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“I was unsettled. I was not right. This is a condition that many people experience after arriving in Alaska. Nothing here is fixed, nothing is any better. Where is there left to go, except out of your mind?”
Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman is a collection of eight compelling short stories mostly featuring strong female protagonists. Newman’s stories are powerful and versatile in theme, tone and scope. While some of the stories are set in Alaska, others have characters who have once lived in Alaska but still have ties to their hometowns despite having moved on. Though a few characters appear in more than one story, the stories themselves are standalone.
The first story Howl Palace features a sixty-seven-year-old widow, Dutch, who is preparing to sell her home of “Forty-three years. Five husbands. Two floatplanes. A lifetime”, on account of financial difficulty. As in most cases of homes built in that terrain, the new owners would probably raze the existing structure to the ground- a fact she is unable to reconcile with. She is particularly sentimental about her “wolf room”, which was once to be a nursery, but now houses 387 pelts of fur on pegs. (5/5)
In High Jinks, we meet two friends, Jaime and Katrina, on a father-daughter float trip, each searching for solace from their dysfunctional family situations in the other’s family only to realize that no family is as perfect as it appears from the outside. (4/5)
In the title story, Nobody Gets Out Alive we meet Katrina once again, newly married to Carter, and Katrina’s friend Neil and his wife Janice. Carter’s impressions of life in Alaska and Katrina’s family are not quite what he had expected. Adding to that is the fact that Neil quite obviously has unresolved feelings for Katrina. (3.5/5)
My personal favorite, Alcan: An Oral History takes us back to 1975 when two fresh graduates, Maggie and Danielle, and a single mother with her two children, Janice and Kevin, cross paths on their way to Alaska, each hoping for brighter prospects. The events that follow significantly change their plans and their lives. Told from multiple perspectives, this story truly stands out. (5/5)
Slide and Glide revolves around a man’s efforts to save his marriage. However, a planned trip to a remote cabin leads to only more disappointment as he realizes there is not much he can do to salvage his relationship with his wife(3.5/5)
In Valley of the Moon Jaime and her younger sister, Becca, now adults, meet up in a wine bar and recount events from their childhood- their parents’ marriage, separation and divorce and the toll it took on their relationship and also reflect upon complexities in their present lives. (4/5)
Our Family Fortune Teller revolves around a fifty-six-year-old unnamed fortune teller/clairvoyant who fears being evicted by her new landlord. She spends her days recalling events from her past and catering to her best (and now only) client, “CFO of a small, local corporation that peddles opiates to people with imaginary back problems through a chain of legal “pain-management” clinics”, who is having trouble with her son who is exhibiting delinquent behavior. (4/5)
An Extravaganza in Two Acts takes us back in time to a tent city in 1915, later to become Anchorage, where we meet people employed in the Ship Creek railway camp among whom is twenty-six-year-old Walter. Walter is accompanied by an affluent heiress, Genevieve whose brash and reckless behavior has landed her in trouble in the past. Her attraction for Hazel, wife of Walter’s boss leads to a complicated situation that impacts the lives of all concerned. (4/5)
My initial interest in this book was because of the Alaskan setting which piqued my curiosity. But Newman’s powerful writing, complex characters and realistic depiction of relationships drew me in. The author tackles a wide range of themes such as dysfunctional families, marriage, divorce and infidelity, abuse, mental health, substance abuse and depression. While there are moments of humor and wisdom, there are also moments of hardship, grief, isolation and despair. A running theme in these stories is that of survival- not just the challenges of life in the harsh landscape of Alaska but survival against all the odds that life throws your way. I enjoyed the stories set in different eras, which also gives us a historical perspective. Each of these stories warrants pause and reflection and is well worth the time invested.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories and look forward to more from this author in the future. ( )
The sisters, daughters, wives, lone wolves, and a few anxious husbands in this dynamic debut navigate complicated relationships and the gravitational pull of Newman’s home state of Alaska, where everyone is running to or from something. From the brusque, secretly sentimental ex-wife trying to sell her quirky home to a panicked mother on the road, the eloquently insightful characters are both hard-headed and easy to love. Great collection, full of compassionate, muscular writing. ( )
I am not usually a short story person, but I really enjoyed this collection. Alcan, An Oral History is both the longest story and my favorite. The stories focus on the southern part of the state--where the Americans with origins in the lower 48 largely live. Several of the stories are connected, but all focus on the origin stories of the main characters--how did they wind up in Alaska? A woman whose own mother sold her into prostitution ended up serving pipeline workers in the 70s and never left. College kids driving the Alcan for fun and adventure. Women running from men in the lower 48. Even a man working in Anchorage when Anchorage was a post office ship. The stories are very Alaska--with lakeside homes and small planes and hunting. But they are also very average American--with opioids and autism and family/neighborhood arguments.
