STORY SUMMARY
Marie is visiting her sister Sarah and Sarah's husband Sly. They live in Anchorage, Alaska. The year is 1956. They are at Moose Lodge and Marie is looking for a way to stay in Alaska. Alaska is not yet a state. Sarah and Marie were raised by their grandmother Valera in Texas. Their mother, Rosalie, would often disappear with various men over the course of their childhood.
Marie meets a man named Lawrence. They are immediately drawn to one another and when they decide to get married after just knowing each other for a couple of days, they are more in love with the idea of homesteading than they are in loving one another.
Lawrence was born and raised on a farm in Minnesota. He is a Korean War veteran and his parcel of 150 acres on the Alaska frontier is an opportunity for him to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promises.
For Marie, the land is a type of escape from an empty future she saw playing out in front of her. For Marie and Lawrence, this risky bet...that they can make a marriage work while homesteading and perhaps raising children, is better than not trying at all.
Over the next few years, into 1959, they face several new things together: building a cabin; planting alfalfa and potatoes; navigating the dark grief that settles on them with a stillborn baby boy; working the land to secure the deed to their homestead, facing everything they don't know about each other. And then the joy of a healthy baby girl whom they name Colleen Marie.
As the Alaskan territory moves towards statehood and anticipated changes, Lawrence and Marie build a life for themselves......will this life include love or will it drive them apart??
MY THOUGHTS
I loved the story. I've always been enthralled with books set in Alaska and it's on my bucket list as a state to visit one day. How I long to hike in Alaska.
The one thing that I didn't care for in this book was the lack of conversation between the characters....it's mainly a narrative and although very immersive and compelling with a romantic edge and a lot of good drama, I found some of the sentences to be fragmented and kind of like "run on" sentences. That took some getting used to.
I love all of the characters and they are well developed. THe description of the setting and wildlife really drew me in.
This is a book about perseverance, hard work, determination, family ties, loyalty, marriage, parenthood, grief, triumphs. It's about being together yet needing times of solitude; it's about forging a life together in an unknown territory as well as being unknown to one another.
There is such realism in this story. It's quite well done and I found no editing errors! A first in a long time!
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
2 comments:
This sounds like an interesting read to me. I have always been interested in books that take place in Alaska as well. In answer to your question about where I was camping, I was in Washington, N.H. at Pillsbury state camp ground. It was absolutely beautiful. There were lots of trails to hike in the area but I was with my young grandchildren so we didn't do any hiking this trip.
Sounds interesting. Have you read "The Great Alone" by Kristin Hannah? It's set in Alaska also.
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