I had to come on here and quickly chat about a book I can’t stop thinking about. As many of you heard from this weeks Motivation Monday series, I challenged myself to reading The Great Alone while cardio exercising and sauna time. I figured I would just walk on the treadmill and read a chapter, two, or whatever I could get done within thirty minutes or so. I kept telling myself that if I wanted to read this book I would have to do something for my health. Well, safe to say the thirty minutes or so every day on the treadmill turned into forty-five minutes here, an hour there. Another thirty minutes in the sauna as a little treat every single day for the past week. This morning I finished the book, while at the gym, and lets just say it destroyed me.
I’m not even sure if this is a book review or a cry for help after the wreck that this book put me through. I will start out by saying this was a five star read for me. It’s not the type of book I normally read, but my Alaskan fantasy forced me to read this book after passing on it for over a year’s time. I might have to correct myself and change my wilderness fantasy after reading this book though. Kristin Hannah did a fantastic job, well at least in my eyes, of drawing a portrait of what Alaska living looks like in the summer months and the winter months.
To summarize this story, for those of you who haven’t read this book, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in human nature. Basically a family moves out to Alaska in 1974 to escape post war trauma and politics. The dream of homesteading and living off the land seems to be much harder than anticipated, while dealing with mental issues. Now they are trying to make the best of what they have, along with help from the community. We follow the Albright family, Ernt, Cora, and Leni. Ernt just got home from Vietnam, and falls into an opportunity that grants him land in the wilderness of Alaska. I’m sure with the idea of running away from his problems, he basically packs the family up into their bus and heads for the last frontier. We get glimpses of Ernt’s PTSD and immediately get sucked into disliking this character yet feeling for him at the same time. As a mental health advocate, it’s hard to think of a time where help wasn’t as easily available to anyone that served for our country and came home unwell. Either way, our hate for this character grows and grows after years of mental illness, drinking, and isolation start to consume his entire body and soul. Ernt leaves Cora and Leni to basically fend for themselves in this scary new environment. They walk on eggshells the entire book to keep Ernt from the inevitable anger and abuse that just comes along with his issues. It’s hard to write about Ernt without giving away tons of spoilers and ruining the whole book. Cora spends majority of her life blindly in love with Ernt and continues to put up with years of abusive and a dream that one day he will be cured of his inner demons.
The story ultimately revolves around Leni and is mainly told from her perspective. At the start of this book Leni is a thirteen-year-old girl who gets plopped into this new Alaskan lifestyle. Leni quickly adjusts and spends the next several years fighting for her life and freedom while dealing with an abusive father, scared straight mother, and secretive friendship turned romance from the only other boy in town her own age. We follow the story of Leni and Matthew as they both deal with love, town camaraderie, secrets, and loss in their own ways. This great love story has many ups and downs, twists, and turns that it was almost hard to keep all the pieces together and follow along. The tragedy that follows this couple is heart wrenching and completely unsatisfying. Once again I’m having trouble not giving you every single detail and ruining the ending.
Towards the end of this book I start to struggle with keeping all the details straight. There is a lot of loss, a lot of heartbreak, and a lot that really just happens so fast. It’s taken me a few hours to actually process everything traumatic that happened in this book. Keep in mind I’m on a treadmill in the middle of a crowded gym while these emotions pour in. I still have that hangover feeling and just can’t let go of this story. In Monday’s episode I said that I’ve always had this fantasy about living on a homestead in Alaska. I love the idea of minimalism and living off the land. Unfortunately, for me, I have no hunting, garden, or self-sufficient skills that would allow such a dream to actually occur. I guess that’s why they call it a fantasy. My favorite thing about this book, so far, is that there is no sugar coating on the difficulty Alaskans face every single winter and the danger and fight that comes with the territory. Saying that out loud is still a little presumptuous. Reading just one novel filled with this much tragedy and fright might have me changing my mind quite a bit.
Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There was so much detail that this is the type of book I would normally reread. I am giving it five stars, but leaving the idea of a reread in the past. I don’t think my heart could take this emotion all over again. I don’t say that to scare you. I simply say that because I am not one to normally read such dramatic fiction and clearly had a hard time adjusting to drama. If you’re into heavy books, this is the one for you. Now on to brighter and lighter reads.