Now I really want to read Newman's memoir about growing up in Alaska. ( )
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
To William and Wilder
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
This September, I finally put Howl Palace up for sale. -Howl Palace
Citaten
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
The mud along the shoreline wreaks havoc with foundations, and the original homes, like mine, were built in the sixties, before the pipeline, back when licensed contractors had no reason to move to Anchorage. If you wanted a house, you either built it yourself, or you hung out in the parking lot of Spenard Builders Supply handing out six-packs to every guy with a table saw in the back of his vehicle until one got broke enough or bored enough to consider your blueprints.
He had a wonderful laugh, the kind that tickled through you, slowly, inch by inch, brain cell by brain cell until you were mentally unfit to resist him.
Rodge didn’t put in enough flight hours, but had a great touch with short landings. The odds of him smashing his Cub into the side of a mountain were the same as anybody’s: a matter of skill, luck, and weather.
THE TALK FOR THE LAST day goes: chicken-fried steak, steak with French fries, fried chicken, lemonade, biscuits with sausage gravy, baked potatoes with sour cream, mashed potatoes, potatoes gratin, potato chips, onion dip, Cheetos, guacamole, ribs, enchiladas. There is no arguing, no conflict, except when Jamie declares that she will not split a chimichanga with a side of beans with Katrina, and Katrina says she’s selfish and chimichangas are too big to eat by yourself. And her dad says he will hit both of them on the head with his paddle, except they are all too tired of paddling and sick of salmon and don’t know what the hell they are saying. “A Seven and Seven,” moans Danny Bob. “On the rocks.”
She can’t see her face, but she is not an idiot. It looks like her dad’s face, soft and weepy. She will always look soft and weepy, she will always be soft and weepy as long she is always around him and always remembering everything that is gone now, not even for forever the way her dad promised. Everything comes back, over and over.
The words came out of Katrina in a monotone, the voice of a government form.
Your average happy person didn’t last in Alaska. It was too much work not to die all the time.
So. He was married. You should have known. Then again, you did know, or you knew enough to ask, and even if you had asked, there was a vase of flowers in your heart that only people who like breaking things could see.
This is a condition that many people experience after arriving in Alaska. Nothing here is fixed, nothing is any better. Where is there left to go, except out of your mind?
Meryl thinks he is a nutcase. I think she grew up in Wisconsin not Alaska, and mostly, that’s the end of the discussion.
The air tasted the way it does only in deep winter, each breath a sharp mineral shock of oxygen.
...as if his crying had set loose little rats in our brains, the kind that scrabble around, chewing off the ends of your thoughts.
Children are a silent mystery to me, as are dead people and anyone outside a twenty-five-foot radius of my person. Everyone else I know the way clairs have known nonclairs for centuries. That is to say, with an intimacy that nonclairs both long for and fear, depending on the moment.
He realized what I didn’t. Love, even self-love, requires some degree of mystery.
If only it were lust he felt. If only so much of love was not also self-loathing.
