Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division

by Deborah Curtis. London: Faber & Faber, c.1995. 212 pages. ISBN978-0-571-23956-6

Deborah Curtis presents a brief biography of the man- or maybe the boy- she married and gives the reader a glimpse at the very human side of her husband Ian Curtis. Deborah presents the good and the bad and some may not want to think of an idol like Ian Curtis behaving the way he did. This is a frustrating and sad story--like many that deal with suicide. There aren’t really any answers to why here and I didn’t expect them. One does get a sense that Ian’s epilepsy and numerous prescriptions may have played a strong hand in much of his turmoil and subsequent decision.

This book feels like a great sigh, like Deborah Curtis felt a weight off of her after she told her story. Though readers not familiar with Joy Division and others in music at that time in Manchester may be a bit lost with all of the names and places mentioned, I think this story can hold up without that knowledge.

Ian’s lyrics and unfinished writings as well as Joy Division gig lists and discography are provided. This book inspired the film Control (2007).

The Radioactive Boy Scout

Title: The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor
Author: Ken Silverstein
Publication date: 2005
Number of pages: 209
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction/Biography
Geographical setting: suburban Detroit
Time period: early to mid 1990s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: As David Hahn was earning his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, he was also fueling his obsession of nuclear energy. Posing as a Physics professor, 16 year-old Hahn persuaded the U.S. government and industry experts to provide him with information on reactors. He also consulted an out-dated textbook to aid him in his pursuit of constructing a nuclear reactor in his backyard tool shed.

Subject Headings: biography, breeder reactors, gifted boys, Boy Scouts of America, nuclear energy

Appeal: Hahn is child of divorced parents—very distant father, mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, author presents history of nuclear power including some of the reported danger and benefits, past accidents and the culture surrounding the use and fears of nuclear energy, some history of the Boy Scouts, reveals some of the danger of gifted children who are neglected or not encouraged (or guided by professionals or experts) to explore their strengths and interests in a safe environment.

If you like The Radioactive Boy Scout, you might enjoy these fiction books: Michael Simmons’ Finding Lubchenko, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Mark Walden’s H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education, Catherine Jinks’ Evil Genius.

Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

Title: Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

Author: Kenn Harper
Publication date: 1986
Number of pages: 320
Genre: Biography

Geographical Setting: Greenland and New York
Time Period: late 19^th Century and early 20^th Century
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Six-year-old Minik is one of six Eskimos brought from Greenland as “specimens” to New York City by Arctic explorer Robert Peary in 1897. Soon Minik is an orphan in a strange land. As he matures to adulthood, he is stranger in his homeland of Greenland and his adoptive home of the United States. Minik’s plight to claim his father’s body from the American Museum of Natural History for a proper burial and his wanderings and eventual death are traced in this biography of marginalized “curiosity.”

Subject Headings: Eskimo, Inuit, racism, prejudice, Arctic, North Pole, exploration, biography,

Appeal: biography of an orphan and exile, photographs included, written by Canadian Historian who has lived over thirty years in Inuit communities and speaks the language, the book helped to publicize the wrongs done to the Inuits by the American Museum of Natural History and led to the eventual return of their bodies to their homeland and people.

If you like Minik, you might enjoy: S. Allen Counter’s North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo, Jennifer Owings Dewey’s Minik’s Story, Robert M. Bryce’s Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved.

Eagle Blue

Title: Eagle Blue. A Team, A Tribe, And a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska
Author: Michael D’Orso
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 323
Genre: Nonfiction, biography
Geographical Setting: village of Fort Yukon, Arctic Alaska
Time Period: 2004-05
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Writer D’Orso spent a winter with the high school boys’ basketball team, the Fort Yukon Eagles. The remote village of Fort Yukon is eight miles above the Arctic Circle and is home to around 600 people—mainly Athabascan Gwich’in Natives. D’Orso invites the reader into the lives of the boys and their coach as he follows along with him as they play their home games and fly to many of the away games. D’Orso also reveals the history and lives of many of the people of Fort Yukon including the high incidents of alcoholism, domestic violence and school dropouts but also their native pride and pride for their basketball team.

Subject Headings: basketball, high school sports, Native Alaskans, family, community, isolation, alcoholism, survival, tradition, ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), ANCSA (Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act), Athabascan Gwich’in

Appeal: Native Alaskan history and modern struggles including clashes with tradition, dealing with suicide, teen pregnancy, domestic violence and alcoholism in families, boys’ experiences in team sports, life above the Arctic Circle including -50 degree winters and near-continual darkness, small close-knit community, the school attempting to survive on very little money and resources, non-Native peoples’ experiences living in the Athabascan Gwich’in community, Arctic Alaskan experience of natives as opposed to the life of an inexperienced backpacker like Christopher McCandless (see Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild)

If you liked Eagle Blue, you might enjoy: Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights. Peter Jenkin’s Looking for Alaska. Velma Wallis’ Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in: Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River.