The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska (Hardcover)
Description
Northern Exposure meets Air America in this expose of the daily life and death insanity of commercial flying in Alaska
The Map of My Dead Pilots is about flying, pilots, and Alaska—and, more specifically, about those pilots who take death-defying risks in the Last Frontier and sometimes pay the price. Colleen Mondor spent four years running dispatch operations for a Fairbanks-based commuter and charter airline—and she knows all too well the gap between the romance and reality of small plane piloting in the wildest territory of the United States. From overloaded aircraft to wings covered in ice, from flying sled dogs and dead bodies, piloting in Alaska is about living hard and working harder. What Mondor witnessed day to day would make anyone’s hair stand on end.
Ultimately, it is the pilots themselves—laced with ice and whiskey, death and camaraderie, silence and engine roar—who capture her imagination. In fine detail, Mondor reveals the technical side of flying, the history of Alaskan aviation, and a world that demands a close communion with extreme physical danger and emotional toughness. The Map of My Dead Pilots is an engrossing narrative whose gritty, no-holds-barred style is reminiscent of the works of Ken Kesey and Tim O’Brien.
About the Author
Colleen Mondor is a longtime columnist and reviewer for Bookslut and book reviewer for Booklist whose essays have appeared in several journals and aviation magazines. She currently owns an aviation business. Her blog can be found at chasingray.com.
Praise for The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska…
"Strap yourselves in. Map of My Dead Pilots is one hell of a ride, one of the best Alaska books ever. In gorgeous, literary prose that nails the rhythms of a barroom conversation and plumbs the depth of the human soul, Colleen Mondor writes a one-way ticket into the world of Alaska aviation. If Shakespeare and Hemingway teamed up to write an Alaska reality show, it might go something like this." —Nick Jans, twenty-year resident of arctic bush Alaska and author of The Last Light Breaking and The Grizzly Maze "The Map of My Dead Pilots is that other kind of memoir—galvanizing, exhilarating, fresh. The ridiculously daring pilots of the Alaskan frontier are here, of course—meticulously rendered, artfully arranged. But undergirding it all is Mondor’s own tremendous passion for a particular place and time, her enormous skills as a storyteller, and her brave (let’s call it sublime) commitment to writing down what cannot be forgotten. Don’t miss this book. Please don’t."—Beth Kephart, National Book Award finalist and author, most recently, of You Are My Only “If it’s said that dead men tell no tales, then, thank goodness, Mondor is around to do so. . . . Mondor, who walks the tightrope between admiration and detachment with a deft and agile balance, presents an equitable yet passionate memoir that virtually flies off the page.” —Booklist starred review "In The Map of My Dead Pilots, Mondor does a great job of giving readers a well-documented, frank, and clear idea of the harrowing nature of flying in Alaska. It’s not “Northern Exposure meets Air America” as the flap copy reads—it’s actually something much more interesting. Highly recommended." —Omnivoracious.com
2012 Chuckanut Writers Conference
