A Review of Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age by Reid Mitenbuler
I’m struggling to write this review just as Mitenbuler probably struggled to fit all of Peter Freuchen’s eccentric life into a single text. A friend recommended this book purely based on synopsis and its intriguing cover. I went in blind and was quickly hooked. While dry at times, this biography is packed to the brim with adventure, insane tales, and memorable quotes. I highly recommend it for those who want to journey back to a time when adventures were had on creaky wooden ships and questionable airplanes.
“We all know it is the most wonderful of all countries, and life is better here than anywhere else, but we must pay for its beauty time after time.”—Peter Freuchen
The book chronicles Freuchen’s journey from a disinterested school youth to an Arctic explorer. Freuchen’s adventures across the Arctic are legendary, but through compilations of his notes and experiences, it’s his ethnography of the Inuit people that shines through. Despite being factual, Wanderlust paints a grand-scale adventure that is as entertaining as it is educational. When I started reading, my concept of Greenland was mostly ‘that big brick of ice’ or something half-remembered about Eric the Red. Now, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of the country’s history and want to learn more.
“Seal hunters are excellent at killing seals, but as reporters they are—well, seal hunters.” –Peter Freuchen
Throughout the many eras of Freuchen’s life—and there are many—his dry wit and humor remain steady. Whether it was lecturing, hobnobbing with high-profile politicians, or entering Hollywood’s golden age, Freuchen remained himself. It makes for a rousing story that often feels improbable, or embellished, but is somehow corroborated. Reading these pages, Freuchen comes off like a mythical Paul Bunyan figure with tales I’ll be repeating for years to come.
As the story is told, I was both shocked and unsurprised that I had never heard of Freuchen up to this moment. For most of his life, he remained just on the edge of international stardom, briefly entering bouts of recognition, but fading just as quickly. Some circles never forgot about him, but for many, he was a passing fancy, reappearing every ten years or so with a new venture. The hunger that Freuchen found in his rollercoaster of a life leads to an incredible journey that could not be had by anyone else.
Finally, a word on the monumental task of putting this book together. Reading through Freuchen’s life can oftentimes feel like a fever dream. I can’t imagine the task of collating all the disparate pieces of his scattered journey and somehow forming them into a cohesive narrative. At one point, while Freuchen was working as a screenwriter for MGM, he was tasked with adapting an impossible book into a screenplay. Asking a writer to create a compilation of Freuchen’s life feels much the same. Still, Mitenbuler handles Freuchen’s journey from explorer, to movie mogul, to war hero, and back again with exceptional prose and dynamite storytelling.
Before reading Wanderlust, I had never heard of Peter Freuchen. Now that I have, I’m sure I’ll never forget him. It’s difficult to believe a man lived so many lives in one, but it makes for a hell of a story. Some readers will no doubt get lost in the long tangents and meaty asides, but Freuchen’s journey would be incomplete without them. I was never bored, and I’ll be thinking about these stories for many years to come.
5/5 Stars – The age of exploration might be dead, but its memory lives on in this book
Purchase a copy of Wanderlust from Bookshop.org here: https://bookshop.org/a/12985/9780063352438
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