Light and Silence: Growing Up in My Mother's Alaska

by Janet Brown

Abandoning post-war America’s Leave It to Beaver modernity, a woman from midtown Manhattan raised her family of five on a homestead in Alaska. This had been her dream from the time she was a little girl, but the Alaska she found wasn’t quite what she had envisioned. Her children became Alaskans in a way she had never intended, in a place that was almost its own continent and definitely its own world.

Living a life that was still locked in the 19th century, with an outdoor privy, a wood-burning barrel stove, a Ford tractor as a second car, and a husband who was legally blind, she never gave up on her childhood dream. Laura Ingalls Wilder and The Glass Castle collide as her life unfolds, heavily laced with the humor and heroism that was the hallmark of the Last Frontier before it became the 49th state.

A woman with persistent optimism in a life that was studded with tragedy, this New Yorker with eccentric dreams had the courage to build a life for herself and her family in a place that was still truly wilderness, a domain of wind, grass, and trees. The life she lived was difficult, but it was her own. She chose it, she crafted it, and she savored it. Her story is a tribute to the unique and indomitable spirit of the great ladies whose labor, devotion, and love shaped Alaska.

137 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2014

Reviews

[Kim Fay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janet Brown is one of my favorite writers. Her writing is both raw and tender at the same time. And it is completely natural, without pretense, which is a talent I greatly admire. You either have it or you don't, and Janet does. Her previous books focus mainly on Thailand and travel. They are personal, but not like Light and Silence. Telling the story of growing up in Alaska, Janet reveals a world lost in time, and a mother-daughter relationship that is as rugged and enduring as the Alaskan wilderness. Janet's mother is a voluntarily transplanted New Yorker, and though she is the ultimate pioneer woman, she never ceases to be a New Yorker - a clash that clearly defines her daily life as well as her family's. This is a book to be read at least three times, to fully appreciate its nuances. This is a book that will stand the test of time.