David Grann has a 21,000-word article about an expedition across Antarctica in the New Yorker

Yeah, I'll read a few thousand words at a time. It's interesting so far. Some great phraseology.

 

It was a very good article. While I commend Worsley’s spirit and stamina — spoiler alert—-

it’s tough to read about the guilt his wife feels about his death, how she says she will never forgive herself for not calling in the rescue mission earlier. He is completely at fault and she should not be be made to feel that way, but ultimately he was kind of selfish, especially with the final expedition. Though he turned back, there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t have gone back to Antarctica again. It’s fitting I guess that his family buried him there near Shackleton. Needless to say, I don’t think his wife is gonna ask to be buried next to him.

 

Also: You do not want to be the subject of a David Grann piece.

 

The first two paragraphs of that story are a master class in writing a gripping lead. After that, I had to read the whole thing.

 

Grann is my favorite kind of writer - no bullshit, but not at all boring.

If you look at the reader reviews of "Killers of the Flower Moon" on Goodreads, you'll see a lot of the one- and two-star reviews are what appear to be fiction enthusiasts bitching and moaning that his use of language isn't stylish enough for them.

 

Took me nearly two weeks to finish this ... but damn, that was incredible. I'm a target audience, because I've been absolutely fascinated by polar exploration forever. The photos and dispatches were incredible. Totally worth the time to read the whole thing.

 

Polar exploration sounds great, except ... it's cold. It totally fucking cold. Every fucking minute of every fucking day.

Great story. Great guy. But leave your family life to ... keep doing this? That's the part I don't get. And it was fatal.

 

Well, now I know how it ends. Nice spoiler, asshole!

 

The chick is a dude.

 

Haven't had chance to read it yet. Interested in some of the descriptions I'm sure Grann delivers of the environment, especially because in Lost City of Z, there's the guy who went along with one of Fawcett's expeditions and had experience in the Antarctic and wondered how tough the jungle could be in comparison. Grann vividly describes why the Amazon was tougher. Don't have the book handy but I think the guy, who nearly died in the Amazon before Fawcett saved him, later disappeared in the Antarctic.

This one will also be a movie:
Imperative Entertainment Lands David Grann New Yorker Article ‘The White Darkness’

 

A few years ago I read “Walking the Amazon” by Ed Stafford, a former British special forces officer. It took him 860 days to follow the path of the river through nearly impassable jungle, drug runners, etc. He made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, but the whole exercise kind of left me cold. It just seemed masochistic.

 

David Grann might have the career I most envy. He's really, really good.