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Correcting the Landscape
The editor of a small weekly newspaper in Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus Traynor is an independent spirit whose idealism has survived numerous tests. When big business interests threaten the breathtaking wilderness he cherishes, he joins forces with his best friend—an often self-serving developer—to take on the forces of progress. Soon, in his determination to preserve the dignity and heritage of his community, Gus is learning more than he has ever imagined about the region's colorful mix of opportunists, dreamers, and artists. But his mission is complicated by the discovery of a young woman's body floating in the river . . . and by the blossoming of an unexpected love.
- GenresFiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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183 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 19, 2007
'Correcting the Landscape' was one of the books I purchased with my new philosophy on buying book... read those which win awards. :)
The cover of this book is a beautiful images of a snow-capped mountain range mirrored in a lake. However on closer inspection of the image, you find that the whole image is actually upside down. This is representative of what I learned from the story: that sometimes the world you look at every day without question is actually upside down from how it should be. :)
I really liked the eye-opening experience the lead character had in the book. He struggled with trying to keep things unchanged and his role in his small community. But when it did change, he realized that his life became more honest than ever before. I hold that idea in mind on those days when work gets me down and I'm too scared to quit or find something new. It makes me consider the exciting possibilities that a change might hold.
The cover of this book is a beautiful images of a snow-capped mountain range mirrored in a lake. However on closer inspection of the image, you find that the whole image is actually upside down. This is representative of what I learned from the story: that sometimes the world you look at every day without question is actually upside down from how it should be. :)
I really liked the eye-opening experience the lead character had in the book. He struggled with trying to keep things unchanged and his role in his small community. But when it did change, he realized that his life became more honest than ever before. I hold that idea in mind on those days when work gets me down and I'm too scared to quit or find something new. It makes me consider the exciting possibilities that a change might hold.
August 28, 2012
originally published at http://nomadreader.blogspot.com
The backstory: Correcting the Landscape won the Bellwether Prize in 2004.
The basics: In Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus runs a newspaper struggling financially, both for the familiar reasons and because of the local advertisers, who increasingly take issue with the paper's political views and are pulling their financial support.
My thoughts: I majored in journalism in college, and I have a fascination with stories about journalists. I'm also fascinated by life in Alaska, so when I discovered this novel on my quest to read all of the Bellwether Prize winners, I was looking forward to it. Correcting the Landscape is a realistic, and depressing, look at the small town newspaper industry, but it's emphasis is really on telling the story of Gus, whose personal turmoil drifts into work, just as his professional turmoil is deeply personal. As a character, I admit I never felt connected to Gus, but Kowalski Cole's writing was so beautiful, I didn't care.
The themes of social justice in this novel are haunting. While it's a story of one man in one Alaska town, there is a universality in its arguments about the importance of news in our society:
Through the writing, grim events, and Alaska setting (the author was Alaskan), there's a chill to this novel, but there's also a lingering hope, for both Gus as an individual and for the newspaper itself.
Favorite passage: "A sense of community made me look up from my pages in anticipation of future struggles."
The verdict: Correcting the Landscape is a fascinating glimpse into Alaska and the newspaper industry. I enjoyed the larger themes more than the internal struggles of Gus, but the strength of this novel is in Kowalski Cole's prose.
The backstory: Correcting the Landscape won the Bellwether Prize in 2004.
The basics: In Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus runs a newspaper struggling financially, both for the familiar reasons and because of the local advertisers, who increasingly take issue with the paper's political views and are pulling their financial support.
My thoughts: I majored in journalism in college, and I have a fascination with stories about journalists. I'm also fascinated by life in Alaska, so when I discovered this novel on my quest to read all of the Bellwether Prize winners, I was looking forward to it. Correcting the Landscape is a realistic, and depressing, look at the small town newspaper industry, but it's emphasis is really on telling the story of Gus, whose personal turmoil drifts into work, just as his professional turmoil is deeply personal. As a character, I admit I never felt connected to Gus, but Kowalski Cole's writing was so beautiful, I didn't care.
The themes of social justice in this novel are haunting. While it's a story of one man in one Alaska town, there is a universality in its arguments about the importance of news in our society:
"These three kids of his, their arrival over the years had kept pace with an increasing conservatism on his and Mary’s part. World too painful to present to his children, so you just pretend it’s different? Pretend these painful, ugly things don’t exist?"
