Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
By: Gary Paulsen / Narrated By: Danny Campbell
Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
An old wonder of a book, now in audio!
I remember reading Winterdance in its print copy form and being totally charmed by it. It chronicles Paulsen’s introduction into the world of dog-sledding, his increasing obsession, and his ultimate challenges as he runs his dogs in the Iditarod. Paulsen is a great writer so it’s whimsical, it’s funny, it’s light-hearted where it needs to be, and it’s brutal where that suits best also. What’s not to love.
I must admit that I was a trifle bored at the beginning; I chalk that up to Danny Campbell’s ultra-avuncular intonations: so affable you kinda wanna scream and beg for SOMEthing, ANYthing, just give us a little tension somewhere! But I got used to it, and I must say that I do like Campbell’s work/narration of other audiobooks. It’s just that at the beginning of Winterdance, even tho’ it opens with a life-or-death scenario, I was hoping for more action, especially as the opening morphs into the humdrum of training life.
But it picks up speed when Paulsen discovers that the more he thinks like a dog, the better he gets. He leaves his life of house dwelling and chooses to stake out a claim in his kennels, pissing himself dry in order to mark out a territory of his own. He sets up camp next to a dog named Devil, and the more the book goes on and the more you learn about Devil, the more you wonder about Paulsen’s mental health. But it’s all written in a witty observant manner, and it’s great fun.
As he becomes more of a dog, his relationship with his lead dog, Cookie, blossoms, and we the listeners are treated to that. She’s a sweet dog, kinda wild (as they all are: Devil will eat you, period!), and they build up trust in each other and genuine affection. That’s why I included Animals in the audiobook’s categories. Because there are some truly memorable dogs here, Cookie being the main one. Though to warn you if you’re an animal-lover, skunks don’t get treated too kindly here, and there is a description of an act of brutality against a dog that might have you disgusted (tho’ the guy does get his comeuppance).
There are many, many memorable scenes in the book, from the skunk mishaps to driving to Alaska in a really, really, REALLY beat up old truck, to hallucinations involving naked women who try to lure you from the sled. There are great descriptions of nature, and since we’re talking about Alaska, you can expect the rough and the wild. Also, I listened to the audiobook as there was kinda. a warm spell going on here in town, but the descriptions of how frigid things were getting at certain parts of the race had me shivering in my sneakers.
The greatest weakness of Winterdance is its ending. It’s sooooo abrupt and even heartbreaking that it haunted me for many a year. I worried about Paulsen a lot, thought it all tragic. But it wasn’t until the audiobook finished and the app screen flashed Other Works By This Author that I put two and two together: Ahhhhh! THAT “Gary Paulsen!” and I stopped worrying about what life held for him. He turned into a very, very prolific writer, widely hailed and acclaimed.
Still, you might feel like you were just hit by a two-by-four when everything ends and none of it is tied up with a neat little bow. Talk about the definition of “abrupt”!
But when you take it all together, the bits and pieces, the delightful scenes, the delightful scenery, the hilarious dogs, Winterdance is a real charmer.
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