Helpful Score: 1
Avoiding cheap romanticism or easy answers, Seth Kantner has crafted an amazing tale that is more than a coming-of-age story or an examination of the collision of cultures. Instead, with wry humor and insight, a keen turn of phrase, and an authenticity so pronounced that you can smell the moose heart for dinner and hear the shrews tunneling in the walls, in these pages are found the joys, somber realities, and consequences of being on the edge of an way of life that is disappearing under the bombardment of popular culture, âprogressâ, and consumerism. The writing is particularly vivid in details and its depiction of both the glories and downfalls of human nature. I did struggle with the sometimes abrupt transitions in action. For example, a gripping scene of an accident resulting in one sibling under the ice, another frantic to reach her, and the father desperately running to aid is abruptly transitioned to a later point in the story. This scene is literally breathtaking, and turning away from the drama at such a moment is disorienting and (for me) disappointing. It is a sign of how fine the writing is that I did not want to miss even a moment of this struggle.
Helpful Score: 1
From the book jacket: "I've not read anything that so captures the contrast between the wild world and our ravaging consumer culture. Ordinary Wolves is painful and beautiful" - Louise Erdrich
This is a beautiful, unique, wonderful read.
This is a beautiful, unique, wonderful read.
This a beautiful book about life in rural Alaska.
This is a beautifully written, haunting book. It will remain in my Top 10.
Novel about a boy growiing up in the Alaskan wilderness. Unflinching portrayal of Alaska's social dynamic.
Exquisite. A veritable rainbow of prose and dreams and longings. Like nothing you've read before. Landscapes of emotions, the inner and the outer. The introspection reminded me of a young Wallace Stegner in writing style. But truly all his own. Only one boy lived it.
