Name: Ordinary Wolves
ISBN: 9781571310477

Seth Kantner

Stirring and vivid, this evocative novel depicts the life of a white boy raised among natives on the harsh Alaskan tundra. "This is the Alaska the Alaskans live. . . . an extremely well-written novel that paints a gorgeous canvas of words and experience."--"The Rocky Mountain News."

Ordinary Wolves

Andrea Badgley

The writing in this book is beautiful. With lines like, "The ice tasted like frozen breath and wet caribou hair," Kantner is able to evoke the smell and feel and taste of living in a sod igloo in the tundra of Alaska. I am reading my way around America right now, reading three books set in each state to get a feel for the land and its people, and Kantner gave me exactly what I wanted for Alaska:

"The cold sky seemed crystalline, dark blue glass, in reach and ready for one thrown snowball to bring it shattering down."

I felt like I was on the frozen tundra, hunting caribou, skinning wolves, as I read this book. Kantner's language is remarkable in that way. Ordinary Wolves will show you the Alaska of the Eskimo - in both its wildness and its alcoholism - and its fate as the disappearing final frontier of America.

Unfortunately, despite gorgeous descriptions and a message I can absolutely get behind, the novel did not have enough of a story for me. It was fairly flat - the life and times of Cutuk Hawcly - without a buildup of tension, or a climax, or a resolution. The writing almost makes up for it, but I wanted more - more story to make me want to come back to the book again so I could spend time in wild Alaska next winter.

Janet Doré

If I rated this book purely based on my emotional connection to it, I'd give it three stars. This surprises me since I share much with Cutuk (the main character), including disgust with consumerism and the capitalistically motivated life led by most and a love-hate relationship with fellow humans. My theory is that, once again, I was left craving action, a happening, an occurrence, rather than just pondering over one's every day angst. 

I was compelled to add a star, however, because the writing is poetic...fitting for this story of young boy growing up in an igloo in northern Alaska. Seth turns words into cameras, allowing readers to see everything he saw and experience both awe and disillusionment with him.

Ordinary Wolves

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