White demonstrates by example in this collection of more than a dozen essays that the
fun, the drama, the craziness of exploration--internal and external--is a singularly
important part of the human experience.
White dives with great white sharks in South Africa, but his love and concern for his two sons, who are traveling with him, generates powerful and subtle undertones that carry
throughout the book, and makes this far more than a collection of travel-adventure narratives.
White hangs out in Australia with the Crocodile Hunter, he writes about the late Peter Blake and the New Zealand sailing team, he jogs the Mayan ruins of Guatemala, and he battles
insects in his backyard garden. He’s the lead sledder for an entry in the U.S. toboggan
championships, he explores Vietnam (and gets lost jogging in Hanoi)--and just as powerfully
explores what it’s like to reach middle age.
