{"id":16677,"date":"2015-07-31T00:11:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T07:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-hakamagwp.pantheonsite.io\/news\/book-review-big-swim"},"modified":"2019-03-20T10:59:52","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T17:59:52","slug":"book-review-big-swim","status":"publish","type":"custom_quick","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/article-short\/book-review-big-swim\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Big Swim"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you meet Carrie Saxifrage in the first and title chapter of this compelling book of journeys, it\u2019s clear you are contending with a fierce woman\u2014fierce in her passions; in her connection with the Earth\u2019s majesty, mysteries, and creatures; and in her commitment to save the world from the destructions of climate change. Once a nurse and then an environmental lawyer in the United States, Saxifrage now works as a journalist and homesteads on Cortes Island, British Columbia, where she adopted a low-carbon lifestyle that does not include airline travel. Saxifrage clearly \u201cwalks her talk.\u201d To her, \u201cinaction is a choice that results in widespread suffering.\u201d To cope with climate change, though, she has chosen a \u201ccombination of determination, inspiration and joie de vivre.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Saxifrage\u2019s literal big swim was indeed a huge physical feat: a wetsuit-free eight-kilometer crossing between Cortes and Quadra Islands<\/a>, during which a swim cap, neoprene leggings (worn on her arms where she feels the cold the most), and lanolin-coated skin were her only protection. With her husband Barry in a boat at her side, she completed the swim in three hours and forty minutes. When she landed on the shores of Quadra, a friend\u2019s mother declared, \u201cYou looked just like an ocean baby being born.\u201d Indeed, Saxifrage belongs in the sea as much as in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State or Mount Albert Edward on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n

Saxifrage brings the reader on each of the twelve journeys in The Big Swim<\/em> with intimacy, charm, knowledge, and a sprinkle of humor. We follow her as she searches for pikas in alpine meadows (the same meadows from which she chose her surname, Saxifrage, after the tiny white flowers that burst from stone crevices); as she covers the Northern Gateway Pipeline story and its threat to salmon and oolichan, traditional staples of coastal First Nations; and as she completes an epic trip through the Grand Canyon where she convinces her guides to let her do a training swim in the rapids. While on a retreat to learn mindfulness, despite her late father\u2019s admonishment to avoid what he considered to be \u201cnaval gazing,\u201d she has an epiphany: all of her myriad journeys, both geographical and internal, connect. \u201cA bigger container was the common theme to my most precious adventures … large enough to hold my woes and still retain the sweetness of being alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Big Swim<\/em> captured my heart and brought me along on each of Saxifrage\u2019s journeys with intense and savored delight.<\/p>\n

The Big Swim: Coming Ashore in a World Adrift<\/em>
\nBy Carrie Saxifrage
\n192 pp. New Society Publishers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by a concern for the planet, an author takes a series of journeys, facing her own fears and searching for solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12858,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"hero_video_url":null,"hero_video_caption":"","deck":"Inspired by a concern for the planet, an author takes a series of journeys, facing her own fears and searching for solutions.","authors_group":[{"by_group":"by","contributors_group":[15505]}],"word_count_override":"","podbean1":"","podbean2":"","redirect":"","geolocation":null,"related":[16071,18060],"twitterimage":19575,"facebookimage":19166,"twitterdescription":"","edited":"","factchecked":"","code":"","no_old_story_flag":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/custom_quick"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20609,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16677\/revisions\/20609"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos-visuals\/18060"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/features\/16071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}