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The Sea Runners
Based on an actual incident in 1853, award-winning author Ivan Doig's The Sea Runners is a spare and awe-inspiring tale of the human quest for freedom.
"Goes beyond being 'about' survival and becomes, mile by terrible mile, the experience itself."— New York Times Book Review
In this timeless survival story, four indentured servants escape their Russian Alaska work camp in a stolen canoe, only to face a harrowing journey down the Pacific Northwest coast. Battling unrelenting high seas and fierce weather from New Archangel, Alaska, to Astoria, Oregon, the men struggle to avoid hostile Tlingit Indians, to fend off starvation and exhaustion, and to endure their own doubt and distrust.
"The sea, wind, space, are palpable in this exquisitely worked book. And not the least of its charms is the liveliness with which it explores a forgotten corner of North American history."—Thomas Keneally, Booker Prize–winning author of Schindler's List
"Goes beyond being 'about' survival and becomes, mile by terrible mile, the experience itself."— New York Times Book Review
In this timeless survival story, four indentured servants escape their Russian Alaska work camp in a stolen canoe, only to face a harrowing journey down the Pacific Northwest coast. Battling unrelenting high seas and fierce weather from New Archangel, Alaska, to Astoria, Oregon, the men struggle to avoid hostile Tlingit Indians, to fend off starvation and exhaustion, and to endure their own doubt and distrust.
"The sea, wind, space, are palpable in this exquisitely worked book. And not the least of its charms is the liveliness with which it explores a forgotten corner of North American history."—Thomas Keneally, Booker Prize–winning author of Schindler's List
277 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1981
332 people are currently reading
2334 people want to read
About the author
Ivan Doig
39 books790 followersIvan Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana to a family of homesteaders and ranch hands. After the death of his mother Berneta, on his sixth birthday, he was raised by his father Charles "Charlie" Doig and his grandmother Elizabeth "Bessie" Ringer. After several stints on ranches, they moved to Dupuyer, Pondera County, Montana in the north to herd sheep close to the Rocky Mountain Front.
After his graduation from Valier high school, Doig attended Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in journalism. He later earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Washington, writing his dissertation about John J. McGilvra (1827-1903). He lived with his wife Carol Doig, née Muller, a university professor of English, in Seattle, Washington.
Before Ivan Doig became a novelist, he wrote for newspapers and magazines as a free-lancer and worked for the United States Forest Service.
Much of his fiction is set in the Montana country of his youth. His major theme is family life in the past, mixing personal memory and regional history. As the western landscape and people play an important role in his fiction, he has been hailed as the new dean of western literature, a worthy successor to Wallace Stegner.
Bibliography
His works includes both fictional and non-fictional writings. They can be divided into four groups:
Early Works
News: A Consumer's Guide (1972) - a media textbook coauthored by Carol Doig
Streets We Have Come Down: Literature of the City (1975) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Utopian America: Dreams and Realities (1976) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Autobiographical Books
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind (1979) - memoirs based on the author's life with his father and grandmother (nominated for National Book Award)
Heart Earth (1993) - memoirs based on his mother's letters to her brother Wally
Regional Works
Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America (1980) - an essayistic dialog with James G. Swan
The Sea Runners (1982) - an adventure novel about four Swedes escaping from New Archangel, today's Sitka, Alaska
Historical Novels
English Creek (1984)
Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987)
Ride with Me, Mariah Montana (1990)
Bucking the Sun: A Novel (1996)
Mountain Time: A Novel (1999)
Prairie Nocturne: A Novel (2003)
The Whistling Season: A Novel (2006)
The Eleventh Man: A Novel (2008)
The first three Montana novels form the so-called McCaskill trilogy, covering the first centennial of Montana's statehood from 1889 to 1989.
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Doig"
After his graduation from Valier high school, Doig attended Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in journalism. He later earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Washington, writing his dissertation about John J. McGilvra (1827-1903). He lived with his wife Carol Doig, née Muller, a university professor of English, in Seattle, Washington.
Before Ivan Doig became a novelist, he wrote for newspapers and magazines as a free-lancer and worked for the United States Forest Service.
Much of his fiction is set in the Montana country of his youth. His major theme is family life in the past, mixing personal memory and regional history. As the western landscape and people play an important role in his fiction, he has been hailed as the new dean of western literature, a worthy successor to Wallace Stegner.
Bibliography
His works includes both fictional and non-fictional writings. They can be divided into four groups:
Early Works
News: A Consumer's Guide (1972) - a media textbook coauthored by Carol Doig
Streets We Have Come Down: Literature of the City (1975) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Utopian America: Dreams and Realities (1976) - an anthology edited by Ivan Doig
Autobiographical Books
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind (1979) - memoirs based on the author's life with his father and grandmother (nominated for National Book Award)
Heart Earth (1993) - memoirs based on his mother's letters to her brother Wally
Regional Works
Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America (1980) - an essayistic dialog with James G. Swan
The Sea Runners (1982) - an adventure novel about four Swedes escaping from New Archangel, today's Sitka, Alaska
Historical Novels
English Creek (1984)
Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987)
Ride with Me, Mariah Montana (1990)
Bucking the Sun: A Novel (1996)
Mountain Time: A Novel (1999)
Prairie Nocturne: A Novel (2003)
The Whistling Season: A Novel (2006)
The Eleventh Man: A Novel (2008)
The first three Montana novels form the so-called McCaskill trilogy, covering the first centennial of Montana's statehood from 1889 to 1989.
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Doig"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 318 reviews
May 11, 2019
I decided to read this book based on Marita’s review of it. She made it seem like an adventure I would enjoy - and I did enjoy it. Having said that, I should add that if you want a review of the story, Marita’s review is the place to start. I shall be giving only a few personal thoughts.
Four men setting out from an island in the Alaskan Panhandle in winter is obviously an adventure story. In this case, what kind of adventure is, to some degree, left to the mind of the reader. It is a great credit to the author, Ivan Doig, that he is able to describe both the menace and the beauty in the setting and the resilience and the weakness in the characters in such a way as to take the reader into different places of the mind at different times. The threat is always around the next island - but then, so is the possibility that nature will bring on something like a religious experience.
