Fast into the Night

November 1, 2015
Moderow briskly recounts her experiences in the brutally challenging Iditarod race, a journey that requires "passion, dedication to learning, and an immense amount of patience," not to mention "the collaboration of many beating hearts."The author's memoir proceeds by leaps and bounds, now in forward, now in reverse, in Connecticut, Vermont, and Wyoming, but mostly on the snowy, icy, windy mushing trails of Alaska. Moderow recounts how her parents nurtured in her their adventurous streak--not wild but zestful. After graduating from Princeton and a brief stint as a paralegal in Manhattan, the author moved to Wyoming, where she had her heart broken and decided to move yet farther west and north to Alaska. There, she met her future husband and had children but also fell into a deep depression. Then she became familiar with sled dogs, and her life changed. Moderow touchingly describes her life's transformations, including the deaths of her parents and the lasting ramifications of slipping silently into a glacial crevasse. As the memoir's larger picture takes on shape, the author threads into the narrative the stories of her two Iditarods (in 2003 and 2005), tales of great intensity and fraught progress leavened with light farce and moments where readers may ask, what was she thinking? Moderow understates the sheer roughness of the endeavor, but she engagingly chronicles one wind-blasted, aching-cold day after another, long, slippery runs and crashes on black ice, and injuries that were likely more painful than she lets on. The author also faced the treachery (or wisdom?) of her dogs: "'Let's go!' I call. No one budges. Two by two they sit on defiant haunches....The dogs won't press on and they won't turn back." The 2005 race went more smoothly, though the dogs engaged in another sit-down strike in response to the absurd cold. By then, however, Moderow was far more experienced and understood the words of another old musher: "You can't push a rope." A soulful memoir of adventure and one woman's love for her sled dogs.

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December 1, 2015

Dog musher Moderow presents a memoir focused on her experiences racing in the Iditarod, a legendary and grueling dog sledding competition that stretches more than 1,000 miles from the Alaskan cities of Anchorage to Nome. Moderow describes her early life in Alaska, the terrible disappointment after her first failed attempt at completing the difficult race in 2003 at age 47, and her eventual joyful success after finishing her second attempt in 2005 after more than 13 days of racing. Moderow's strongest theme is the power of the precious and sometimes fragile bond between dog and human to overcome hardship both on the trail and in life. Unfortunately, her workmanlike, bland prose only barely manages to convey the mental and physical challenges of the Iditarod, and her work lacks an effective narrative arc or a sense of suspense or momentum. The author's diaristic tendency to describe mundane conversations and seemingly unimportant details occasionally bogs down her tale. VERDICT Ideal for dedicated dog sledding fans or recreational readers interested in Alaskan adventures, who may also like Gary Paulsen's Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod.--Ingrid Levin, Salve Regina Univ. Lib., Newport, RI

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015
Moderow embarks on a unique memoir by retelling her experiences running the Iditarod sled-dog race. Unlike professional mushers, Moderow had a family-maintained back yard kennel in Anchorage. Her path to dog mushing began as she mourned failed pregnancies and bonded with one charismatic husky who expanded her joy in the outdoors. Soon she was skijoring, her children were competing in local races, and her husband was on board with mushing as well. Moderow doesn't tell a simple sports story; instead, she delves into the emotional and psychological commitment she made to the dogs and the race and looks back to the choices made over the course of her life, from going to Alaska to falling in love with her husband. Her humble attitude, even when running the Iditarod the second time, makes her chronicle that much more appealing. Many female writers have gone into the wild to find themselves, but Moderow tackled the wilderness simply for love of the dogs and the land. Book groups will thoroughly enjoy going along for the ride.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)