Mr. Patterson tells us pretty quickly that he prefers books and ideas to the world at large. The lesson he learns on his journey and that he passes on quite persuasively and with much evidence is that armchair travelers, which he truly is at heart, should resist the impulse to put down their book, get off the sofa, and go have an adventure of one's own. He is very lucky to have survived his impulse.

Patterson is very much "at home" while discussing travel writing and writers. Very much "at sea" while at large in the wide world. He takes much pain in puncturing "the myths" of travel writing and he may well be right. But it is a world of ideas that he travels in. Even while crossing the Pacific or working in the Arctic, he hides his nose and eyes in his books. His biographical material tells us it has always been so.

I admire his honesty in revealing his character that continuously makes selfish choices that isolate him from reality. From stiffing his "lover" by staying all day in a bookstore to inviting friends to cross an ocean with him as captain (this borders on criminality), his story is full of episodes that make the reader want to grab him by the shoulders and shake the fog out of his eyes.

Essentially a selfish and intellectually smug young man, he does not learn the lessons that will make him stronger or more compassionate or more able to cope with the physical world (sailing, for example), he learns and teaches us that home is best, that travel is not a cure for loneliness, and that travel is not all that it is cracked up to be by travel writing.

Well, it is a book afterall. And he is a good writer. But he has conciously limited his life experiences by choosing books over the world around him. If his trip was less rich in experience than he hoped (and that I had hoped), it is because he does not make himself available to experience.

So in the end this book has much to say about travel writing and very little to say about travel.

Kevin Patterson's journey is a richly written autobiographical work of a wonderful journey taken from British Columbia to Tahiti ad back. In addition to being a challenging journey for a man who has never sailed before, it is also a fine literary analysis for reasons of taking a journey of this kind. The book is a thrill to read on a literary level for the amazing understanding of the writing of Bruce Chatwin as well as other writers, sailors and friends who have taken serious voyages and were "going" places and loved both the voyage as well as the locations and the natives. It is a real deeply thought out and analyzed work that add a new and comprehensive insight on meaning and home and happiness. The references in the text that are elaborately exposed gives me a list of books to read and re-read for a lifetime.

Some reviewers have complained that this is a book of ideas, and certainly it is. It is not a book of macho adventure, though his lack a natural sailing ability does make for some harrowing moments. His trip between Vancouver Island and Tahiti serves more as reference point for deeper, more personal reflections than a pure narrative, and he manages this without any penchant for flakey expostulations about his personal growth or metaphysical speculations about the nature of travel. Indeed, along the way he finds himself dissatisfied with the presentation of travel that he finds in other writers, like Chatwin or Theroux, and in taking them to task he exposes much of the myth of travel as a way of finding one's self. This is heady stuff, but he manages it without preaching or self-congratulation. It was for me a very satisfying read (and one perhaps more valuable because I had read Chatwin and Theroux already). I was disappointed to find Patterson's book so poorly reviewed here, because I felt many of things for which he is taken to task are precisely the things that made his efforts so valuable and worthy. I think if you are interested in the art of travel rather than perhaps its faultless execution, you would do well to have a look at this book.

I read 'Country of Cold' because I enjoyed the author's south sea travel memoir 'The Water in Between'. I have to say that I was disappointed with this collection of short stories and I felt that my having read his memoir compounded this.

This book is a collection of 'connected' short stories, a description I always find a little worrisome as it usually means a novel that didn't hang together or an author with a limited literary imagination, but as I liked his previous non-fiction book I thought it would be a worthwhile read. Halfway through I had the feeling that this was initially meant to be a novel in that the characters and plots seemed to be recycled throughout the stories. An example of this is that two characters in different stories (Cora and Daphne) both come from the same high-school, go to medical school, then on to work in Montreal before both coming back to Manitoba. (Rarely does any pair- outside of conjoined twins or single fictional characters that have been conveniently split into two- have such identical paths). Another criticism I have is that numerous events presented in Patterson's memoir are recounted and represented now as fiction (Interposition, Starlight, Starbright), and for me, the stories suffered because of it. (This isn't the author's problem of course, but my problem. In a way it's a compliment that Patterson is a more compelling character than any of his fictional creations).

