Swallowed by the Great Land: And Other Dispatches From Alaska's Frontier

by Seth Kantner

Compelling Alaska stories from Seth Kantner, bestselling author of Ordinary Wolves

"Seth Kantner illuminates an Alaska most of us will never know." Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal

*Nonfiction short stories that pull you into the lives of those living in an otherworldly place
*Author received a Whiting Award naming him one of the nation's top-ten emerging writers
*Publisher's Weekly called the author's 2004 debut novel, Ordinary Wolves, ""a tour de force""

When Seth Kantner's novel, Ordinary Wolves, was published 10 years ago, it was a literary revelation of sorts. In a raw, stylized voice it told the story of a white boy growing up with homesteading parents in Arctic Alaska and trying to reconcile his largely subsistence and Native-style upbringing with the expectations and realities tied to his race. It hit numerous bestseller lists, was critically acclaimed, and won a number of awards.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Adventure

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2015

Reviews

[Sammy Kutsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great look into life in the Arctic. The vignettes paint a detailed, moving picture, and very skillfully build over time towards Kantners relationship to the changing climate and threats to the Arctic. Fascinating and beautiful look into what subsistence living looks like.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written and transporting series of dispatches which provide an account of living in the wilds of Alaska, with some up close and personal reporting on living through palpable climate change and destruction of the last primordial places. Kantner uses memoir to tell a much larger story, and does it very well.

[Bonnie E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly beautiful, with vignettes about slices of Arctic life that just cuts through, yet jarringly bleak in its descriptions of the havoc caused by corporate encroachment and climate change. The author does not romanticize the subsistence way of life, just tells story upon story of a day here, two nights there; food caught, picked, hacked, buried; winds fought, rains rising; ice freezing, disappearing; mosquitoes attacking, biting, swarming; people surviving, dying, rejoicing, sharing. Written with self-deprecating humor and a strong sense of community, there’s a real urgency to this author’s voice and life experiences.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short, haiku-like essays of life above the Arctic Circle were exquisite. They bring home to a reader besotted with next day delivery how different life is elsewhere on the planet. How closer to the edge and how much more work is required to stay alive.

[Abigail Host · Rating 4 out of 5]

the overall style of this book may not be for me but the content surely is. Stories of the great north, connected by theme and connected by home. I really enjoyed this, and the last paragraph hit home in times like today:
“Here in the Arctic, as our weather gets increasingly unpredictable, as the future grows uncertain, we locals will need sustainable food and water more than ever. Our entire nation—all our citizens—will need wild land and clean water more with every season that passes. This is our homeland that our leaders are trying to give away, and we as Americans need to say NO. We need to lift our voices to this darkness and howl until they wake up and listen.”
so howl and howl and howl until you can’t, and then howl some more.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems everyone has a place they call home. It may not be were they currently live. But yet they hold some place as special. A place were they feel they fit. And others may never understand why on earth they choose that spot. But Seth Kanter takes the reader to a place most all of us would describe as inhospitable. Perhaps interesting to visit but not for the long term. Through his collections of essays about his life in northwest Alaska we steadily gain a sense of his home. It's a place were when asked what do you do the answer is "we live''. A place with its own culture and rhythm. Kanter largely saves his concerns about encroaching modern civilization and climate change until the end of the book. By then you have come to understand what it is about his part of the world that is so meaningful to him. An interesting and worthy read that should leave you thinking about where you would call home and with a broader empathy for those worried about the future of their heart-held place.

[Adam Weinert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll be reading more of Kantner. Such a helpful and insightful glance at a life and upbringing very different from my own. Kantner and I live in the same state, we’ve been to many of the same places, our eyes have seen vast swaths of Alaska, yet we live in very different worlds.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotable:

On the morning I was supposed to drive back to Anchorage, Jared, one of the Wrangell Center staff, led a small group down a rocky creek to a labyrinth of stones that he and others had laid out the previous year. Breakup had spread silt around, but the lines were still visible.
We were instructed to hush. Then, a few yards apart, six or eight of us began to circle into the maze. The sun rose. Leaf smells came from cottonwood and alders nearby. At the head of the valley, the glacier glowed. It was nice on the gravel bar, and I wasn’t quite ready to go home. I took off my boots to enjoy the cool stones.
I expected little from walking the maze – maybe some snide cynicism at the “Californian” experience. But as I strolled the labyrinth, my thoughts seemed clear. I even had a couple of epiphanies – one being that the lady coming up behind me was making me feel rushed, and a life shouldn’t be rushed. I stepped off the path and let her pass. When I got to the center of the circle, I saw a pile of pebbles and other things people had placed there. I started to leave a chip of blue beach glass that my daughter had found and put in my pocket a month ago. I stopped, realizing to heck with what people do or don’t do, I didn’t need to leave anything behind.

