"Full of humor and humility about the human condition. This is Alaska as only someone who knows it deeply can give us-a deliciously readable encounter with the place beyond the myths." - BATHSHEBA DEMUTH, author of The Floating Coast Edward Abbey, who never much liked Alaska, called it "our biggest, buggiest, boggiest state." To others, it has been a cure for despair. When the author moved to Fairbanks...