Eric Mack: "90 Below," A Mini-Memoir

Several things confused me about Eric Mack's 90 Below: Or, What Bush Alaska Taught Me About Drink, Destruction & Survival. It kind of spoiled the experience, but once I finished (baffled) and went online to answer some questions, it made a lot more sense. I re-read 90 Below, and absolutely loved it.

So here are two things you might want to know ahead of time:

1. Who is this guy?

90 below drops you right in the middle of his story, which is a good thing according to the conventional wisdom of short story workshops. But it can also be a little disorienting to the reader. Eric Christopher Mack (to distinguish him from the many other people who will pop up when you Google "Eric Mack") is a freelance writer and reporter, with a passion for working with small, rural communities.

He moved to Galena at one point to work on "the radio." I'm actually still not sure what he did there, or what kind of radio station it was. I think it was an NPR station? Does Galena have an NPR station? This is obviously still a little confusing for me. Unfortunately his personal website isn't helpful here, either.

2. What is this thing?

I thought I was buying a full-size memoir. It's only available as a Kindle edition, so there is no page count. Suffice it to say, it is a short work of non-fiction. The first time I finished it, I thought I had accidentally only read the sample chapter. I suppose you could say it is 35 pages long, if you define a page as "click the forward button on my Kindle."

Once you get oriented, 90 Below gives you a lot of bang for your buck. (Well, for your 99 cents plus tax, if you want to get technical about it.) Think of it as akin to a New Yorker article about one man's experience as a white guy and an outsider in a mostly-Native town in the Alaskan bush.

90 Below is as unflinching as it is haunting. The final kick at the end of the story, the other bookend to the one that opens the piece, is absolutely devastating.

I found an interview Mack gave about 90 Below, in which he says that he started out writing a full-size memoir but decided to focus on a single event because "it would take me about three centuries to cover the whole three years at the rate I was going." I enjoyed 90 Below, but I hope that some day Mack is able to power through and write about his entire experience.

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Replies

hey, I wrote that!

Look at the fun things you find while vanity Googling to make yourself feel better after seeing this.

I can answer some of these questions - it was an NPR radio station, although we also played a lot of country and rock and pretty much everything else. It was the only station, so we did a little bit of everything. My job was a little bit of everything too - I did news, was a DJ, fundraiser, producer, and was responsible for cleaning the bathroom, among other things. It was kind of awesome, but a little nutty at times.

Fair points about getting dropped right in to the story. I've got drafts where I explain more out of the gate, but I cut it back kind of relentlessly, probably because of my training as journalist and doing lots of writing for the web. I am planning to do more of these installments, and so there will be more context to glean from those.

I think Amazon added a feature estimating the page length on Kindle books, on Amazon.com it's now estimated to be 16 pages, but not sure the length is obvious on actual Kindles.

And yes, my webpage does suck. You'd do better to follow me on Twitter @ericcmack, Google+ at http://gplus.to/ericmack or http://www.facebook.com/ericcmack

Thanks for the kind words, more soon, I promise!

90 below

I read the book and i grew up in Galena and about 70 to 90 percent of what was writen is not really true. Dont get me wrong, it was kinda entertaining but over a majority of the natives that live there are not what you picture now that you read the book. The local bar is the only bar between Fairbanks and Nome and in my experience, we do not have a drinking problem compared to other dry villages. Galena has some rich history to go along with some awesome people . Its a fun place to visit in the summer with all the softball and boat races, and fishing going on. I wish you well in your writing Eric and if you do decide to venture back to "Gods Country" you will prob be amazed at all the changes that has happened since you left. God Bless.

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