If I had read this story sometime before the aging process had taken over my joints, I would have started planning my trip long since - the story set my imagination going. Canoe trips were long a part of my life. It just never occurred to me that such an ocean voyage would be possible. (Lately, I have encountered tales of people making a similar trip to this one, in summer, by closed kayaks.) It could have been so much fun. I suppose that we can only live one life however.
Doig’s descriptions of the geography are extremely well done. Ranging from the raging ocean and the towering cliffs along the northwest coast of North America to the claustrophobic enclosure of the fogs (Indeed, it was that very claustrophobic feeling that drove me out of those West Coast mountains many decades ago) to the expansive beaches, Doig constantly reminds the reader that the geography is a character that is not to be taken for granted, for good or for evil.
As for the human characters, the greatest message of this book has to be, “Don’t go on long trips with people you are not sure of.” You never know who might turn out to be bipolar. (Could be me.) This is what keeps me from going on bus tours.
If you want to read a well developed, intelligent historical adventure story, ‘The Sea Runners’ should be at the top of your list. Thanks Marita.
Four men setting out from an island in the Alaskan Panhandle in winter is obviously an adventure story. In this case, what kind of adventure is, to some degree, left to the mind of the reader. It is a great credit to the author, Ivan Doig, that he is able to describe both the menace and the beauty in the setting and the resilience and the weakness in the characters in such a way as to take the reader into different places of the mind at different times. The threat is always around the next island - but then, so is the possibility that nature will bring on something like a religious experience.
If I had read this story sometime before the aging process had taken over my joints, I would have started planning my trip long since - the story set my imagination going. Canoe trips were long a part of my life. It just never occurred to me that such an ocean voyage would be possible. (Lately, I have encountered tales of people making a similar trip to this one, in summer, by closed kayaks.) It could have been so much fun. I suppose that we can only live one life however.
Doig’s descriptions of the geography are extremely well done. Ranging from the raging ocean and the towering cliffs along the northwest coast of North America to the claustrophobic enclosure of the fogs (Indeed, it was that very claustrophobic feeling that drove me out of those West Coast mountains many decades ago) to the expansive beaches, Doig constantly reminds the reader that the geography is a character that is not to be taken for granted, for good or for evil.
As for the human characters, the greatest message of this book has to be, “Don’t go on long trips with people you are not sure of.” You never know who might turn out to be bipolar. (Could be me.) This is what keeps me from going on bus tours.
If you want to read a well developed, intelligent historical adventure story, ‘The Sea Runners’ should be at the top of your list. Thanks Marita.
August 14, 2020
Over the years I've throughly enjoyed Ivan Doig's books set in Montana, finding them engrossing and comfortable. A departure for me, this book exhibits the exceptional versatility of the masterful writer Ivan Doig truly is. This story comes alive through fully fleshed out characters, human and natural interactions, and especially the uncompromising narrative and dialogue composition, all pulling the reader into the times, place, and characters of the story.
The book blurb hardly does justice to the story. The storyline one might say is as straightforward as a travelogue, but surprising in its brilliant plotting. A brief foreboding in the opening chapter propels the reader through the story setup and deep into the tempest of the journey, seeking a revealing and possible consequences. It's essentially a story about the courage and frailty of life.
As a reader, this is a story that will truly transport you. If you are a writer and haven't read this story to improve your craft, tsk, tsk.
The book blurb hardly does justice to the story. The storyline one might say is as straightforward as a travelogue, but surprising in its brilliant plotting. A brief foreboding in the opening chapter propels the reader through the story setup and deep into the tempest of the journey, seeking a revealing and possible consequences. It's essentially a story about the courage and frailty of life.
As a reader, this is a story that will truly transport you. If you are a writer and haven't read this story to improve your craft, tsk, tsk.
July 6, 2019
This is one of those cases where the author has taken a minor historical event and used it as inspiration for a novel. The plot here centres around four Swedish men in the 1850s, who are signed on as indentured servants with the Russian American Company in New Archangel (present day Sitka). One is a former sailor who knows something of world geography. Dissatisfied with life in New Archangel, he persuades 3 others to join him in a desperate escape attempt. The four steal supplies and a Tlingit canoe, and attempt to journey more than a thousand miles south to Astoria, Oregon.
It took me a while to get into this, but it slowly worked its way into my psyche. The opening 60 pages or so, set on Baranof Island, were a bit of a struggle to get through. The pace picks up once the escape attempt happens. Even then, apart from one or two tense sections, I wouldn’t call it a page turner. It’s more about how the four men, each of them very different characters, deal with the enormity of the challenge they have taken on, and the toll it takes on their physical and mental resources. It’s also about the natural world that the men face, which kind of takes the part of a fifth main character, a very moody one.
This is the first novel I’ve read by this author and I would say he is very descriptive in his writing. At times I had the impression he was self-consciously so.
I must admit that towards the end I was willing the guys to make it to Astoria, and a novel is a success if it gets the reader to identify that strongly with its characters. A slow burner but in the end a four-star rating for me.
It took me a while to get into this, but it slowly worked its way into my psyche. The opening 60 pages or so, set on Baranof Island, were a bit of a struggle to get through. The pace picks up once the escape attempt happens. Even then, apart from one or two tense sections, I wouldn’t call it a page turner. It’s more about how the four men, each of them very different characters, deal with the enormity of the challenge they have taken on, and the toll it takes on their physical and mental resources. It’s also about the natural world that the men face, which kind of takes the part of a fifth main character, a very moody one.
This is the first novel I’ve read by this author and I would say he is very descriptive in his writing. At times I had the impression he was self-consciously so.
I must admit that towards the end I was willing the guys to make it to Astoria, and a novel is a success if it gets the reader to identify that strongly with its characters. A slow burner but in the end a four-star rating for me.
