Great Alone Paperback – September 24, 2019

Received item quickly. Highly recommend this book. A great depiction of life in the wild of Alaska.

In 1974, a 13-year-old girl, Leni Albright, lived in Oregon with her father Ernst and mother Cora. Her father is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD and is mentally unstable. Under the will of a comrade-in-arms who was killed in action, Ernt is given a plot of land in Alaska. The family heads north, hoping to make a fresh start in the new land. ......---------------------- It is an epic novel about one girl's resilient growth in a remote, extremely cold region. I picked up this 500-page paperback after hearing that it was so popular in the US locally that it spent four weeks at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list in 2018. It is a sad tale of a father who, in the aftermath of war, grows rougher and rougher, pushing his mother and Leni herself into a corner. Ernt himself is a worthy victim of the war. It is a painful reminder of the reality that war continues to torment those involved for many years after it has ended. And as an adult reader, you can't help but feel that Cora's efforts to be there for her husband, who is going off the rails, could be a form of love between a man and a woman - though it may not be a healthy one. However, it is understandable that the young Leni sees this as unreasonable. As Leni's family grows older, they are pushed to the brink of extinction. I found myself reading the story of one family with a wrenching feeling in my heart. However, I felt that the story gradually unfolded in a way that did not suit my heart. From the middle of the book, the story focuses on the romance between Leni and Matthew, two young classmates, but it is full of teenage haste, and as I am already far from their age, I found it insufficient as a story for adults. It seemed to me that the story was a bit too much like a sweet romance novel for young adults. Also, the latter part of the story, where the main character is accused of a crime and wins her acquittal, is too short and hasty, and I feel that it is too opportunistic. There was no conflict, which should have been there, and I was disappointed. I am sorry to be so negative, so I will copy the words of Cora at the end that stayed in my mind.“Love doesn’t fade or die, baby girl. People tell you it does, but it doesn’t. If you love him now, you’ll love him in ten years and in forty. Differently, maybe, a faded version, but he’s part of you now. And you are part of him. "(p. 394)