'A Man's Life: Dispatches from Dangerous Places' book review

May 27, 10:24 AMSalt Lake City Outdoor Recreation ExaminerJared Hargrave

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Image courtesy Rodale Books.

“A Man's Life: Dispatches from Dangerous Places,” by author Mark Jenkins, is a series of outdoor adventure and world travel stories. A former writer for Outside Magazine, Jenkins' column, The Hard Way, brought his readers along on the incredible, dangerous, and often amusing trips he would take to the most forbidding places on Earth.

“A Man's Life” is a collection of these articles, and every one of them is compelling, well written, and easy to read. Despite that, it is not a book one should consume in a single sitting. Each story is a gem to be pondered, and burning through several chapters can diminish individual stories that each stand on their own.

Jenkins skillfully arranges his stories to make the reader laugh in one moment, like his internal dialogue about attempting to sit still while learning to meditate, then cringe the next moment when he is captured by militants in Myanmar.

Other highlights include personal outdoor adventure stories about climbing Devil's Tower in Wyoming, biking through the rain in Norway, and flying super-light aircraft in Utah. He also writes about other great explorers such as French pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who flew planes over the Sahara in the early 20th Century, and people who changed the business of outdoor recreation, such as Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard.

Not surprisingly, some of Jenkins' best writing comes when he looks inside himself and muses about why he has such an uncontrollable drive to go, get out, and explore. His personal essays strike to the core of what it means to risk life for adventure and how the delicate balance between family and staying true to one's nature can have consequences. A good example of this is an article about the difficulty of leaving his wife and two daughters for months at a time while he sets off on yet another expedition.

Of course, Jenkins saves his best writing for the end of the book and fittingly, the article is called, “The End.” In it, he remembers rock climbing a Wyoming peak with his best friend. Throughout the story, Jenkins uses a foreshadowing of impending tragedy that fills his words with uneasiness. Soon, the reader learns that it is to be their final trip together, as his friend later dies in a boating accident near Baffin Island.

It is hard to imagine, after reading “A Man's Life,” how a person can have so many adventures, visit so many countries, and fit so many experiences into a single lifetime. But Jenkins does it, and still finds time to write about it all without resorting to unnecessary flourishes and bravado. His style is simple, vivid, and has the power to transport his readers to go along with him while he climbs mountains in Bhutan, or rides his bike across Siberia. Luckily for us, we get to savor each trip, one chapter at a time.