Publishers Weekly
12/05/2022
Journalist Mitenbuler (Wild Minds) recounts the adventures of Danish explorer Peter Freuchen (1886–1957) in this captivating and colorful saga. At age 20, Freuchen dropped out of medical school at the University of Copenhagen, joined an expedition to Greenland, and got hooked on Arctic exploration. For 18 years, he explored the Far North, studying Inuit culture and eventually marrying an Inuit woman. He stopped exploring at age 37, after he became trapped beneath his own sled during a blizzard, fashioned his frozen feces into a chisel to dig his way out, and developed such severe frostbite that his foot and part of his leg had to be amputated. Freuchen went on to consult on Arctic-inspired scripts for MGM, hide Nazi refugees and assist the Danish resistance during WWII, tour the world giving lectures on his expeditions and the need to protect the Inuit way of life, and win The $64,000 Question, then America’s most popular quiz show, in 1956. Throughout, Mitenbuler’s vivid prose and sly wit keep the pages turning: “In this way,” he writes about a busywork assignment Freuchen received from the head of MGM’s writing department, “Hollywood was surprisingly similar to Arctic expeditions: there were often long periods with nothing to do.” This adventure story is impossible to resist. Agent: Heather Schroder, Compass Literary. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"An absolute joy...Wanderlust is a compelling introduction to one of the most charismatic explorers to ever cross the ice." — New York Times Book Review
"Writing with panache and insight, Reid Mitenbuler serves up the many faceted life of Peter Freuchen." — Washington Post
"They don't make 'em like Peter Freuchen anymore. Something of a cross between Zelig and Dos Equis' 'Most Interesting Man in the World,' he seemed a man out of myth, a peg-legged giant wandering from the frozen ends of the planet to Hollywood to Nazi-occupied Europe — showing unfathomable physical and moral courage in equal measure. The pleasure of reading Wanderlust is second only to hearing these tales by the fireside from Freuchen himself. Actually, probably better, because you can actually trust Reid Mitenbuler, whose assiduous research enriches his delectable prose. This is a book to get lost in." — Julian Sancton, author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth
"An engrossing and delightful new biography...Wanderlust skillfully evokes a time and place that feel impossibly romantic and epic compared to our own but also shot through with danger, hardship, and the grotesque....Drawing on historical records, interviews, and Freuchen’s own prodigious writing, Mitenbuler gives a lively and comprehensive history of Freuchen’s life and rapidly changing times." — Washington Examiner
"Peter Freuchen’s long and colorful life was so extraordinary it nearly defies belief. With great flair and flourish, Reid Mitenbuler captures all of Freuchen’s remarkable adventures—as an explorer in the Arctic; as a struggling writer in Hollywood; as a wartime resister and outspoken foe of fascism during World War II—in astonishing detail, and with a compelling series of scenes and surprises. If you’re interested in how to live a life without regret, you will not want to miss Wanderlust." — Jon Gertner, author of The Ice at the End of the World
"This book oozes cold, hunger, and fear, but also joy, love, and triumph." — The Times (UK)
“This adventure story is impossible to resist.” — Publishers Weekly
“Drawing on thousands of pages of memoirs, diaries, letters, travelogues, and novels, journalist Mitenbuler creates a vivid portrait of Danish explorer, writer, anthropologist, and ethnographer Peter Freuchen (1886-1957)… A colorful, well-researched biography.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Mitenbuler's prose strikes just the right tone, easygoing but thrilling, filled with compelling detail." — Star Tribune
"Mitenbuler’s third nonfiction outing is stellar, bringing an eccentric personality back from the veil...Time and again, Freuchen would test his luck against the most unforgiving conditions on earth, harrowing moments that Mitenbuler depicts through his visceral descriptions, narrative flourishes and deft plotting around true-life events." — Sacramento News and Review
Kirkus Reviews
2022-11-08
The eventful life of a daring adventurer.
Drawing on thousands of pages of memoirs, diaries, letters, travelogues, and novels, journalist Mitenbuler creates a vivid portrait of Danish explorer, writer, anthropologist, and ethnographer Peter Freuchen (1886-1957), a man whose “irrepressible restlessness” impelled him around the world. Nurtured from childhood to be independent and adventurous, Freuchen found his calling after an expedition to Greenland in 1906, which began a career of charting the Arctic, manning weather stations, establishing trading posts, investigating Inuit culture, and, most of all, “learning how to master his circumstances so he wouldn’t be dominated by them.” He savored Indigenous foods such as fermented walrus flipper, musk oxen, and boiled caribou meat; and he found the uninhibited sexual mores of the Inuit much to his liking. In 1911, he married and had two children with an Inuit woman who, sadly, died during the influenza pandemic. He was undaunted by the hardships of the polar environment, which included storms, weak ice, scarce game, and wolves that preyed on his sled dogs. Mitenbuler recounts a particularly horrific episode when Freuchen found himself trapped in a hole by snow; he escaped by forming his frozen feces into a chisel. He emerged with frostbitten toes that he amputated himself; eventually, he lost the foot as well. Unable to continue physical exploration, Freuchen went on to become a technical consultant on movies about the Arctic, some made from his novels. He spent enough time in Hollywood to be swept up in the glamour, although he was frustrated by the “mercurial flightiness” of the movie industry. Back in Denmark during World War II, he worked for the resistance after Nazis invaded, storing ammunition in his shed and passing intelligence. Mitenbuler captures the commanding presence of his outspoken, indefatigable subject: “Freuchen was tall and looked like a wild Viking raider just sprung from his longship.”
A colorful, well-researched biography.
