The Ice Soldier

Paul Watkins

I just finished the Ice Soldier by Paul Watkins. I've been reading his The Fellowship of Ghosts, a non-fiction work about his travels in Iceland and decided to satisfy my curiosity about his fiction. Its been interesting to see how the reflections disclosed in his non- fiction, inform the fiction. The novel deals with climbing and the working through of some psychic scars that the main character got from WWII. Some beautiful descriptions and some interesting ruminations, but the novel didn't quite make it for me. The resolutions were a little too pat and his characterizations of all but the protagonist were fairly shallow.