June 20, 2025
*4.5* A story of four indentured Swedish men escaping Russian Alaska in a stolen canoe, and braving the punishing Pacific Northwest coast in 1853. They attempt a desperate journey south from New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska) to Astoria, Oregon. In the middle of WINTER.
It takes a bit to get used to the writing. More than once I’d read a sentence and still have no idea what Doig was trying to say. A few chapters in, I was hooked.
-Based on a true story
-Man vs environment
-Dark, dreary
-Escape/captivity
-Reluctant allies
-Morally gray characters
-Historical realism
-Mental and physical endurance
-A slightly depressing ending
Melander, the washed-up seaman and natural leader, is the one with the vision and the skill to guide them.
Karlsson, quiet and steady. “Karlsson quirked his mouth enough to show skepticism, for him a typhoon of emotion.”
Braaf, the thief who outfits their escape, felt the least developed.
Wennberg, a blacksmith, always this close to snapping, adds tension and brute strength to the crew.
The natural world is almost a fifth character, moody, massive, and always threatening. It’s not just about escape, it’s about what survival demands of your body, your mind, and your sense of hope.
Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys historical fiction that delves into characters, hardship, and the undeniable power of mother nature.
TWs:
Not everyone makes it to the end of the story.
Ends abruptly, it really needed an epilogue.
Old school language.
It takes a bit to get used to the writing. More than once I’d read a sentence and still have no idea what Doig was trying to say. A few chapters in, I was hooked.
-Based on a true story
-Man vs environment
-Dark, dreary
-Escape/captivity
-Reluctant allies
-Morally gray characters
-Historical realism
-Mental and physical endurance
-A slightly depressing ending
Melander, the washed-up seaman and natural leader, is the one with the vision and the skill to guide them.
Karlsson, quiet and steady. “Karlsson quirked his mouth enough to show skepticism, for him a typhoon of emotion.”
Braaf, the thief who outfits their escape, felt the least developed.
Wennberg, a blacksmith, always this close to snapping, adds tension and brute strength to the crew.
The natural world is almost a fifth character, moody, massive, and always threatening. It’s not just about escape, it’s about what survival demands of your body, your mind, and your sense of hope.
Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys historical fiction that delves into characters, hardship, and the undeniable power of mother nature.
TWs:
Not everyone makes it to the end of the story.
Ends abruptly, it really needed an epilogue.
Old school language.
December 9, 2020
Alaska. 1850s. Swedish men were being hired as indentured servants to help in fur factory, which animals the Russians had almost wiped out. I could not help but stop to think about this and to feel sorrow and anger over how man destroys the earth and its animal and plant life.
Still, I enjoyed reading about the four men who wanted to escape their life as indentured servants, hard work, low pay. It wasn’t what they had expected. For months they planned their escape, stealing maps of the east coast, stealing supplies, and hiding them, and checking out how they would escape the fort. A lot of thought went into every move they made. Then one night they left in one of the canoes and headed south along the coast, running into one problem after another, making for a great adventure.
This was historical fiction at its best. Ivan Doig was a great writer and has been compared to Wallace Stegner, whose books I have tried to read but could not because it felt like he took too long to get into the stories. I will try again someday, but at this point in time, the only comparison I see is that they both lived in Montana and wrote about it.
Still, I enjoyed reading about the four men who wanted to escape their life as indentured servants, hard work, low pay. It wasn’t what they had expected. For months they planned their escape, stealing maps of the east coast, stealing supplies, and hiding them, and checking out how they would escape the fort. A lot of thought went into every move they made. Then one night they left in one of the canoes and headed south along the coast, running into one problem after another, making for a great adventure.
This was historical fiction at its best. Ivan Doig was a great writer and has been compared to Wallace Stegner, whose books I have tried to read but could not because it felt like he took too long to get into the stories. I will try again someday, but at this point in time, the only comparison I see is that they both lived in Montana and wrote about it.
April 14, 2021
I haven't read an adventure/survival story in quite some time. Maybe being at home so much lately made me need to read a novel about 4 indentured Swedish workers escaping from a Russian work camp in a canoe, to travel 1200 miles down the Pacific Northwest coast in the dead of winter, but the truth is that adventure is something I prefer to read about rather than experience. Especially when that adventure involves extreme weather, backbreaking labor, near starvation, and physical danger.
But wow, to a reader, did this book ever deliver! Ivan Doig based this tale on a snippet of a news story about 3 rescued men found 4 miles from their intended destination, Astoria, in Oregon territory in 1853. He invented their names and histories, and imagined the journey down this wild coast from his own knowledge and research. Of course, it's Ivan Doig, so it's beautifully written as well. I haven't read but one or two of his novels, but they had a western setting, so this was a departure from his usual.
If you're looking for a novel to get you out of your rut, while comfortably staying safely in the confines of your own home and daily routine, this is a winner.
But wow, to a reader, did this book ever deliver! Ivan Doig based this tale on a snippet of a news story about 3 rescued men found 4 miles from their intended destination, Astoria, in Oregon territory in 1853. He invented their names and histories, and imagined the journey down this wild coast from his own knowledge and research. Of course, it's Ivan Doig, so it's beautifully written as well. I haven't read but one or two of his novels, but they had a western setting, so this was a departure from his usual.
If you're looking for a novel to get you out of your rut, while comfortably staying safely in the confines of your own home and daily routine, this is a winner.
Want to read
October 16, 2018Well, dagnabbit. I was so much looking forward to reading this!! Unfortunately, the eBook that I was reading is riddled with errors and it is just too difficult translating them all. I feel sorry for people whose first language isn't English because even though mine is, this was just too difficult. The word "and" becomes "arid" many times, plus there are strange typing characters popping up in places where I can't even tell if it is supposed to be a word or not.
