Yearning Wild: Exploring the Last Frontier and the Landscape of the Heart

by R. Glendon Brunk

In 1968, Glendon Brunk moved to Alaska to pursue his childhood dream of living in the wilds of the last American frontier. He built his own log cabin, hunted and fished, worked with the native Inuit, and became one of the world's top sled-dog racers. But he also watched the land he loved being destroyed by the tools of the very society he represented. Disgusted and distraught, Brunk left Alaska and hitchhiked across Africa, Asia, and North America, where he witnessed continuing destruction from the hands of humans. He returned to Alaska, committed to fight to save what is left of the wilderness. This personal story explores the deeply American contradictions that make up modern Alaska and questions our cultural inability to both love and protect the land.

Genres: Travel, Memoir, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Anne Coray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Such an honest and unpretentious work, from a man who decided to go by R. Glendon Brunk rather than Richard, because he "didn't want to be a dick anymore." His passage about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge appeared in the anthology I edited, Crosscurrent North. I was so saddened by his premature death.

[Ted Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man leaves oppressive Mennonite upbringing to start life in Alaska. Man starts life of adventure and tells a good tale about those adventures. Man shacks up with lady and has kid. Man abandons family for many years of traveling around the world (even pleading by his daughter did not get him to return). Man lives in a state of spiritual confusion coping with his abdication and with the loss of wild places, the places he abandoned. Books ends with man in state of high religious confusion, calling everyone to join him in this state in order to save the last wilderness spaces in the world.

I enjoyed this book until about midway, maybe a little further. But once he began his decent into abdication of his familial duties and weird spiritual journey, I lost interest quickly. If the book had gone off the rails earlier I wouldn't have finished it but I finished it in the hopes that his journey would lead to some lasting, some real peace in his life. I was disappointed to find it out it didn't. This was a tragedy, not a memoir.

[Robyn Severe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book for about a year. Something about it just struck a chord. Written with the grit of a true of Alaskan who is overcome by the magic of that place, and desperate to save the wildness that is slipping away.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written book for the traveler in all of us. The imagery of Alaska, Africa, and the soul are displayed vividly throughout the book. Pretty quick read, great story, and an inspiring pseudo-essay.