Seven days on a raft on the Lake Creek River is as close as I ever got to a passage to Juneau. But at least I have that, and Jonathan Raban's contemplative memoir of his voyage.
Jonathan Raban, who died on Tuesday, was the author of many books, of fiction, criticism, reporting, memoir and travel writing. Of Old Glory (1981) and Coasting (1986), Mark Ford wrote in the LRB that ‘their skilful mixture of social criticism, political analysis, self-exploration and traveller’s anecdote suggested ways in which, in the right hands, the hybrid travel book can respond to the different dimensions of contemporary reality more flexibly than more generically pure kinds of writing.’ Reviewing Passage to Juneau (1999), Frank Kermode praised its ‘exact prose’ and ‘unaffected, accurate poetry’.
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