The book is cathartic, if not “confessional.” Personally speaking, I feel it’s as much about his finding himself as it is about the specifics of his experience in Alaska. He lies naked in this book. His honest willingness to accept his weaknesses as well his strengths rings through. I loved how he realized he had to redeem himself. Also, it was nice to see how at some point he reconciled at different times with his parents. As one who experienced the same angst about the misguided war, I could relate on many levels. In short, I wholeheartedly recommend this book which reveals empathy, wisdom and courage.
—Larry Nichol
Hardship Alaska chronicles Donald Proffit’s life as a Vietnam War-era conscientious objector as he sets off on two years of exile, service, soul-searching, and self-discovery in Alaska’s rugged, unforgettable beauty.
Some memories of his two years of alternative service as a Vietnam-era conscientious objector continue to haunt Donald Proffit, aka Buzz, in unresolved conversations and partings over dinners, by front doors, in beds, and at bars. Others, however, have been exorcized completely, leaving him with a better understanding of who he was during that time, the most formative period in his life, and who he is today. Arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, on Halloween night 1970 after a ten-day transcontinental journey by car, his trek replete with a breakdown on a Yukon mountain pass, a freak snow squall on the Saskatchewan prairie, rough men in roadhouses, Soviet skaters, and good Samaritans, he realized quickly that he was no longer in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In Alaska, his world was about to change forever as he began working with children in group homes and emergency shelters; living in a church basement closet while being in the closet and pining for his first love—his straight college roommate, and spending extended time in an Iñupiaq whaling village 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle where his worldview began to take shape as he experienced the isolation of the outsider and what it means to be part of a community.
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