This is a wonderful story. It just pulls you along into a life so different from what we experience. Seth Kantner is an outstanding writer. See his Shopping for Porcupine - A life in artic Alaska as well - it is his real story.

posted Sep 2, 2009 at 4:28PM

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, “progress”, 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.

posted Feb 10, 2010 at 10:36AM

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