However, I am not completely discouraged. I will do my best to find another copy of this novel as soon as I can. This version will just need to be zapped back into cyberspace somewhere. 😢
However, I am not completely discouraged. I will do my best to find another copy of this novel as soon as I can. This version will just need to be zapped back into cyberspace somewhere. 😢
July 11, 2019
Fact
“According to a contemporary letter-to-the-editor in the Oregon Weekly Times, during the winter of 1852-53 oystermen at Shoalwater Bay (modernly renamed Willapa Bay) north of the mouth of the Columbia River came upon three men, “the perfect pictures of misery and despair,” who had achieved a canoe voyage down the Northwest coast from indentureship at New Archangel.”
Fiction
Taking the above as his source, Ivan Doig imagines what happens to four Swedish men indentured by the Russians (so-called seven-year men) in New Archangel (now Sitka on Baranov Island, Alaska) who escape and head south, their ultimate destination being Astoria on the Columbia River. Four very different men in a canoe (all dependent on one another), hundreds of miles of rough coastline and bad weather - what can go wrong? They have both luck and misfortune in abundance.
The Writing
What made this a five-star read for me is the writing, rather than the plot or characters. Both plot and characters are fine, but it is the writing, the descriptions, the imagery that swept me away. Roughly halfway through the book (and the journey) tragedy strikes, and from this point the writing jumps up a notch or two and continues improving. With the careful use of a single word Mr Doig can evoke marvellous images, as he does immediately after that tragedy where they try to “unbelieve” what had happened and one of the men “… who stepped first out of the silence”. There are examples on almost every page. It’s worthwhile reading the novel with care rather than skim-reading.
Mr Doig also inserts brief bits and bobs of history from time to time.
###
Here are a few non-spoiler extracts:
“Crone mountains, these now. Old bleak places gray-scarved above the green shore.” (p171)
Thus the author compares the canoeists and their struggle against the elements at one particular point:
“Perhaps bring to thought that trick done with apple and knife - the fruit to be peeled in one stopless cutting, down and down the pare of skin coiling from the blade’s glide, the red-white-red-white spiral stair ever more likely to snap away : but yet is it, for each shaving of coil twirls a bond with all the others, the helix holding itself together, spin on spin, by creational grace.” (p181)
In a beautiful description of the coming spring (too long to quote in full) “Out of their winter rust, ferns unroll green.” And further on in that passage: “Geese and ducks and whistling swans write first strokes of their calligraphy of their flight northward.” (p202) There are also magnificent descriptions of birds, etc. elsewhere in the novel.
“No knowing what’s prowling in his head, but at least it’s not jumping out his mouth…” (p212)
###
The author
Ivan Doig holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He has written several novels, and is a recipient of the Wallace Stegner Award.
“According to a contemporary letter-to-the-editor in the Oregon Weekly Times, during the winter of 1852-53 oystermen at Shoalwater Bay (modernly renamed Willapa Bay) north of the mouth of the Columbia River came upon three men, “the perfect pictures of misery and despair,” who had achieved a canoe voyage down the Northwest coast from indentureship at New Archangel.”
Fiction
Taking the above as his source, Ivan Doig imagines what happens to four Swedish men indentured by the Russians (so-called seven-year men) in New Archangel (now Sitka on Baranov Island, Alaska) who escape and head south, their ultimate destination being Astoria on the Columbia River. Four very different men in a canoe (all dependent on one another), hundreds of miles of rough coastline and bad weather - what can go wrong? They have both luck and misfortune in abundance.
The Writing
What made this a five-star read for me is the writing, rather than the plot or characters. Both plot and characters are fine, but it is the writing, the descriptions, the imagery that swept me away. Roughly halfway through the book (and the journey) tragedy strikes, and from this point the writing jumps up a notch or two and continues improving. With the careful use of a single word Mr Doig can evoke marvellous images, as he does immediately after that tragedy where they try to “unbelieve” what had happened and one of the men “… who stepped first out of the silence”. There are examples on almost every page. It’s worthwhile reading the novel with care rather than skim-reading.
Mr Doig also inserts brief bits and bobs of history from time to time.
###
Here are a few non-spoiler extracts:
“Crone mountains, these now. Old bleak places gray-scarved above the green shore.” (p171)
Thus the author compares the canoeists and their struggle against the elements at one particular point:
“Perhaps bring to thought that trick done with apple and knife - the fruit to be peeled in one stopless cutting, down and down the pare of skin coiling from the blade’s glide, the red-white-red-white spiral stair ever more likely to snap away : but yet is it, for each shaving of coil twirls a bond with all the others, the helix holding itself together, spin on spin, by creational grace.” (p181)
In a beautiful description of the coming spring (too long to quote in full) “Out of their winter rust, ferns unroll green.” And further on in that passage: “Geese and ducks and whistling swans write first strokes of their calligraphy of their flight northward.” (p202) There are also magnificent descriptions of birds, etc. elsewhere in the novel.
“No knowing what’s prowling in his head, but at least it’s not jumping out his mouth…” (p212)
###
The author
Ivan Doig holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He has written several novels, and is a recipient of the Wallace Stegner Award.
August 5, 2020
The only Doig I've re-read. Set in a time and place that quite appeal. A favorite to recommend.
(Whistling Season has re-read potential, too.)
The Whistling Season
***
Here's perspective providing review copied from Kirkus. Also a potential spoiler :
"KIRKUS REVIEW
"A tense, shrewdly modulated sea adventure in which a quartet of indentured Scandinavians attempt escape from Russian America (1853 Alaska) in a stolen canoe, a Pacific journey far more rugged ""than the plain arithmetic of its miles."" Of the four, only one is seaworthy at the start, but each pulls his own as they paddle through snowstorms and dangerous straits, consume their rations and personal reserves. Melander is the beached seaman who conceives the plan and navigates; Karlsson's the quiet, constant mate; Braaf is the camp thief who outfits the voyage (he remains the least developed of the lot). And Wennberg, his trigger ""always this close to click,"" is the bitter, volcanic fourth who muscled in; kept in check by Melander, he adds a blacksmith's strength to the paddling. But Melander is killed in the sole encounter with coastal tribesmen, and Karlsson, Wennberg's chief antagonist, must take over for the fugitive alliance to hold: he alone can read the map. Doig deftly pilots this mismatched crew through a punishing journey to Astoria (Oregon), maintaining a high level of tension, including casual portions of history and geography (as handily as in Winter Brothers), testing the rocky emotional waters of desperate men. The two squabblers nearly attempt a communion, but the moment ""quickened past them"": the shaky truce resumes. And readers who hailed This House of Sky and Winter Brothers will find this another safe harbor, for Doig continues as a prose writer of exulting originality. (Verbs become nouns, nouns become verbs, and observations resonate: the reserved Karlsson is ""A man built smoke-tight."") Distant cousin to Deliverance--the writing is more lyrical, the crew less fiercely manipulated: a polished chronicle of physical and spiritual endurance."