The characters, all graduates of Dunsmuir High, lack a diversity one expects from a writer of Patterson's skill. They run through the interesting, but fairly narrow permutations of medical school, military service and work in the north of Canada (sometimes all three, a hat-trick scored by the author himself, and expounded upon in his memoir). An odd and recurring manifestation of this was that characters who were doctors or military personnel never had their physical attributes disparagingly described but other characters- a waitress 'with a nose that could split pack ice' (in 'Gabriella: Parts 1 and 2'), a bartender 'with a profile like an engorged chigger' (in 'Les is More') or a disappointing husband 'long since grown fat and white like Oreo cookie filling' (in 'Boatbuilding')- all had a harsher light cast on them. When the protagonist doesn't have the good luck to have lived through what Patterson has, as in the lovesick and obese bartender in 'Les is More', the characterization suffers and in its place we get antics: a barrel is produced and the outsider strapped into to it for a ride over a waterfall. I suppose that's what irked me about the collection; that certain characters were rendered with less dignity (not as less dignified, an important difference) if they fell outside certain boundaries. Patterson seems to save his respect for the ennui of his medical or military officer characters or for the landscape itself; everyone else- like the beach-goers he derides in the title story- has an 'L' firmly tattooed on their forehead:

"It was an astonishing place, and for all the regrettable fashion decisions and aesthetic failings, the scale of the forest still dwarfed the beet-faced people at its southern tip."

A low point is when several Inuit characters wander into Patterson's sights to make cameo appearances in the title story, where they are promptly subjected (in a span of ten pages!) to near-freezing in a blizzard, third degree burns from a tent fire, a botched medical procedure and a suicide by gun shot. I guess they should have joined the military. All of this mayhem is, of course, back-story to make us understand why the story's protagonist, a doctor who has worked in the north, is unable to 'get on' with her life. Poor dear.

Certain stories, like 'The Perseid Shower' are quite good, showing that an exotic locale or a character intoxicated by boredom isn't a necessary feature of his work. The writing is the strongest when Patterson describes places, but even that has its limitations. The arctic is barren and vast and yes, I can imagine people are lonely there, but it doesn't mean that every story needs its mandatory blinding blizzard, dense cloud of mosquitoes, or night of exquisite starlight. We get it.

The collection ends with its weakest story 'Manitoba Avenue', a piecing-together of the various storylines as the characters meet at their class reunion (which is, if possible, more derivative than it sounds).

All of this is a shame because Kevin Patterson is a very good writer who brings a great deal of intelligence into his work, and I had the feeling after finishing the book that I wanted to read more from him, but non-fiction. When he isn't writing about himself or people like him he lapses into disdainful characterization that boarders on arrogance. At least in non-fiction such attitudes (which he has every right to hold) are more honestly expressed.

Being an avid reader and a huge J.P fan I didn't like this book at all, just too weird for me. I didn't finish it so don't know how it ended, except to take a peek to check on the mastermind.
The first of these two, which is Roses Are Red, was GREAT, Very Scary in a usual Patterson way. There was a bit to much gore in this book. I do think that together Gross and Patterson are a good team, I liked the beach house and kiss the girls, they were both excellent. I can't wait for their next collaboration.

I have read all of the Alex Cross novels and I must say that "Violets are Blue" is frustrating to read and not up to par with the other Cross novels. The biggest frustration centers around the Mastermind. I was disappointed with the way "Roses are Red" ended and was looking forward to having the matter resolved quickly with Violets are Blue. Instead, the reader is lead through several anti-climatic scenes with the Mastermind getting close to dealing with Cross, but then deciding the "time wasn't right." Gimme a break! Each chapter seems to rehash the same type of suspense that goes nowhere and leaves the reader plowing through another endless chapter of mayhem, gore and another budding romance between Cross and another female. Read it, seen it, tired of it! I love Cross' character, but Patterson does him a disservice with this storyline. What else could happen to this man! I for one will continue to look forward to more novels, but I am leary and disappointed that Mr. Patterson has gone into the mass market, cookie cutter manner of writing. Take a break Mr. Patterson and write the next Cross novel with better care and respect for the character and your many readers.

This is the terrifying sequel to "Roses Are Red", the Mastermind continues to torment Alex, and some new serial killers are introduced. The killers are vampires (not the kind that turn into bats, just crazy men who suck their victims' blood). It comes pretty close to horror-novel territory. This may come as a disappointed surprise to those Patterson fans who want to stick with the more believable villains, but, in my opinion, it was very intriguing to read about the vampires. After figuring out who the Mastermind is, Alex is horrified. The Mastermind is probably the most interesting and one of the most sadistic of the villains in Alex Cross novels, and I hope that he makes lots more appearances in the future. This book is very good. Not quite "Roses Are Red", but still a very interesting and incredibly scary read.