Alaska, dubbed the Great Alone by poet Robert Service, is a place people might come to for one of two reasons: They're either running to something or running away from something. In Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone, it's 1974 and the Allbright family seem to be doing both.
Ernt and Cora Allbright and their thirteen-year-old daughter Leni pile in their VW van and head to Alaska. Ernt Allbright is a former POW of Vietnam and has come back changed. Cora refers to her husband's behavior surrounding the war as Before and After. The family is running away from Ernt's nightmare fueled rage and darkness, and towards the promise of peace and isolation. They get more than they bargained for, but in the process fall in love with the wildness and beauty of Alaska.
The Allbright family arrives ill-prepared. They learn quickly how to prepare for winter out of necessity and from coaching from their neighbors on the Kineq peninsula. Summer in the land of the midnight sun is spent caring for goats, picking berries, making jam, canning food, shucking clams and hunting. Barter and trade and helping neighbors is a way of life in Alaska. The Allbrights become homesteaders and survivalists.
During the long, dark, brutal Alaskan winters, Ernt becomes increasingly unhinged and violent. He develops a doomsday fear of outside forces and tries to isolate his wife and child further. Leni wants her mother to leave her abusive father, but Cora says she doesn't know how because she loves him too much. Leni begins to realize that it's a sick and twisted love, but she and her mother are allies. Kristin Hannah's similes and metaphors make an impact. Like when Leni has the thought that her father's yelling is like a bomb going off and you have to take cover. But his silence is scarier, because it's like a sniper hiding in your cabin while you're sleeping.
Leni finds a friend in a boy named Matthew at school, although Leni's dad has a chip on his shoulder towards Matthew's well-off father. Matthew's father and other locals know that Ernt is volatile and dangerous, and this becomes fuel to his fire of rage. As tourism in the 70s takes an upward turn, Ernt's rationality takes a downward one. Leni begins to view Matthew's friendship as her one spot of light and hope, which predictably turns to love and romance. Leni learns from Matthew that not all love is scary.
Like in The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah tells sweeping stories of heartache and loss. Grief comes in waves throughout The Great Alone, with the many dangers of Alaska illustrated time and again. However, love and friendship and hope shine through, creating a feeling like being on a roller coaster. Just like in real life, there's more than one Before and After in this novel. This book gets a 4/5 from me.
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