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August 14, 1990, Seattle Times, Gonzo Adventures And 'Great Journeys', by Adam Woog, [Tim Cahill]

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August 14, 1990, Seattle Times, Gonzo Adventures And 'Great Journeys', by  Adam Woog,

A Wolverine is Eating My Leg, by Tim Cahill

Vintage Departures, ($8.95)

Like its predecessor, with the equally irresistible title "Jaguars Ripped My Flesh," "A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg" is a splendid series of essays from longtime gonzoid writer Tim Cahill.

Cahill's interest lies in reviving the old-fashioned macho-men style of action-adventure writing. (Hence the hyperventilated titles.) He performs this stunt brilliantly - by jumping feet first into hair-raising and patently dangerous situations, wondering all the while how he'll ever wriggle out.

The pieces are a combination of highly personalized investigative journalism, detailed natural-history writing and just plain craziness. Most were written for Cahill's column in Outside Magazine.

In one he's on the scene in Jonestown, Guyana, just after the massacre; in another he infiltrates a California religious commune.

One minute he's plunging 440 feet down a vertical cave, occasioning a thoughtful essay on sudden death; the next, he's contemplating the deeper implications of being caught naked on a sunny alpine hillside by a cheerful bunch of Austrian schoolgirls.

Sometimes the writing is grim, as in a bittersweet visit to Dian Fossey's famous gorillas or the terrifying report from Guyana. Occasionally it is straightforward and erudite, as in the piece on Bigfoot. Often it is very, very funny.

But always, the writing is fine; Cahill has a robust gift for capturing the simultaneous terror and exhilaration, confusion and ecstasy of adventure. The book is a delight for those of us (we know who we are) who will never get closer to, say, vertical caving than just reading about it.

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stevenwarran

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on Oct 05, 13