Jerri Nielsen

Ebury Press, £16.99, pp 362

ISBN 0 09 185623 X

Rating:

Ice Bound is the story of a woman's survival during the long, dark, six month winter with 40 other people at the South Pole installation run by the National Science Foundation. As a tale of endurance, courage, patience, and boredom in the pursuit of knowledge, it is worth reading. However, it is also the story of a 47 year old emergency room doctor who goes to serve and to have an adventure but then finds her true self as she battles against aggressive breast cancer. With these two themes intertwined, the book is hard to put down even though we may know the ending from news stories.

The book first tells the story of a year at the South Pole, from the preparationsthe physical examinations and psychological testing, the travel and provisionsto the acclimatisation to the cold and adaptations to hypoxia when living at 11 000 feet above sea level. The adjustments humans must make to the extreme coldthe layers of clothing, changes in eating and living, and precautionsare explained as Nielsen approaches them in a state of wonder, as excited as a child preparing for backpacking for the first time. Then there are the perils of living at the South Polean adventure of its own. There are power failures, fires, frostbite, boredom, memory loss, nausea, and getting lost. Finally, Nielsen explains the relationships among the 41 people who together go through a hazardous, strenuous, challenging, and possibly deadly experience and must depend on each other and, in doing so, come to trust and care for each other.

As a doctor, Nielsen gives a unique insight into this process and its hazards and benefits. The story of her life and her reasons for choosing an adventure in the most remote place on earth may be idiosyncratic, but they reflect the motivations of other explorers and workers to search, take risks, and expose themselves to danger. How these experiences change the individuals reflects on other events that we may share in spirit even if we have not spent a winter at the South Pole.

Finally, Ice Bound tells the story of a person fighting cancer horribly and completely alone, as all those who fight cancer are in essence alone, but made more extreme by her geographical isolation and inaccessibility. Nielsen's account is particularly compelling because she is a doctorbecause she went to help others and then found that she needed to ask for help. While being alone, she finds a community.

This book may not be great literature, but it is a good read. It is an adventure tale in the true sense as Jerri Nielsen travels through more than just geography and finds herself at the end.

Jo Ann Rosenfeld. 

BMJ USA