Through the writing, grim events, and Alaska setting (the author was Alaskan), there's a chill to this novel, but there's also a lingering hope, for both Gus as an individual and for the newspaper itself.
Favorite passage: "A sense of community made me look up from my pages in anticipation of future struggles."
The verdict: Correcting the Landscape is a fascinating glimpse into Alaska and the newspaper industry. I enjoyed the larger themes more than the internal struggles of Gus, but the strength of this novel is in Kowalski Cole's prose.
October 13, 2016
I thought this book was better than many of the one- and two-star reviews note. It is about a man's struggle to find himself, really, and to find his own heart. All of the other things that were used to market this book--the touches of native culture and lifeways, the environmental issues, and even the death of the woman--all feed back into this primary concern.
I feel this utilization of these various threads to enhance and expand the character and to both position him for a change and to push him to accept the change are the mark of a good writer. The prose in this book is slightly more than serviceable...it doesn't exactly sing but it does have its own voice, and that voice is enjoyable enough. I read this quickly and enjoyed it.
If you enjoy stories with native culture, check out Reparation: A Novel of Love, Devotion and Danger.
If you enjoy stories where characters have to dig deep to find themselves, check out The Family Made of Dust: A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback.
To learn more about the shocking lack of diversity in literature and what you can do about it, check out Writing While Female or Black or Gay: Diverse Voices in Publishing.
I feel this utilization of these various threads to enhance and expand the character and to both position him for a change and to push him to accept the change are the mark of a good writer. The prose in this book is slightly more than serviceable...it doesn't exactly sing but it does have its own voice, and that voice is enjoyable enough. I read this quickly and enjoyed it.
If you enjoy stories with native culture, check out Reparation: A Novel of Love, Devotion and Danger.
If you enjoy stories where characters have to dig deep to find themselves, check out The Family Made of Dust: A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback.
To learn more about the shocking lack of diversity in literature and what you can do about it, check out Writing While Female or Black or Gay: Diverse Voices in Publishing.
June 28, 2020
This book was more about the death of a small community paper than about the investigation of a girl's death. The storyline meandered and for the first half of the book seemed to be going nowhere. The dialog was difficult at times since the characters didn't really have their own voices and was not made any less confusing by one of the characters having the nickname of "No", which seemed to often occur at the beginning of sentences. The main character even notes that No herself mistakenly thought he was calling her rather than saying no. Some of the character development takes place after the characters are practically out of the story (Judy). I found that most annoying of all, when an undeveloped character would be referred to, for example, as "a woman like that". Like what? There's not been enough interaction, dialog, background, etc. to know what that character is supposed to be like. The last two chapters of the book were slightly redeeming, but it was an awful lot of rambling to get through first. I did like the poem "Correcting the Landscape" attributed to the character of Felix Heaven. Maybe the author should have stuck to poetry.
September 8, 2010
Came across this book while weeding the fiction collection in the library where I work. Cover blurbs made me want to give it a shot. The strength of the narrator's voice and a sense of the fabric of the community in Fairbanks, Alaska were very enjoyable. I also liked the exploration of success/failure, intimacy, family ties, and sense of place.
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June 21, 2011A fun read mystery of an idealistic small newspaper editor as he navigates life through his friend an at times self serving developer and an unlikely indigenous woman facing life after 4 failed marriages.
Set in Fairbanks which certainly gave a flavor for the town as it is lived todayl
Set in Fairbanks which certainly gave a flavor for the town as it is lived todayl
September 5, 2012
Simple yet effective execution of what could have been an droll and wanky plot. That's all. (Writing this while hearing Michelle Obama's emotional and inspiring speech}... Go Obama!
P.S. I'm looking for more Kowalski Cole.
December 17, 2018
This book was definitely not a gripper. I kind of put it down a few times, unsure if I would finish. But in the end I decided it was worth it. I really liked the narrator's voice, and I enjoyed the setting in Alaska. I especially liked his philosophical musings on journalism. See my favorite quote below.
