The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 30 October 2000
by Alex Kershaw
Jack London was an adventurer in life as well as in his famous stories. He was one of those remarkable men who lived the life he touted in his art. And he blazed across the literary scene early this century, publishing The Call of the Wild when he was in his early 20s, but burning himself out and dying at the early age of 40. Many of his books are at least marginally autobiographical. Indeed, his life reads like an epic novel. He squeezed a tremendous life into too short a time. There have been many biographies, not the least of which from some of the people closest to him. This recent book may offer some new material (but I haven't read other London biographies, such as Irving Stone's novelized Sailor on Horseback) and serves as a straightforward if somewhat brief retelling of London's remarkable life. Kershaw tells London's life from his impovershed childhood in Oakland, California, to the great voyage of the Snark; from London's dedication to the cause of Socialism to his somewhat misguided adoption of Nietzsche's philosophies. Kershaw sets out to clarify or debunk some of the myths of London's life, but little of the story lends itself to this treatment. Jack still comes across as a generous, self-promoting, sometime hack with flashes of great genius and maybe moments of hypocrisy. The last years of his life, in which the great project of restoring the soil of his Glen Ellen ranch consumed him while flames consumed his dream house, were a tragic end. London suffered from uraemia, which painfully and slowly poisoned him. The great abuse his body took during his life's adventures finally took its toll. Much of the story, in fact, is tragic. London dreamed big, gave big, and was rarely repaid for it. But he was also at times confused, and professed some prevailing ideas which today may seem naive or misguided. He was also a man a generation ahead of his time. Kershaw's telling is clear, readable, engaging, but more so for its subject than for any great art from the writer. It certainly invites reading some of Jack's great books (such as the nominally autobiographical Martin Eden), comparing his creations to the life and the man he tried, almost desperately, to create.
See also: [Stories of Hawai'i by Jack London]