Book Review - My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

My Last Continent is a romantic story, although completely different from its genre department. We may not call this book as a completely based on romance between two characters. It is also a testament for a passion that is shared by them for penguins that they are studying at this unforgiving and brutal landscape.

Before you read the book My Last Continent by Midge Raymond, you should put aside any conception you might have about penguins. The fact is that this book is nothing like Happy Feet.

The story is been told in a reverse order, with the end being told first. Deb Gardner, is the narrator, and a post-doctoral researcher. She guides a bunch of environmental tourists towards a colony of penguin. Unfortunately, these tourists do not have any interest towards these remarkable creatures. 

Deb, on the other hand, has spent so many years trying to protect them. They are more interested in knowing about how a massive cruise ship, the Australis, sank killing all the 715 passengers and crew.

The heading of each chapter gives a time distance from when this dreadful catastrophe happened such as “four days before shipwreck”, “one week before shipwreck”, scattered with the story of Deb. She is switched between an air of sadness and resignation. It is not sure whether it is because of the passengers or the fate of penguins.

The tone of Titanic can be felt strongly in this book from the beginning and we can very well imagine, how devastating feeling it can give. Deb is a tough person, an independent traveler, and has comfortably settled down in the tough climate of Arctic Circle.

She is a guide on the Cormorant which is an eco-cruise ship and spending much of her time monitoring penguins. She compares herself with the ship, stating we both are built for ice. I have got a thick skin and a penchant for solitude, she has got a reinforced hull.

The life of Deb can be described to be as cold as the ice surrounded by which she lives in. A whiff of warm air comes in this ice cold life by the introduction of a charming rogue, Keller Sullivan. The surprising change in Deb’s life came when she was on a flight to Antarctica.

She was on her way to Mount Erebus, to conduct a census of a colony of emperors. The love mushroomed at a place where very few plants dare to sprout out, at the sub-zero temperatures. The romance between Deb and Keller keeps switching corners, at times intense and at times selfish.

Keller becomes a champion of the environment. He leaves behind Deb among the feathered inhabitants of the shrinking ice caps. He tries hard to reassure her that he loves her truly and deeply, but Deb finds it difficult to come to terms. Their meetings are of short duration and few and far between.

The unique scenario in the book My Last Continent by Midge Raymond, is not only refreshing but poignant as well. The frustration of Deb shown by Raymond should not be taken lightly. Interference of human is causing irrevocable damage to this precious environment.

Both the characters in the money earn their livelihood by ferrying wealthy tourists to this secluded habitat, which is highly endangered now.

The tale told in the book My Last Continent by Midge Raymond is completely sobering and absorbing. The book lets you appreciate a far reaching place on earth whose future has been so mercilessly destroyed by human intervention.