FOUR SEASONS NORTH by Billie Wright...

FOUR SEASONS NORTH by Billie Wright (Sierra Club: $10). Wright describes the year she and her husband spent in a 12x12-foot log cabin on the north slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska. She is at her best cheerfully recounting the problems of living in such a confined space, battling pests that include mosquitoes and bears, and enduring weeks of sunless winter days. The most mundane chores become major challenges when the daytime temperature drops to minus-56 degrees Fahrenheit--not counting the wind-chill factor. To survive in such a hostile climate, humans require a high-calorie diet based on meat and animal fat. (Wright includes several of her favorite recipes, although anyone living in the lower 48 states probably will have to find substitutes for caribou fat and willow buds.) Her otherwise readable prose founders when she attempts to discuss the weighty issues about mankind’s relationship to nature raised by this year in the wilderness. Reading “Four Seasons” makes life in Southern California--with indoor plumbing, heating, libraries and salads--seem all the more desirable.