Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod (1994)

I never knew being sprayed by a skunk could be so hilarious! ( )

Acclaimed YA author chronicles his experiences running dogs and racing in the famed Iditarod. Often humerous and self-deprecating, Paulson met amazing challenges to finish his first Iditarod.

Gary Paulsen has a weird, weird mind. I had read his books like Hatchet when I was a teen, but this non-fiction novel was an entirely different creature (perhaps a dog? ;))

In retrospect I probably read it during the wrong part of the year (Late January into Early February. During a definite cold snap in New England). When he talked about negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit on The Yukon or even a warm negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit it sent a literal chill down my spine for sure.

I've always had an interest in the Iditarod (like I do in the Boston Marathon. Cool to watch, don't really ever want to participate.) And this book helped reinforce that. The way Paulsen talked about the dogs and the race as well as the training made the whole thing come alive. And the chapter about his Major wrecks was hilarious and had me laughing the whole way through it.

A must read, though I suggest it be read during the summer, and during a heat wave, a very, very long heat wave. ( )

The subtitle is “the fine madness of running the Iditarod” and “madness” doesn’t begin to cover it. For those who don’t know, the Iditarod is a dog sled race in Alaska from Anchorage to Nome covering 1,180 miles of Alaskan wilderness in weather that can hit 60 below--Fahrenheit. That doesn’t begin to delineate its dangers which include attacking moose, frozen whirlpools and sea ice giving way under you. This is Paulsen’s first hand, first person account of his rookie race taking 17 days--and let me tell you, several times (including in preparing for the race) he came close to winning a Darwin Award. (They’re given for doing humanity a service by removing yourself from the gene pool by causing your death with your stupidity.) I think you probably should be given the award--or a straight jacket--just for wanting to do the Iditarod--doing it with Paulsen’s admitted lack of preparation is just insane.

There’s more to this book though than just hair-raising adventures. Above all, there are the dogs. A blurb on the front cover from a Washington Post review claimed that the book is “one of a handful of indispensable dog books.” And the pack of dogs Paulsen uses in the race do come through as individual and endearing personalities, especially lead dog Cookie and the aptly named Devil. (Although more than once I thought pack leader Paulsen could have used some training from Cesar Millan in their handling.) The dogs are the highlight--nay, the stars--of the book. There’s one other redeeming feature--a sense of humor. One that a couple of times threatened from me a burst of giggling out loud. There was the incident with the skunks...and Paulsen’s wife Ruth had a winning sense of humor--probably much needed to deal with her husband. For instance, one exchange when Paulsen was training with the rowdy sled dogs, who are not your standard pet:

“They remind me of that time when you were drunk and brought the bikers home to dinner ...”

“I thought we were never going to talk about that again.”

“They kinda remind me of them though--only they’re cuter.”

“The bikers?”

“The dogs.”

There’s also less. It would have been nice for instance to have more background about the race itself. It’s never stated within the book, but the Iditarod, like the marathon, was instituted to commemorate a specific event--a journey from Anchorage to Nome by dog sled to bring life-saving medicine. (For that story you might want to look up Gay Salisbury’s The Cruelest Miles.) I also could wish Paulsen had cut the final self-pitying chapter. The book should have ended with the end of the race--the final chapter felt jarring and out of place. ( )

This book nailed me to my chair for the afternoon, but I felt like I was racing through it pulled by a team of sled dogs running for pure joy. This is Paulsen's story of his naive preparations for, and first experience of running the 1100+ mile Iditarod in 1983. Fascinating, moving, hilarious, terrifying. We should be grateful that a diagnosis of heart disease stopped him from running after his third start; he would either have died out there somewhere, or simply become so obsessed with the race, at one with his dogs, that he never would have written this beautiful book for the benefit of mere humans. ( )