(Whistling Season has re-read potential, too.)
The Whistling Season
***
Here's perspective providing review copied from Kirkus. Also a potential spoiler :
"KIRKUS REVIEW
"A tense, shrewdly modulated sea adventure in which a quartet of indentured Scandinavians attempt escape from Russian America (1853 Alaska) in a stolen canoe, a Pacific journey far more rugged ""than the plain arithmetic of its miles."" Of the four, only one is seaworthy at the start, but each pulls his own as they paddle through snowstorms and dangerous straits, consume their rations and personal reserves. Melander is the beached seaman who conceives the plan and navigates; Karlsson's the quiet, constant mate; Braaf is the camp thief who outfits the voyage (he remains the least developed of the lot). And Wennberg, his trigger ""always this close to click,"" is the bitter, volcanic fourth who muscled in; kept in check by Melander, he adds a blacksmith's strength to the paddling. But Melander is killed in the sole encounter with coastal tribesmen, and Karlsson, Wennberg's chief antagonist, must take over for the fugitive alliance to hold: he alone can read the map. Doig deftly pilots this mismatched crew through a punishing journey to Astoria (Oregon), maintaining a high level of tension, including casual portions of history and geography (as handily as in Winter Brothers), testing the rocky emotional waters of desperate men. The two squabblers nearly attempt a communion, but the moment ""quickened past them"": the shaky truce resumes. And readers who hailed This House of Sky and Winter Brothers will find this another safe harbor, for Doig continues as a prose writer of exulting originality. (Verbs become nouns, nouns become verbs, and observations resonate: the reserved Karlsson is ""A man built smoke-tight."") Distant cousin to Deliverance--the writing is more lyrical, the crew less fiercely manipulated: a polished chronicle of physical and spiritual endurance."
March 7, 2022
Mar 5, 245pm ~~ Review asap.
Mar 6, 7pm ~~ My edition was a 2006 reprint of the original 1982 book, Ivan Doig's first novel. The book concerns a canoe voyage down the Pacific coast from Russian America (Alaska) to....well, the plan was to reach Astoria on the mouth of the Columbia river in what will someday be known as Washington state.
In the first two pages we are about halfway down the coast, landing on an island where one of the men will die. But which one dies? And why do we care when we don't even know them yet? We go back in time and learn who is in the canoe and why they are there. We help plan the trip, we escape the Russian settlement at New Archangel (and thereby leave behind however many years we have left of our indentured servitude) and we follow the maps down coast.
On the ocean in a cedar canoe. In the winter, with rain, fog, and the ocean itself to deal with. This book made me feel I was on the water, trying to get enough arm strength for one more dip of the paddle into that ocean. Can you imagine how small a human being would feel in such a situation?
The four men were all from Sweden, but were completely different personalities. It takes most of the book to learn their characters, but even here in his first novel, Doig created men the reader cares about. Each one shows their real face the further south we go. Even with all that is going on in the world these days, I was hardly able to put this book down.
And as he did in his later titles, Doig created this story from an actual event, although the details he spun into this book were nothing more than a letter to the editor of the Oregon Weekly back in the winter of 1852-1853. Add a good helping of Doig's creative imagination and you have The Sea Runners, a book that for me will be hard to forget.
Mar 6, 7pm ~~ My edition was a 2006 reprint of the original 1982 book, Ivan Doig's first novel. The book concerns a canoe voyage down the Pacific coast from Russian America (Alaska) to....well, the plan was to reach Astoria on the mouth of the Columbia river in what will someday be known as Washington state.
In the first two pages we are about halfway down the coast, landing on an island where one of the men will die. But which one dies? And why do we care when we don't even know them yet? We go back in time and learn who is in the canoe and why they are there. We help plan the trip, we escape the Russian settlement at New Archangel (and thereby leave behind however many years we have left of our indentured servitude) and we follow the maps down coast.
On the ocean in a cedar canoe. In the winter, with rain, fog, and the ocean itself to deal with. This book made me feel I was on the water, trying to get enough arm strength for one more dip of the paddle into that ocean. Can you imagine how small a human being would feel in such a situation?
The four men were all from Sweden, but were completely different personalities. It takes most of the book to learn their characters, but even here in his first novel, Doig created men the reader cares about. Each one shows their real face the further south we go. Even with all that is going on in the world these days, I was hardly able to put this book down.
And as he did in his later titles, Doig created this story from an actual event, although the details he spun into this book were nothing more than a letter to the editor of the Oregon Weekly back in the winter of 1852-1853. Add a good helping of Doig's creative imagination and you have The Sea Runners, a book that for me will be hard to forget.
November 5, 2015
This was an incredible story! It was based on a true incident reported in a 'Letter to the Editor' in an Oregon newspaper in 1853. The occurrence has been turned into a novel. The facts are given in the author's 'Acknowledgements.' I really liked this book even though survival stories are a bit unusual for me.