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
It dissolves on his tongue and tastes of blackened air, as if the fires on the bluff were still burning and he had forgotten and taken too deep a breath. -An Extravaganza in Two Acts
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Google Books — Bezig met laden...
(3.7)
2
“I was unsettled. I was not right. This is a condition that many people experience after arriving in Alaska. Nothing here is fixed, nothing is any better. Where is there left to go, except out of your mind?”
Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman is a collection of eight compelling short stories mostly featuring strong female protagonists. Newman’s stories are powerful and versatile in theme, tone and scope. While some of the stories are set in Alaska, others have characters who have once lived in Alaska but still have ties to their hometowns despite having moved on. Though a few characters appear in more than one story, the stories themselves are standalone.
The first story Howl Palace features a sixty-seven-year-old widow, Dutch, who is preparing to sell her home of “Forty-three years. Five husbands. Two floatplanes. A lifetime”, on account of financial difficulty. As in most cases of homes built in that terrain, the new owners would probably raze the existing structure to the ground- a fact she is unable to reconcile with. She is particularly sentimental about her “wolf room”, which was once to be a nursery, but now houses 387 pelts of fur on pegs. (5/5)
In High Jinks, we meet two friends, Jaime and Katrina, on a father-daughter float trip, each searching for solace from their dysfunctional family situations in the other’s family only to realize that no family is as perfect as it appears from the outside. (4/5)
In the title story, Nobody Gets Out Alive we meet Katrina once again, newly married to Carter, and Katrina’s friend Neil and his wife Janice. Carter’s impressions of life in Alaska and Katrina’s family are not quite what he had expected. Adding to that is the fact that Neil quite obviously has unresolved feelings for Katrina. (3.5/5)
My personal favorite, Alcan: An Oral History takes us back to 1975 when two fresh graduates, Maggie and Danielle, and a single mother with her two children, Janice and Kevin, cross paths on their way to Alaska, each hoping for brighter prospects. The events that follow significantly change their plans and their lives. Told from multiple perspectives, this story truly stands out. (5/5)
Slide and Glide revolves around a man’s efforts to save his marriage. However, a planned trip to a remote cabin leads to only more disappointment as he realizes there is not much he can do to salvage his relationship with his wife(3.5/5)
In Valley of the Moon Jaime and her younger sister, Becca, now adults, meet up in a wine bar and recount events from their childhood- their parents’ marriage, separation and divorce and the toll it took on their relationship and also reflect upon complexities in their present lives. (4/5)
Our Family Fortune Teller revolves around a fifty-six-year-old unnamed fortune teller/clairvoyant who fears being evicted by her new landlord. She spends her days recalling events from her past and catering to her best (and now only) client, “CFO of a small, local corporation that peddles opiates to people with imaginary back problems through a chain of legal “pain-management” clinics”, who is having trouble with her son who is exhibiting delinquent behavior. (4/5)
An Extravaganza in Two Acts takes us back in time to a tent city in 1915, later to become Anchorage, where we meet people employed in the Ship Creek railway camp among whom is twenty-six-year-old Walter. Walter is accompanied by an affluent heiress, Genevieve whose brash and reckless behavior has landed her in trouble in the past. Her attraction for Hazel, wife of Walter’s boss leads to a complicated situation that impacts the lives of all concerned. (4/5)
My initial interest in this book was because of the Alaskan setting which piqued my curiosity. But Newman’s powerful writing, complex characters and realistic depiction of relationships drew me in. The author tackles a wide range of themes such as dysfunctional families, marriage, divorce and infidelity, abuse, mental health, substance abuse and depression. While there are moments of humor and wisdom, there are also moments of hardship, grief, isolation and despair. A running theme in these stories is that of survival- not just the challenges of life in the harsh landscape of Alaska but survival against all the odds that life throws your way. I enjoyed the stories set in different eras, which also gives us a historical perspective. Each of these stories warrants pause and reflection and is well worth the time invested.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories and look forward to more from this author in the future. (