Alan Rafferty
Of All the Gin Joints in All the World
Rowing to Alaska and Other True Stories
By Wayne McLennan
Granta Books 239pp £12.99
The story of Wayne McLennan's primitive voyage to America's most northerly state begins, as do most of the stories in this fascinating book, in a bar. An elderly drifter tells him, and anyone else prepared to listen, about the Alaskan gold rush, and about how the poorest prospectors were forced to make the journey from Washington State up the coast to Skagway, from where they could gain access to the gold fields, by rowing, because they couldn't afford passage on a sailboat. The unspeakably arduous trip takes two and a half months. McLennan and his friend Doug make up their minds instantly. They move to Seattle, endure the very worst jobs available to gather funds, and commission a shortsighted old man to hand-build them a 22-foot 'Grand Banks dory' - a rowboat they will soon call home.
This haphazard but extraordinarily determined approach to decision-making is typical of McLennan. He will later set off to become a gold miner in Costa Rica on the basis of an article in National Geographic - 'I read that it was a democracy, that it had no army, that the girls
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
Give the gift that lasts all year with a subscription to Literary Review. Save up to 35% on the cover price when you visit us at https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe and enter the code 'XMAS24'