Synopses & Reviews
From Powells.com:
"I had a boat, most of a spring and summer, a cargo of books, and the kind of
dream of self-enrichment that spurs everyone who sails north from Seattle," explains
Jonathan
Raban at the outset of his journey along the Inside Passage from Seattle to
Juneau. In a 35-foot sailboat Raban traverses over 1,000 miles of often treacherous
waters, and for fans of tales of sea adventure
Passage to Juneau is an
exhilarating ride. However, in Raban's voice the voyage becomes much more than
a Man and the Sea travelogue. In the same ruminative style as his National Book
Critics Circle award-winning
Bad
Land, Raban considers past and present, myth and reality.
Passage to Juneau
is a lesson in comparative literature, the history of the Northwest's Indians
and the first European explorers, and a sociological treatise on class and technology.
But most of all,
Passage to Juneau is a fascinating navigation through
Raban's psyche — a brave interior exploration of family, relationship, and
mourning. He is a beautiful, sensitive writer, whose wry voice encourages the
reader to see as he sees.
Passage to Juneau will appeal to almost any reader
for Raban's skill is narrating a universal tale.
Georgie, Powells.comWith the same rigorous observation (natural and social), invigorating stylishness, and encyclopedic learning that he brought to his National Book Award-winning
Bad Land, Jonathan Raban conducts readers along the Inside Passage from Seattle to Juneau. The physical distance is 1,000 miles of difficult — and often treacherous — water, which Raban navigates solo in a 35-foot sailboat.
But Passage to Juneau also traverses a gulf of centuries and cultures: the immeasurable divide between the Northwest's Indians and its first European explorers — between its embattled fishermen and loggers and its pampered new class. Along the way, Raban offers captivating discourses on art, philosophy, and navigation and an unsparing narrative of personal loss.
Review:
"A work of great beauty and inexhaustible fervor." The Washington Post Book World
Review:
"A great book by the very best contempoary writer afloat." The Oregonian
Review:
"Raban is a super-sensitive, all-seeing eye. He spots things we might otherwise miss; he calls up the apt metaphors that transform things into phenomena....One of our most gifted observers." Newsday
Review:
"Certainly the finest writer afloat since Conrad." Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Guardian
Review:
"Adrift in foreign lands, eternally questioning the concept of 'home,' Raban crafts a more immaculate, ship-shape habitation out of the language than almost all his contemporaries." Rose Tremain, Financial Times
Synopsis:
The author of the National Book Critic's Circle Award-winning
Bad Land conducts readers along the Inside Passage from Seattle to Juneau, transversing a gulf of centuries and cultures, and offering captivating discourses on art, philosophy, and navigation with an unsparing narrative of personal loss. An ALA Notable Book Award Winner. Map.
About the Author
Jonathan Raban is the author of
Old Glory,
Hunting Mister Heartbreak, and
Bad Land,
Coasting, and the novel
Foreign Land; he also edited the
Oxford Book of the Sea. He has received the Heinemann Award for Literature, the Thomas Cook Award, and the Governor's Award of the State of Washington.
Bad Land's other prizes include the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Pen West Creative Nonfiction Award. In 1990 Raban moved from London to Seattle, where he lives with his daughter.
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