At Nordstrom Rack we didn’t have any luck finding the right dress. It was a weekend; a lot of girls and women were dressed fancy. The boys and men mostly wore baggy jeans and untucked T-shirts. It has always seemed a double standard to me how society expects women to dress full-on sexy all the time, spending tons of money doing so, while men can slump along like shapeless drones. With my daughter a teenager now – and a big storm just out to sea – I was significantly less than thrilled about the frilly clothes and sky-high price tags.

[Greyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several dozen stories derived from Kantner's life near the Brooks Range, from his childhood in the igloo near Ambler to journeys out toward "the road system". His distaste for cities (and in from his perspective, even a place like McCarthy qualifies as such) is palpable and he is at his best when describing the vast wilderness of his winters.

"Wolf Eyes" in particular is quite haunting.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

yeah pretty cool stories about sustenance living and the unique lifestyle of the arctic north and the way technology changes those lives
lowkey made me want to go out more
with that subtle but growing sense of gdi global warming and capitalistic consumption of resources

[Renae · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays written by a man who has lived his entire life in a remote part of northern Alaska. Wow! His life is so different than most other Americans! I learned a lot and have a deep respect for his life and lifestyle. I could not survive one week in his shoes!

[Rosemary Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing, a bittersweet perspective of Alaska and the changes we are undergoing, great love and knowledge of the land.

[Carol Jakubowski Delisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book... made me want to see the Artic before it is even more changed. Beautiful descriptions of the land and living in it and from it.

[Patrice La Vigne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I basically will read anything Seth writes.

[Aleia Tipton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful insight to life in the Arctic, I’m looking forward to reading Ordinary Wolves!

[Steph Spone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in Alaska, so this was a recommended book. It was decent.

[Kaitlyn Conway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read while in Kotz this summer and learn more about this wild place, but man does he sound self-important sometimes.

[Emily Koester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I visited Alaska for the first time at the beginning of March, and having finished the book I had brought with me at the airport, this was a pleasant treasure to find at my Airbnb. I had only read about a third of it before I went to a used book store down the street from where I was staying to get my own copy to keep and remind me of Alaska. Seth Kantner shares a view of Alaska very few get to experience and one I've dreamed of, and his writing reminded my of my favorite author from my home state of Wisconsin, Michael Perry. "Swallowed by the Great Land" made me feel connected to the amazing state of Alaska and had me wanting more.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general, I like longer essays but these vignettes really describe a completely different style of life than the rest of us live (including urban Alaskans). I really like Kantner's admittance that his back to the land lifestyle is still different to earlier generations because of the snowmobiles. Fascinating stuff that is really thoughtful too.

[Foxglow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kanter's breathtakingly beautiful descriptions of North Alaska and the lives of its residents both human and non human is enthralling.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent loved the short stories and the vivid pictures they created for me

[Karen May]

No Lib
Alaskan short stories

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books I bought randomly while on a trip to Alaska. I even pyt it down once, but then went back, there was something pulling me to it.

This book is a gem. It is a memoir written in short easily digestible stories, that immediately immerses you into the Alaskan wilderness, it's environment, it's people, it's way of life.

Seth has a remarkable ability to make you feel like you are actually sitting alongside him in his sodden earthen home while he makes Caribou meat sticks, dipped in bear or seal fat.

I will be recommending this book to everyone I know. One of the best parts of this book is the ability to read just one or 2 stories before bed, and then when you jump in the next day or two you are in a whole new story with no need to remember just where you left off. It is the perfect bed side companion.

[Yvonne Leutwyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Excellent read.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as great as his first two books, but this Alaskan writer is the real deal. Living in Kotzebue, he is a true arctic Alaskan and his tales of subsistence living are remarkable. I enjoy reading all of his books, he's honest and authentic.