"There's an entertainment value in newspaper work, but lately the entertainment had started to wear thin, wasn't enough. Journalism: the news of the day: it's a form of writing that by it's very nature spins deceit, because you have to start somewhere, and you have to have coherence in your story, and real life is not like that. Rarely does a beginning present itself when you're covering the news, in all honesty. It all goes back farther in recent history than we can afford to pursue. A reporter steps into the mess and says Okay, I'll start here, I'll elevate this detail to the starting post. It begins with this. And once he's done that, the need for a coherent narrative threatens to dictate the next detail, and the next. There's so much left out. Readers need to read for what's left out" (85).
"There's an entertainment value in newspaper work, but lately the entertainment had started to wear thin, wasn't enough. Journalism: the news of the day: it's a form of writing that by it's very nature spins deceit, because you have to start somewhere, and you have to have coherence in your story, and real life is not like that. Rarely does a beginning present itself when you're covering the news, in all honesty. It all goes back farther in recent history than we can afford to pursue. A reporter steps into the mess and says Okay, I'll start here, I'll elevate this detail to the starting post. It begins with this. And once he's done that, the need for a coherent narrative threatens to dictate the next detail, and the next. There's so much left out. Readers need to read for what's left out" (85).
October 21, 2019
Winner of the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction in 2004, this book was good to read while in Alaska, as the story includes many issues pertinent to the state and its people: wilderness (its beauty, its harsh realities, and the threats it endures); the hardships of small-town life; the difficulties of running a small newspaper (financial and editorial); the roughness of life and survival for many Native Alaskans and others caught in a place with few choices and a hard climate; the seeming catch-22 of justice for some and none for others; the boons and tribulations of being beholden to a tourist industry. Strong, interesting characters, many of whom work hard to bridge differences of class, race, and politics.
March 19, 2022
I read this book because it fit into one of the categories of a reading challenge I'm enrolled in. I'm so glad it was short. This book was ok never really could get into any of the characters. The ending was interesting but were we supposed to cheer as two of the characters get drunked up one night and use a bulldozer to destroy a statue that they felt was demeaning to the people. How does this make them any better than the people who cleared a stand of timber along the river to make room for tourist cabins? This book just plodded along. Then the author just wrapped it all up in as neat a little package as she could.
May 14, 2019
Life in Alaska. It’s a hardscrabble life, but it is a community. Feels true to the folks who actually live in this small town. Gus, the editor and publisher of the town’s weekly newspaper, struggles to make it all work. When his conservative advertisers sense his editorial tone is on the left, they pull out leaving him with a paper that can’t make ends meet. The characters, embedded in the challenging landscape of Alaska, take what they have and do their best. Like joining them in their lives for a while.
November 6, 2021
Can't remember reading this over 2 years ago.
The editor of a small weekly newspaper in Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus Traynor is an independent spirit whose idealism has survived numerous tests. When big business interests threaten the breathtaking wilderness he cherishes, he joins forces with his best friend—an often self-serving developer—to take on the forces of progress. Soon, in his determination to preserve the dignity ...
The editor of a small weekly newspaper in Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus Traynor is an independent spirit whose idealism has survived numerous tests. When big business interests threaten the breathtaking wilderness he cherishes, he joins forces with his best friend—an often self-serving developer—to take on the forces of progress. Soon, in his determination to preserve the dignity ...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2023
Really liked this book a lot. Very well written, the sad part, there is only one more as the author died way too young. The writing is just like you are there, a part of the story.
November 10, 2019
I just finished reading the late Alaska author Marjorie Kowalski Cole's award-winning novel Correcting the Landscape for the second time. And I'm still impressed by the quietness of this book, and how it lulls you in, how it wraps around you in the simplest and yet most secure of ways.
The book, which won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction (judged by Barbara Kingsolver), takes place in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the winter landscape comes through so clearly that I often had to stop reading to make myself a cup of tea (winters in Fairbanks typically see temps in the -30 range).
The plot revolves around Gus Traynor, publisher of a small-town dying newspaper, and his relationship with the town's residents, as well as the town's landscape.
Following a series of complex subjects, the story wraps itself around deceptively simple situations. Trees are cut down to make way for ugly tourist cabins; advertisers pull out after Traynor publishes op-ed pieces in support of a controversial library book; his hard-drinking best friend falls in love with a New-Age sculptor; there's a gay poet with a yearning soul; a sister unlucky in both love and happiness; a troubled village girl found dead in the river; and Traynor finds himself falling in love with a Native woman who's been married five times and is determinedly putting herself through college.
