In 11 honest but effortful essays, Bledsoe (This Wild Silence: A Novel)
explores "the relationship between fear and grace" born from her often dangerous outdoor adventures. She muses on what propels her to a summit in "Dead Horse Pass," a climb in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains: "Perhaps it is an ache for beauty... to lose one's will for a moment... to experience pure awe." Invoking the naturalist John Muir, Bledsoe asserts she seeks more than an endorphin high; climbing a mountain is "an act of worship." In "The Freedom Machine," she meets a woman cycling across the Mojave Desert, not for sport but to escape an abusive husband. Romanticizing the lone, desperate traveler, Bledsoe deems her the embodiment of a bicycle's importance: "escape, physical empowerment, and ultimately a recovery of my imagination in a landscape." The author is a three-time visitor to Antarctica, and "The Breath of Seals" recounts her stint there—from survival school on the Ross Ice Shelf to a jaunt to the South Pole—as an artist-in-residence with the National Science Foundation. A longing for spiritual release Bledsoe can find only in the wilderness is woven through these thoughtful essays. (Sept.)
