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Jenny Diski's obsession with the cool purity of white began early in life, when as a small child, she was taken for weekly skating lessons at the local ice rink. Between practicing figure eights, she would watch the Zamboni move across the ice scraping away the pitted, blade-scored surface: "It was all taken away in minutes and underneath was pure, untouched surface again, gleaming milky white, virgin, immaculate ice." This gleaming, immaculate ice stands in stark contrast to Diski's dark and emotionally fraught home life with two abusive parents. Skating to Antarctica is an unusual blend of travel essay and personal memoir, one that uses the phases of a physical journey to trace the trajectory of the inner life. Both journeys begin for Diski when her 18-year-old daughter Chloe decides to search for the maternal grandmother she has never met. It has been 30 years since Diski last saw her mother, and she has no desire to find her; is it merely coincidence that she books her passage to Antarctica shortly after Chloe begins the hunt?
Weaving painful memories of a childhood spent entangled in her parents' vicious sexual psychodramas and an adolescence in and out of mental wards into an account of her slow journey south, Diski imbues both voyages of discovery with a resonance that comes largely from twinning these tales. Like all polar travelers, she has the experiences of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton before her; instinctively she rejects the "heroism" of Scott's pointless death in a blizzard, embracing, instead Shackleton's pragmatic rescue of his stranded crew. "The will to live was not strong in my family," Diski writes near the end of her book; Skating to Antarctica, however, is proof that this apple at least fell far, far from the tree.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. This strange and brilliant book recounts Jenny Diski's journey to Antarctica last year, intercut with another journey into her own heart and soul.a book of dazzling variety, which weaves disquisitions on indolence, truth, inconsistency, ambiguousness, the elephant seal, Shackleton, boredom and over and over again memory, into a sparse narrative, caustic observation and vivid description of the natural world. While Diski's writing is laconic, her images are haunting.' Elspeth Barker, Independent on Sunday Skating to Antarctica' is both an intimate memoir and a captivating travelogue of a journey to the bottom of the world. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781844081516
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781844081516
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Skating to Antarctica' is both an intimate memoir and a captivating travelogue of a journey to the bottom of the world. Seller Inventory # B9781844081516
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 256 pages. 7.83x4.92x0.59 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1844081516
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Book Description Condition: New. 2005. New edition. Paperback. 'Skating to Antarctica' is both an intimate memoir and a captivating travelogue of a journey to the bottom of the world. Num Pages: 256 pages. BIC Classification: 1MTS; BG; WTL. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 200 x 125 x 18. Weight in Grams: 184. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781844081516