In 1852, four Swedes, indentured to the Russian American Company, based in New Archangel, Russian America [Sitka, Alaska], decide to escape New Archangel and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of their overseers. Melander, their leader, bitterly terms all the Scandinavians and Finns working there as "the Russians' hornless oxen." During a six-month period, the Swedes steal a native Tlingit [Russians call the tribe Kolosh] canoe and anything else necessary for their trip to their final destination: Astoria, Oregon Territory. Astoria is near the mouth of the Columbia River. They finally leave at dusk by subterfuge on Russian Christmas night,1853, figuring the Russians will be too busy celebrating to notice. They make their way down the Pacific coast. The novel is nonstop excitement and twists and turns! Russians [and Kolosh] chase them for awhile until the Russians give up, then the men face hostile Indians, storms, rocks, and having to hunt and fish while trying to avoid unfriendly tribes. Some of the men have never paddled before. After the maps they have stolen prove inadequate they quarrel violently. They have to travel 'blind' in the midst of severe winter weather and angry seas.
The writing was very sparse and stark. I got a good sense of the travails and interactions of the men and how they faced everything. The novel was very evocative of the time and setting. As the journey progressed, I kept referring to the map of that coastline area in the book.
Very highly recommended.
In 1852, four Swedes, indentured to the Russian American Company, based in New Archangel, Russian America [Sitka, Alaska], decide to escape New Archangel and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of their overseers. Melander, their leader, bitterly terms all the Scandinavians and Finns working there as "the Russians' hornless oxen." During a six-month period, the Swedes steal a native Tlingit [Russians call the tribe Kolosh] canoe and anything else necessary for their trip to their final destination: Astoria, Oregon Territory. Astoria is near the mouth of the Columbia River. They finally leave at dusk by subterfuge on Russian Christmas night,1853, figuring the Russians will be too busy celebrating to notice. They make their way down the Pacific coast. The novel is nonstop excitement and twists and turns! Russians [and Kolosh] chase them for awhile until the Russians give up, then the men face hostile Indians, storms, rocks, and having to hunt and fish while trying to avoid unfriendly tribes. Some of the men have never paddled before. After the maps they have stolen prove inadequate they quarrel violently. They have to travel 'blind' in the midst of severe winter weather and angry seas.
The writing was very sparse and stark. I got a good sense of the travails and interactions of the men and how they faced everything. The novel was very evocative of the time and setting. As the journey progressed, I kept referring to the map of that coastline area in the book.
Very highly recommended.
December 21, 2010
This, my first Ivan Doig, will always be special. Special not just because I've found another author to whom I can turn regularly, but because the setting for this is so familiar to me. The islands: Baranof, Japonski, Kuiu, Kosciusko, Prince of Wales; the waterways: Sitka Sound, Hecate Strait. This is where I live. Doig describes it perfectly, with the mountains coming straight out of the water and trees touching water. I cannot imagine taking this trip in a canoe at any time, let alone winter, and especially not in the 1850s when there were no settlements to resupply. It is so much more than the setting as Doig reveals the characters with feeling and gives us a chance to see how these men came to be who they are. Then he brings you to yourself:
What can it be for, remembering? To keep us from falling into the same ditch every day, certainly. But more, too. Memory we hold up and gaze into as proof of ourselves. Like thumbprint on a window, remembering is mindprint: this I made, no one else has quite the pattern, whorl here and sliver of scar there, they are me.
March 30, 2014
This was a good story that I am glad I read. However, I did not appreciate the writer's style. I found that several times I would read a line & still have no idea what this author was trying to say. The sentence would make no sense. He also dragged out, in a convoluted way, descriptive sentences. I would read a whole paragraph & not remember any of what I had just read. My friend likened his writing to "Yoda speak". With that said, I did enjoy the dialogue in the book & at times I laughed out loud. I felt like most of the time that I was reading a bad book they make you read in high school. Read other people's reviews b/c there were some lines pulled. If you enjoy those they selected, then you will enjoy this book.
September 22, 2008
Loosely based on actual events, Ivan Doig's The Sea Runners is an story of culture, adventure and survival. Four Scandinavian men escape their indentured servitude to a Russian trading company in New Archangel -- what is now Sitka, in Southeast Alaska -- and head off in a stolen Native Alaskan canoe for Astoria, Oregon.
Doig's descriptions of the Southeast Alaskan landscape -- the ocean, the rocky beaches and cliff, the dense forests and, most notably, the weather -- are very evocative.
His dialogue is similarly intriguing. I found myself chuckling at the witty -- though not unrealistic -- exchanges between the escapees. I also appreciated Doig's descriptions of his characters' thoughts. He judiciously gives the reader enough to know how a character is feeling and what he is thinking, but no more.
And the pace of the book is fantastic. I never wanted to put it down.
Overall, I would highly recommend this novel.
Doig's descriptions of the Southeast Alaskan landscape -- the ocean, the rocky beaches and cliff, the dense forests and, most notably, the weather -- are very evocative.
His dialogue is similarly intriguing. I found myself chuckling at the witty -- though not unrealistic -- exchanges between the escapees. I also appreciated Doig's descriptions of his characters' thoughts. He judiciously gives the reader enough to know how a character is feeling and what he is thinking, but no more.
And the pace of the book is fantastic. I never wanted to put it down.
Overall, I would highly recommend this novel.
October 3, 2015
The late Ivan Doig was a master of language, using it to take you into a time and place and culture.
He did so very effectively with The Sea Runners. His technique at taking a fragment of a story that actually happened and turning it into a historical novel was a combination of artistry and attention to detail.
His later books became more dramatic and elaborate, but the direct simplicity and masculine style of this book stays with you long after you've turned the last page.
He did so very effectively with The Sea Runners. His technique at taking a fragment of a story that actually happened and turning it into a historical novel was a combination of artistry and attention to detail.
His later books became more dramatic and elaborate, but the direct simplicity and masculine style of this book stays with you long after you've turned the last page.
August 17, 2024
This is only the second Doig book I've read, and I loved the language--it's simply gorgeous. A few choice phrases: galumphing strides, quizzing glance, winded lazed to a breeze, an apple of a face, toplofty build, boulder-still, well-bottom faith, and that hive of fingers. The story here is of raw adventure along the Alaska, Canada, and Pacific Northwest coast. A great read.
March 27, 2021
This is my third read in a row where travelers go far distances in dangerous places over a long time. In a canoe.
