Irene Skyriver

I just know I'm going to mess up this review. For me, it was a unique book, and, based on what I have seen from the other GoodReads reviews thus far, I'm a rather unique reader of it. To start, there are reviewers who clearly have had personal contact, at least to some degree, with the author, and, thus, have some degree of familiarity with the author's surroundings, which play a role in this book. For my own part, I now live in her original home town. I lived in or frequently visited many locations mentioned in her book, ranging from the more southern parts of Puget Sound to the northern tip of Vancouver Island. In fact, I have gone kayak paddling with the author. My wife had the same model of kayak the author used for her kayak journey detailed in this book, so we were both very familiar with how her watercraft may handle in the seas the author was about to confront. In fact, we had used that and another kayak out at Makah Bay a couple times to learn and master our skills at landing in the ocean surf. We paddled out to Tatoosh Island, stayed in Neah Bay. It was very shortly after the author got sponsorship to attempt her journey, that the paddling club to which my wife and I belonged, went out with her on pre-journey paddles. It was always clear to us that the author was not doing this merely as some variation on a kind of triathlon physical feat. Certainly, that had to be a partial factor -- how could it not? -- but it was obvious there was a major element of homage to her family background that was a key to it all. As part of the paddling club, we were among some of the earliest folks to hear directly from the author upon her return, about her adventure, along with a slide show. Not too long after her return, we bumped into the author on the southern part of the island where she lives as she returned from an outing in her kayak. We were checking out additional kayak launch points from the island beyond the ones we had already used. That very brief interaction was the very last time we had contact with her. More than 20 years later, after moving (unbeknownst to us) to the same town where the author started her life, we immediately perked up when we saw the posting from our local maritime center that the author would be speaking in town from her book about her amazing journey. Sign us up! Keep in mind, we had no idea how well her writing skills may be. Both as someone who knew about her trek so many years ago, and as someone whose two main late-in-life goals were bicycle touring and long kayak camping trips and who has read numerous books about major "human-powered" journeys by other persons, I was anxious to hear what she had to say. It was clear from her relatively brief reading at the maritime center that she had ample craft in writing to justify reading the book. It was also clear to me she was being remarkably modest about what she had accomplished on her own. So, there I was reading her book, and I was in near rapture at how well she captured the things I wanted to know about her kayaking experience. Without question, it was the best reporting of long-distance human-powered touring I had read to date. Not only did it talk about all the many "issues" that interested me, but she demonstrated a beautiful use of language throughout, avoiding the cliches of less professional writers while frequently using phrases and comparisons that added insight to my own similar experiences kayaking. I will admit that when the author shifts into a portion of the book about her family background, I expected it to be a fairly brief reflection time, before jumping back into her travel journal. Instead, the reader gets a different but no less interesting dive back into the depths of a side of her family. Someone reading the book only for its kayaking details may be somewhat excused for not appreciating the diversion, but, after realizing what was happening, it all made total sense to me, as someone who always knew there was a strong connection between the journey and her heritage. In essence, the reader gets three books in one: a stirring kayak adventure tale and two separate captivating memoirs, which reminded me, to a degree, of a collection of stories I had recently read by noted author, Wallace Stegner. Will every reader appreciate the smorgasbord? I don't know. As I said, I think I'm a fairly unique reader for this book. I do know I enjoyed the entire reading journey. And one last perhaps minor point: I absolutely did not see it coming when the author reveals how her parents met. Very well written. Read the book and you'll see what I mean.… (más)