Alaska Crude: Visions of the Last Frontier by Kenneth Andrasko (review)

Reviews Alaska Crude: Visions of the Last Frontier. By Kenneth Andrasko. (Boston: Little, Brown &Co., 1977. 151 pages, $7.95.) From a journey to Alaska, from jobs on the Pipeline, from talking with people wherever they went, with excellent photographs and eloquent text, two young men have given us a picture of Alaska its it was in 1975; a picture horrifying, poignant, and sometimes beautiful. This reviewer, who also spent most of that summer of 1975 in Alaska, feels that this book is a true picture. Kenneth Andrasko’s prose is sometimes too self-conscious, but always honest, and often extremely touching. In part of one paragraph he concen­ trates the basic problem of Alaska during and after the Pipeline: “. . . any action that encourages growth and improvement of the living standard also concomitantly tends to destroy the unique and cherished life-style in the state by utilizing the very resources and potential that are the foundation of its uniqueness. Development is a package deal in which one cannot easily separate the benefits from deep costs associated with them.” The impacts of industry on a hitherto untouched land are felt by the land, by the native people of that land, by the whole society of the small towns and cities which are the staging areas. The author quotes Nat, an Eskimo logistics engineer: “Ecological damages are a safe, tangible disaster that we can easily deal with, easily quantify, so private industry can be forced into doling out funds for reforestation, for falcons, and rabbits. But what when a whole community, an entire ecosystem of PEOPLE is disrupted, or an entire race is being exterminated: That’s harder for every­ one to deal with. Too hot; no one wants to touch it. That’s what’s happening to the Eskimo people, to my people at Wales, my family.” Perhaps the future will tell us that the impact on the land is less irremediable than the impact on the people. But Andrasko gives us a gleam of hope, with which this reviewer also agrees, when he writes about the atti­ tude of the “real” Alaskan, who has lived there for some time. “The scale of the operation says it all in Alaska and always has. As soon as the gold strikes became mechanized and supported by Outside capital, it was instantly a different game, another big company running the show. The modest entrepreneur is sacred, but the massive scale operations and the 172 Western American Literature men with big dreams are anathema. May it always be that way, may the splendid Alaskan anarchy continue in cooperation with the state and federal planners.” After all his experiences, all his probing into the lives and goals of Pipeline workers, I am glad indeed that Andrasko feels he can give us this gleam of hope. If enough of the Land itself can be saved, there is strong basis for such hope. “Alaska Crude” is a potent document. Read it. You will not forget it soon. And it is true. MARGARET E. MURIE, Moose, Wyoming Wallace Stegner. By Forest G. and Margaret G. Robinson. (Boston: G. K. Hall &Co., 1977. 188 pages, index, $8.50.) Twayne United States Authors Series, volume 282. Yawn? It will be unfortunate if this first ambitious study of Wallace Stegner should be associ­ ated with that often undistinguished collection, for the book has several advantages over most: it concerns a major writer, covers his full career, and is the product of careful research, insight, and great intelligence. It also has style. I recommend it to anyone interested in Stegner’s fiction. To write an introductory’ study of a man of Stegner’s broad interests and voluminous achievement is more problematic than might first be apparent. At least twice before, different individuals agreed to undertake this Twayne study, but failed, perhaps for the same reason that for a time denied Stegner the appreciation he deserves: they underestimated the subject. He is more than a “Western writer.” Investigation of Stegner’s fiction, history, biography, and criticism soon reveals the vastness of his energy and knowledge — there will be no such thing as a quick book on Stegner. The real book on Stegner, in fact, can be...