Book Review: The Cruelest Miles by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury

 

The true story of Seppala, Kaasen, Togo, Balto and the others. 

This book is a historical non-fiction about the 1925 Serum Run, during which a diphtheria outbreak among Nome's children could only be cured using an antitoxin which had to be delivered by sled dogs and their mushers through horrible weather conditions. The book counts down the events leading up to, during and briefly after the Serum Run, and also includes several relevant photos and maps.

I've been meaning to read this one for years now. And the book is about as good as I'd expected. It's a very thorough examination of the events, both the lead-up, aftermath and especially the Run itself, of course. You can definitely tell the authors did their research and it was delivered to the reading in a digestible manner, without using too much jargon, while still being thorough and in-depth on the subject. I learned a lot more about the Serum Run here, and I've already done my own online research on it and watched some documentaries about it before. And some more-fictionalized movie adaptations, if we can count those.

My only, I guess, gripe, is the rampant use of the E-slur and also constantly referring towards Native Americans as Indians. I guess this is an older book (being released in 2003) so maybe we weren't quite so politically correct regarding this back then, but it just feels a bit uncomfortable to read. The book does try to justify its use of the E-slur by saying it's not considered as offensive by some of the Inuit in Alaska, but that doesn't change the fact that in other locations like Canada (which the authors even acknowledge) it is seen as offensive. So I'd honestly just have avoided it altogether just to be safe rather than trying to justify it. 

But that aside, purely substance-based, this book is an excellent resource regarding the events of the Serum Run. I definitely recommend this one if you'd like to know more about the subject. Sure, the movies like Balto, Togo and The Great Alaskan Race are interesting, but they're obviously very fictionalized, so it was neat finally getting to read the true story here for the first time.

Rating: 4/5