This heart-thumping escape story, a fictional account based on a newspaper article from Astoria, is set in current-day Sitka in 1853. Doig (along with Willa Cather) is a master at drawing landscapes.
Some sample sentences, none a spoiler:
• Karlsson quirked his mouth enough to show skepticism, for him a typhoon of emotion.
• {the concept of the sea as } a landless nationality
• The sky opened entirely one morning, cloudless as if curtains had been taken down.
• [he] believed that an ocean can be fended with, ridden by a Kolosh [native] saddle of wood and reined with these Russian maps
This heart-thumping escape story, a fictional account based on a newspaper article from Astoria, is set in current-day Sitka in 1853. Doig (along with Willa Cather) is a master at drawing landscapes.
Some sample sentences, none a spoiler:
• Karlsson quirked his mouth enough to show skepticism, for him a typhoon of emotion.
• {the concept of the sea as } a landless nationality
• The sky opened entirely one morning, cloudless as if curtains had been taken down.
• [he] believed that an ocean can be fended with, ridden by a Kolosh [native] saddle of wood and reined with these Russian maps
December 28, 2017
Four men trapped in the Russian outpost of New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska) escape and canoe down the rugged, wild coast hoping to find freedom in Astoria, Oregon. A breath-taking setting, perilous adventure, all too human characters, and poetic prose (sometimes a little mannered, but always original). One of my favorite reads this year.
November 1, 2025
In 1853, in a rugged Russian Alaska work camp, four indentured servants begin to plan a nearly impossible escape. They are going to steal provisions and a native canoe and quietly slip away down the Pacific Northwest coast. Their destination is Astoria, off the Oregon coast. It will be a perilous journey, that will take months. It is based on a true story.
I am a fan of Doig but this debut caught me by surprise, because it so different from his Montana books. It is very well-researched and very well-written. Of course, I love the setting too. A terrific adventure tale, that will have you cheering on this ragtag quartet.
I am a fan of Doig but this debut caught me by surprise, because it so different from his Montana books. It is very well-researched and very well-written. Of course, I love the setting too. A terrific adventure tale, that will have you cheering on this ragtag quartet.
January 20, 2023
Bitterly sad in the best way. The theme of finding your metaphysical way when you are physically lost was comforting. I was not focused enough to absorb the prose, but when I could focus it was beautiful.
January 29, 2015
Ivan Doig's "The Sea Runners," published in 1982, is an early work that builds on a footnote of history. (Doig earned a Ph.D. in history before turning to novel-writing.) It is the story of four indentured Swedes who escaped New Archangel (Russia’s settlement where Sitka, Alaska sits today) by paddling a canoe to Astoria, Oregon in the winter and spring of 1853.
Doig’s historical research of Russian America shows. He provides a vivid description of the bleakness of New Archangel as he develops the back-story of the four men: how they got there, why they so desperately wanted to leave and how they planned their escape.
The last three-quarters of the novel deal with the arduous journey down the coast and the men’s struggles to work as a team. The descriptions of the journey are nautically and geographically accurate; you get the sense that Doig sailed along that rugged coast before embarking on his writing. But missing for me were the details that create verisimilitude, those bits of first-hand experience that persuade the reader to suspend disbelief.
For example, Doig tells how the men preserved venison by boiling it in saltwater, but he fails to describe the taste of it after weeks of soggy travel. He describes the rocky islands of the Inside Passage but omits any mention of the abundant sea life at tide line. He captures the frustration of paddling against high seas and headwinds but provides little detail of the natural world, such as the frantic flapping of seabirds over schools of fish or the yelp of sea otter pups left by their mothers tethered to beds of kelp. The Swedes would surely have noted such things, just as they would have felt the chill and chafing of wet woolens, the effects of scurvy after weeks of bad diet, and the sores and aches from paddling a heavy cedar canoe for hours, days, weeks on end—all things Doig largely disregards.
Like "South," Ernest Shackleton’s superb memoir of his failed expedition to the South Pole, or "Alive," Piers Paul Read’s riveting account of the air-crash survivors in the Andes, this should have been a story of survival and extreme physical endurance. Instead, Doig concentrates on the differences between the four men, their petty bickering and clashes as they vie for leadership.
In what for me was the weakest aspect of the novel, Doig chose, perhaps for color, to write in an oblique, almost archaic style which impedes the narrative. Doig’s stylistic decision extends to dialogue as well. He may have intended to convey the idiomatic speech of the Swedes, but it comes off sounding like a bad pirate imitation:
“'Wennberg, Wennberg. Always ready to bone the guff out of me, aye? Tell me a thing, how do we come by this honor of having you in our crew? What sugar was it that kept you on at New Archangel past your years?'
"Wennberg studied the tall leader. Then he spat to one side and muttered, 'Serving for Rachel.'
"Melander tugged an ear. 'Lend us that again?'”
The prose is all too overwrought, as if colorful language might cover up a lack of detail from the historical record or first-hand experience. The result is a story that would have been better served if it had been more plainly told.
Doig’s historical research of Russian America shows. He provides a vivid description of the bleakness of New Archangel as he develops the back-story of the four men: how they got there, why they so desperately wanted to leave and how they planned their escape.
The last three-quarters of the novel deal with the arduous journey down the coast and the men’s struggles to work as a team. The descriptions of the journey are nautically and geographically accurate; you get the sense that Doig sailed along that rugged coast before embarking on his writing. But missing for me were the details that create verisimilitude, those bits of first-hand experience that persuade the reader to suspend disbelief.
For example, Doig tells how the men preserved venison by boiling it in saltwater, but he fails to describe the taste of it after weeks of soggy travel. He describes the rocky islands of the Inside Passage but omits any mention of the abundant sea life at tide line. He captures the frustration of paddling against high seas and headwinds but provides little detail of the natural world, such as the frantic flapping of seabirds over schools of fish or the yelp of sea otter pups left by their mothers tethered to beds of kelp. The Swedes would surely have noted such things, just as they would have felt the chill and chafing of wet woolens, the effects of scurvy after weeks of bad diet, and the sores and aches from paddling a heavy cedar canoe for hours, days, weeks on end—all things Doig largely disregards.
Like "South," Ernest Shackleton’s superb memoir of his failed expedition to the South Pole, or "Alive," Piers Paul Read’s riveting account of the air-crash survivors in the Andes, this should have been a story of survival and extreme physical endurance. Instead, Doig concentrates on the differences between the four men, their petty bickering and clashes as they vie for leadership.
In what for me was the weakest aspect of the novel, Doig chose, perhaps for color, to write in an oblique, almost archaic style which impedes the narrative. Doig’s stylistic decision extends to dialogue as well. He may have intended to convey the idiomatic speech of the Swedes, but it comes off sounding like a bad pirate imitation:
“'Wennberg, Wennberg. Always ready to bone the guff out of me, aye? Tell me a thing, how do we come by this honor of having you in our crew? What sugar was it that kept you on at New Archangel past your years?'
"Wennberg studied the tall leader. Then he spat to one side and muttered, 'Serving for Rachel.'
"Melander tugged an ear. 'Lend us that again?'”
The prose is all too overwrought, as if colorful language might cover up a lack of detail from the historical record or first-hand experience. The result is a story that would have been better served if it had been more plainly told.
November 22, 2020
This is an offbeat story that I could not put down. It is about a period in American Northwest Coast history I knew little about when Russia still ruled the fur trade in what is now Alaska. 4 Scandinavian men who were essentially indentured slaves at a trading outpost in Alaska plan an escape that takes them on a perilous trip down the Northwest coast from modern Sitka all the way to the mouth of the Columbia River. It is a story of struggle and turmoil among 4 men with nothing in common except their desire to escape the miserable life in the Russian fur camp. For anyone who is interested in the early settlement of the Pacific Northwest, in the Native Americans of the time,this book is a great read. Doig has a unique writing style which somehow fits the story perfectly. I really enjoyed this book.
February 13, 2022
This is a classic! Five stars plus. It left me numb and emotional at times. What better than that?
Some of many things I liked: small number of distinct, interesting and memorable characters; wonderful setting(s), changeable but similar; drama with minimum foreshadowing; wonderful dialogue and "thought descriptions" when unspoken; vocabulary; and weather-vivid, raw, beautiful.
Some words: a trumbil way; salient; a dun cliff; declension of a slope - for a very few examples.
The writing style is amazing not only for its depth of a northwestern description, but for an almost mathematical style. I had to re-read several pages (OK, sleepy at times) but usually to grasp the meaning embedded in unusual prose.
The ending left me limp. Loved this work of art.
Jim George, Austin, TX
Some of many things I liked: small number of distinct, interesting and memorable characters; wonderful setting(s), changeable but similar; drama with minimum foreshadowing; wonderful dialogue and "thought descriptions" when unspoken; vocabulary; and weather-vivid, raw, beautiful.
Some words: a trumbil way; salient; a dun cliff; declension of a slope - for a very few examples.
The writing style is amazing not only for its depth of a northwestern description, but for an almost mathematical style. I had to re-read several pages (OK, sleepy at times) but usually to grasp the meaning embedded in unusual prose.
The ending left me limp. Loved this work of art.
Jim George, Austin, TX
June 7, 2011
I didn't actually get to this before it was due back to the library, but (my husband) Peter did. This is what he said, verbatim: "It had good patches, but the ending was anti-climactic and the middle section really dragged. I thought the author was guilty of a lot of overwriting, almost as if he had just gotten out of a creative writing course where he was told that he had to change up his sentence structure in order to make his prose seem more literary. And so every third sentence was written in an unnatural style where he would put the object of a sentence first, comma, and then the subject. The canoe, they paddled. Was this supposed to mirror the characters' Swedish? Or was he trying to define his own style? I don't know. But for all that, it was an enjoyable read."
March 19, 2019
As I read Doig’s tale of the sea runners, I followed along with my IPhone map, tracing the rugged coastline from Sitka Bay, Alaska to the mouth of the great Columbia River (on the Washington-Oregon border). This would have been an epic journey by a sailing ship, but these men did in a cedar canoe! It’s a tale worth telling, and Doug does it with an almost poetic style, his language reflecting the strange ethereal landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
October 8, 2020
This is the first Ivan Doig book that I have read. I found the style challenging to follow in the beginning. He uses multiple sentence fragments to set a scene in the way you might expect if you were reading a play. On the other hand, a single semicolon-filled sentence comprises over half a page on page 7. The story flowed more smoothly as it progressed. Soon enough I was hooked. The four men make their escape from Russian indentured servitude in New Archangel (modern-day Sitka, Alaska) toward Astoria in a canoe. I was there with the sea runners through the surf and swells, through fog-blind perilous paddling. Great characters. As an ocean person and someone familiar with the terrain, I must give this book a 5.
May 9, 2019
The Sea Runners is at times a slog and others a lovely read full of surprising action and beautiful sentences. The dialogue is clever and the wit humorous, and the characters shine during the short pages of the novel. Doig does a great job describing the dreary, yet beautiful pacific coast, but there are pages where the novel reads more like a textbook and the plot shows how little story there was to work with. Despite the flaws, I ended the novel pleased to have read it.
My wife picked the Sea Runners up at the library as a random choice. If she had not, I never would have read it, but I am glad I did.
My wife picked the Sea Runners up at the library as a random choice. If she had not, I never would have read it, but I am glad I did.
March 22, 2021
In this novel as in the earlier two books by Ivan Doig, there is plenty of fact mixed in with the fiction, based on significant research by the author and his team of friends and associates. It is an interesting story of survival by canoe on the Pacific coast to Astoria during the mid 19th century, amid indentured servitude in Russian America, the Sitka area of Alaska.
December 26, 2021
I love Ivan Doig's writing style. It took me a while to get used to it; but it was worth while. His description of weather, landscape, relationship is full of figures of speech. This story is enthralling. It's hard to put it down.
July 26, 2024
Writing excellent. Loved scenes of coast from Sitka down but in the end just ok
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