Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 2.6 / 5.0

Worth it:

The man wears his pretensions on his sleeve. OK, I could deal with that. His recurrent environmental proclamations are annoying, primarily because he glories in an expedition that invades the space he wants to keep pristine. Major contradiction.

But his prose is often stunning, his descriptions riveting, and the sense of place striking. I came away from the book with an appreciation of Antarctica and its wildlife. Not a bad achievement for an author.

Unexepectly good!:

After reading End of the Earth, by Peter Matthiessen I felt a lot more informed about the continent that you exist, but never really is talked about. Other then that it's a continent made up of water that's been frozen for thousands of years, you really don't know much about. He took a place on earth where most wouldn't dare to venture to once, let alone twice and wrote about it. He gave light to a place where it might have seemed dismal and dreary and gave it life. He makes the reader want to keep learning... more info

What a tour guide!:

After reading Shackleton's "South" I thought I knew a lot about Antarctica, but this book revealed how much I didn't know - the forces at work behind the obstacles Shackleton and other adventurers faced in the quest for the pole, and a greater understanding of the wildlife they encountered. I learned that we cannot understand how the Earth works without understanding how the Antarctic region works - and Matthiessen explains its global reach. The touring format is a wonderful way to learn about the history... more info

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