And, oh yes, there's a ugly and offensive statue that shadows the story, acting as a metaphor for the town's voice (a voice determined to subdue ugly pieces of its past). When this statue has a bit of a disagreement with a CAT machine, I almost cheered.
Yet what I loved most about Correcting the Landscape is the writing. "Sometimes winter closes down on Fairbanks like a cell door," Kowalski-Cole writes.
Sadly, Kowalski-Cole died of cancer in 2009. She was only in her fifties.
It's odd, isn't it, reading a book by someone who is no longer alive and yet still feeling that connection, that intimacy, that bond of familiarity that flows so strongly between reader and writer.
I wish I could have met Marjorie. I would have loved to have had tea with her, and talk about writing and words, simple and quiet things.
The book, which won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction (judged by Barbara Kingsolver), takes place in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the winter landscape comes through so clearly that I often had to stop reading to make myself a cup of tea (winters in Fairbanks typically see temps in the -30 range).
The plot revolves around Gus Traynor, publisher of a small-town dying newspaper, and his relationship with the town's residents, as well as the town's landscape.
Following a series of complex subjects, the story wraps itself around deceptively simple situations. Trees are cut down to make way for ugly tourist cabins; advertisers pull out after Traynor publishes op-ed pieces in support of a controversial library book; his hard-drinking best friend falls in love with a New-Age sculptor; there's a gay poet with a yearning soul; a sister unlucky in both love and happiness; a troubled village girl found dead in the river; and Traynor finds himself falling in love with a Native woman who's been married five times and is determinedly putting herself through college.
And, oh yes, there's a ugly and offensive statue that shadows the story, acting as a metaphor for the town's voice (a voice determined to subdue ugly pieces of its past). When this statue has a bit of a disagreement with a CAT machine, I almost cheered.
Yet what I loved most about Correcting the Landscape is the writing. "Sometimes winter closes down on Fairbanks like a cell door," Kowalski-Cole writes.
Sadly, Kowalski-Cole died of cancer in 2009. She was only in her fifties.
It's odd, isn't it, reading a book by someone who is no longer alive and yet still feeling that connection, that intimacy, that bond of familiarity that flows so strongly between reader and writer.
I wish I could have met Marjorie. I would have loved to have had tea with her, and talk about writing and words, simple and quiet things.
March 18, 2011
I picked up this book thinking that it was an Erin Brokovich-type struggle about a lone journalist taking on big business in trying to defend the land. Instead, the book turned out to have a stretched out plot involving an independent newspaper editor/publisher who struggles to keep his paper afloat. That's part of the book and the other part focuses on relationships - to friends, co-workers, and a lover. All in all this turned out to be a mediocre read. The use of language isn't spectacular and most of the characters are static. The strength lies in the realistic portrayal of life in Alaska and in the shallow exploration of Native American Alaskan culture.
August 14, 2010
Another Bellwether award winner. This one was very different from the others in that the main character is a man. It takes place in Alaska which is a new literary setting for me. It is the story of a an independent newspaper editor who is trying to keep his weekly newspaper afloat while opposing big business interests and trying to preserve the Alaskan wilderness and the quality of life for the Native population.
August 14, 2007
not my regular type of book, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. Present day Alaska, people and places were very interesting, well written. I was given the autographed copy by Doug, so I gave it a try, and didn't regret it.
July 23, 2013
This book was a winner of the Bellwether Prize for fiction for 2004. At 228 pages, I considered it a novella that didn't go into a lot of depth for many of the characters or the community. I liked the protagonist's sense of humor.
July 11, 2007
surprising, but clumsy book about damage, pain, and survival. i also have a soft spot for novels about contemporary country life in strip mall america.
February 2, 2008
I always seem to enjoy a book even more so when it is set in a location I am familiar with.
August 29, 2010
I was a bit disappointed in this story> I can't put my finger on the reason.
March 16, 2012
This was ok. Interesting ending but it plodded along.
January 29, 2013
I liked the straight style and the subtleties of the romances, but I'm not sure if I got the point as she meant it.
April 27, 2010
Bellwether Prize for Fiction
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews