Book review: In his memoir “Compass Lines,” Alaska writer John Messick’s authenticity, honesty and self-reflection draw his route across time and space to find his place in the world.
It’s a familiar story: A young man comes to Alaska for adventure and to discover what he’s made of and cares about. What’s different about John Messick’s first book — essentially a memoir in essays — is the author’s deep introspection and the exceptional quality of his writing.
Each essay that follows focuses on a particular time period or adventure, taking us into the lived experience along with the memoirist’s reflections about what he may have missed at the time — about his own feelings and actions. First, we find him as a 12-year-old, fishing with an elderly Serbian immigrant and learning about the importance of listening, faith and tradition. Then, we follow him and the woman who would later become his wife on a canoe trip through the Everglades.
After essays about Messick’s restless searchings in Antarctica and Syria, he returns to the north, for essays about firefighting in western Alaska and a river trip down the Mackenzie River and his subsequent move to Alaska; each of these last two further explore his connections to land he was drawn to for its wild and rhythmic qualities and bring him closer to what he eventually recognizes as a home place.
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