BOOK REVIEW

Fipke account misses mark — Travelogue barely scratches surface of Canadian diamond hunt

Fire Into Ice: Charles Fipke & the Great Diamond Hunt By Vernon Frolick

Raincoast Books

8680 Cambie St.

Vancouver, B.C.

Price: $32.95

Vernon Frolick’s new book, Fire Into Ice: Charles Fipke & the Great Diamond Hunt, is more a teaser than a pleaser, at least when it comes to diamonds.

While still a highly engrossing and worthwhile read (particularly for adventure-lovers), diamonds and Chuck Fipke’s search for them ended up playing second fiddle to detailed and sometimes long-winded accounts of excursions into the jungles of New Guinea, the savannas of South Africa and the rainforests of the Amazon.

And then there is the ever-constant hand of restraint, stifling some technical and personal aspects of the story, a shortcoming not necessarily perceptible to all. But for those who watched events unfold during the Great Canadian diamond hunt, too much of this story is left untold, too much left uninvestigated.

On the positive side of the ledger, Frolic has an evocative writing style that is well-suited to the subject matter. Some of Fipke’s foreign adventures and misadventures are so compellingly told that it’s hard to put the book down in places. The geologist’s bout with deadly cerebral malaria keeps the reader on edge, even if survival was never in doubt, and the constant battle with bugs and jungle diseases is an eye-opener for those with an overly romanticized view of nature.

Frolick also captures much of Fipke’s complex character: his sharp intellect and strong will, his wanderlust and eccentricities, and his passionate and sometimes fearless interest in everything to do with nature (including even its primitive forces).

Much of the book focuses on Fipke’s attempts to straddle two worlds: one cerebral and modern, based in science and reason; the other, physical, more mysterious, more primal. His excursions into primitive societies, such as those in the jungles and highlands of Papua New Guinea, set the stage for readers to expect these worlds to collide.

But to surmise that they do — that they are incompatible — is to miss the point of the book. Straddling two worlds is nothing new for geologists, who use science and their training as a bridge to the prehistoric past every time they crack open a rock.