Sleetmute: A True Story of Alaska

New York City. 1968. I was 24. I had just graduated from college. I applied to VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) as a possible deferment from the Army and Vietnam. I was young and I thought I knew everything. I figured if they had VISTA in any state they had to have VISTA in every state. I requested an assignment in Hawaii. So naturally, six months later I’m in the very remote, tiny Eskimo village of Sleetmute, Alaska. No streets, no electricity, no phones, no television, no signs, no law. I’m wearing everything I own. I’m hunting for my food. It’s fifty degrees below zero and it’s getting colder........ Kirkus Reviews said Sleetmute is “incredibly entertaining” and also “Resnicoff’s encounters fascinate not only because they introduce readers to a world few have ever seen, but also because he’s a gifted storyteller. He channels his 24-year-old self’s confusion and naïveté in a way that is by turns hilarious, endearing and often quite moving”.