems to have salted these small inconsistencies within the text to evoke doubts. Muldrow's story about why he went to the lower-48 to enlist so as not to get drafted doesn't make sense, either-they never could have found him, much less drafted him from back in those mountains, given the way he lived, hunted, tracked, never went to school, etc. People must have noticed that the Kansas girl never got back to Kansas. Dickey is setting out for us and for our critical examination, Muldrow's subjective and, perhaps self-serving, consciousness. Of course, Muldrow continues to speak to us after his death, but that seems OK, too. There are little inconsistencies, which Dickey sprinkles into the text, between Muldrow's recollection of events from one part of the book to a later sequence, such as an expanding impact of the candle-glint off the bread knife on the family having dinner; changes of emotion on recollection of the sound of the calving glacier, and other details. These changes over the course of the events in the book, raise doubts as to the Muldrow's truthfulness as to all or any of them. Everybody seems to end up dead. His mother, his father, the Kansas Girl, (I worry, too, about Tor Nar Suk) the Ainu hunter, the old falconer of the "shack/shed/hut", as well as those unfortunates who happened to be in the wrong place when he passed through. "I laid on the bear skin as I would have laid on the bear; if he had loved me." The US did not have to endure a "Nuremberg", but this book convicts it of a war crime. The "colonel's" briefing on March 8, 1945 proves his and US guilt of Geneva Convention violations to a logical certainty for the March 9-10 firebomb raid. Muldrow became a deserter upon his formulating the intent to stay away from the Army permanently on the second or third day of his trek through the terraces north of Tokyo, so his killings of civilians are simply murder, according to law. But law doesn't apply to the situation which Dickey portrays. The circumstances for Muldrow are beyond any reflective judgment. Dickey makes it unmistakable that what Muldrow faced took him outside any civilization; the briefings about prisoner of war abuse and especially the beheading of the airman seen from the hill above the airfield excuse conformity to social constructs regarding behavior. I glean that Muldrow is one-half Eskimo or Indian. His repeatedly expressed denials that he looked anything like the Japs are too strident, and his descriptions of himself show that he was close enough to a Japanese appearance to get by. His narratives of the effect of alcohol hint at native heritage as well. He may have suffered unspeakable abuse in the cabin on the Brooks Range. His mother's people must not have wanted him, and his father took him in, perhaps reluctantly. Such experience reportedly creates killers. A serial killer may be the only person who could have survived for long enough for a story in these circumstances to come into existence. This leads me to worry that maybe he was killed just trying to get out of the gantry cab after sleeping too long and dreaming of the white buffalo before much really happened and that we have read the creation of his extremis. But, on the other hand, no? Are there any scholarly treatments of this work known, such as theses or other reviews by philosophers or literary professors? I'd like to know if my take on this book; that it is an important work on ethics, is shared by anyone else.
Rating: 
Summary: Survival has a price!
Review: This tale will both excite and disturb a thoughtful reader. Muldrow is not quite your average man and he certainly reacts quite differently. Or does he? As the story unfolds you find yourself facing the tension and stress that Muldrow is experiencing. Yet, to become Muldrow is to confront the price one is willing to pay for survival. Is life itself worth the price of becoming Muldrow?
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