The Devil's Share

by Kris Farmen

Can we ever own land--or does the land instead possess us? That question underpins this elegantly written account of a young man's action-filled year in the Wrangell-St. Elias wilderness, where mountains rise to pierce the sky. There he faces dangers hidden behind both the smiles of humans and the beauties of the vast country where Canada and Alaska meet. Jack enters the mountains to work at a lakeside wilderness lodge near his birthplace--a homestead from which his family had been evicted when he was a toddler, as the land became a national park. What starts as a simple summer job helping a family friend with his guiding business becomes a complex struggle for survival among the snares set by bears and glaciers, smugglers and park rangers, bitter weather, and one beautiful, troubled young woman. Jack's adventure makes for a unique coming-of-age story; a genuine mountain man cannot fit easily into the twenty-first century, and he becomes truly a man out of time.

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

I'm what is sometimes referred to as a critically acclaimed author, which is to say critics have on occasion said nice things about my books. I write both contemporary fiction and historical fiction, often with a fabulist twist, but for me there's not a lot of daylight between the past and the present. As far back as I can remember I’ve been obsessed with history, but for me it’s just the aggregate of every human life that has come and gone upon the earth. Each one of those lives is a story, and history keeps happening all around us, just as it always has. As William Faulkner famously said, the past is never dead. It's not even past.

My books generally involve Alaska and the circumpolar North, but that isn’t a hard and fast rule. In fact, I don't really write books about Alaska, I write books about people. It just so happens that most of those people either live in Alaska or are somehow connected to the Far North. I’ve used fiction as a tool to explore the “shadow society” of people of color in Alaska’s gold rush past, the world of mixed-race Russian and Native residents of Alaska during its time as a Russian colony, and the dismal history of Native boarding schools. I’ve also examined the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome and how it changes the lives of people afflicted by it.

I live in Fairbanks, Alaska with my wife, daughter, and rescue dog. When I’m not writing, reading, or editing, I’m usually in the woods, foraging for food or just rambling around looking at birds and flowers. I’m also a surfer, though these days I really have to work and plan to get my water time. My website www.krisfarmen.com has more information about my books and my upcoming projects.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Jack, she scolded, you take that old-time stuff way too seriously. Those days are long gone.”




So laments Jack’s mother after he’s ditched school, yet again, to explore the woods outside his family’s home in a small Alaskan town. Jack seems genetically disposed to adventure as his parents had homesteaded in the Wrangell Mountains before his birth. Now they were living in town, working regular jobs, because the Federal government and the Parks Service had moved residents out of the hills to create protected wild lands. Now, with college pending, Jack’s eager to hold off and spend a year back in those same mountains as a guide for a family friend who caters to the scientists and tourists who fly in to study the native plants or hunt.

Thus begins his quest, one that introduces him to an entirely different world that is hidden in the scenic vistas of snow-capped mountains and icy streams. His new boss flies him into the interior of the Yukon to his lodge, and Jack easily adapts to difficult work with the camp horses and maintaining the cabins. He learns to guide, track, and especially to get by on very few material comforts. To say he’s found his niche is an understatement. But it doesn’t last long, and a very different set of circumstances overtake him. Miles away from any communication or assistance, he has to navigate nature’s dangers as well as the surprising criminal element that hides within the park system.

In a place where a horse can fall into a glacier crevasse and a man has to keep track of how few bullets he has left for defense, anything can happen. And the fact that it wasn’t just the animals but savage humans he had to fear makes reading it tense and scary. And yet, Jack is no Boy Scout. The author, Kris Farmen, takes a risk by making his protagonist less than perfect. At times, he’s vicious and retaliatory. The risk pays off in a story that is far more believable than if Jack was a saint.


Clearly, this is a work of literary fiction, yet it has the elements of suspense that you’d find in a crime novel. I hit the second half of the book at about midnight, and there was no option for sleep after that. I could barely breathe as I stayed up and finished the book. The exhaustion the next day was worth it.
For one thing, the survival story of endless cold and dinners of furry animals (if there was to be any dinner at all) locked me into the story. As a reader, I felt incredibly wimpy to imagine that a person could do all this to survive when I can barely go without coffee without terrible consequences.

The character of Jack is complete: we know what he thinks, dreams about, hopes for, and regrets. We sense his loyalty and his morality even while we may be horrified at his actions. The details of the Alaskan regions are specific, as are the ways he kills, skins, and eats all sorts of prey.

My only real distraction in the novel has to do with the opinions of virtually every character against both the Federal government and the Canadian park service-at times I felt like there was too much commentary on the actions of both against private landowners in regard to public policy. Obviously, it’s a sensitive subject when a family home could be taken forcibly, then used for the ranger’s use or to rent for tourists or even left empty to decay. So the repetition of the acrimony towards the government was a little tiresome, yet in the denouement, Farmen ties it together in a way that actually makes sense. Again, he takes the risk of letting the reader decide the issue, after showing both sides, and I think this sort of resolution again makes the story that much more captivating.


Special thanks to Carla Helfferich of McRoy & Blackburn for the Review Copy

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

After several unsuccessful trips to our local bookseller, I finally found Kris Farmen's book in the Alaska section of my neighborhood midtown Anchorage Fred Meyer store! Oh Joy!

Anybody who loves the blunt, grit, and manly sparsity of Cormac McCarthy will appreciate Farmen's take on borderland adventure. Horses and horsemanship are front-and-center; the author obviously knows his tack from shinola. Truthfully, I thought the writing about horses was the writer at his best. I know Kris Farmen as a fellow archaeologist-- I had no idea he was so fluent in equine.

Kris paints the rugged landscape with a keen eye and deft language, but at too great a length. The dialogue is sharp and clear. Jack, the main character, is tough and tender and real. I chuckled out loud at Helen, the uncanny saint at the BC feed store at the end. And the love interest Nadine is a totally believable, tough, capable and sweet. In his dialogue, Kris speaks the language of Alaskans, Yukoners, and people of the northern woods (not necessarily all the same). If the book drags in the first one-third, the action and engagement pick up once Doyle sends Jack out to trade guns and dope with the Canuck Mick and his yahoo posse. Jack and Nadine's retreat to the trapping cabin was a beautiful halcyon, and I totally enjoyed his packhorse escape south into Canada.

Overall, I give Kris Farmen two big thumbs up. Please buy, read, and appreciate this book! And tell your friends. It's on Amazon. Also, check out the reviews on that website-- priceless!

[Tammy Jorgenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this author if you appreciate good Alaskan story-telling. Love when he interjects myth and phantoms- and he does it splendidly! Definite page turner- esp the farther you get in.
You will want more of each story!

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alaska - in every sense of the word.