From Amazon.com
Serving as doctor to the Americans "wintering over" at the South Pole in 1999, Jerri Nielsen made headlines when she discovered a lump in her breast that a self-administered biopsy revealed to be an aggressive, fast-growing cancer. No flights in or out of Antarctica are possible during the continent's long winter, and Nielsen's account of giving herself chemotherapy while she and her fellow "Polies" waited for the weather to break is even more gripping than the news reports at the time. She's candid about her pain and fear; the media battle waged by her embittered ex-husband makes her ordeal even more challenging. Interestingly enough, however, this high drama does not overshadow Nielsen's deeper narrative of a woman who came "to the Ice" seeking new meaning in a life shattered by divorce and estrangement from her children. In the back-to-basics world of Antarctic medicine, with outdated equipment, few supplies, and no assistants, she rediscovered her vocation as a doctor, free from the imperatives of corporate-directed medicine. More importantly, Nielsen found spiritual solace in the world's most extreme environment, where she was "introduced slowly to the notion of giving more than you have and using less than you need ... of knowing that all you really own are your own thoughts." She makes the glories of the Pole so palpable that, by the end, readers will not even be surprised when she signs an e-mail to her family, "from the wonderful Ice."
--Wendy Smith
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Nielsen, whose book is a bestseller in print, is not an actress her reading is somewhat awkward and labored. And yet listeners will be glad to feel a sense of personal contact with this extraordinary woman. A physician in her mid-40s, Nielsen decided to serve as the sole medical officer for a year at the South Pole, which meant "wintering over" during the dark months when the pole is physically inaccessible to the outside world. Nielsen's voice remains emotionally uninflected as she describes the beauties of the ice-filled landscape and the delights of working with a wonderfully creative and fun-loving crew of 41 "polies," despite the shortage of medical supplies. Nielsen also refuses to overdramatize her reading when she describes her detection of a lump in her breast, which proved to be cancerous. Listeners will hang on to every word as Nielsen relates how she performed a biopsy and administered chemotherapy to herself. They will also be glad this is unabridged, because every moment she describes, whether of pleasure or pain, is gracefully and unsentimentally limned. Simultaneous release with the Talk Miramax hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 8).
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
by Dave Cullen
