The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos

by Nick Jans

From his home in remote Eskimo Village, Nick Jans leads us into a vast, magical world: Alaska's Brooks Range. Drawn from fourteen years of arctic experience, The Last Light Breaking offers a rare perspective on America's last great wilderness and its people―the Inupiat Natives, an ancient culture on the cusp of change. Making a poignant connection between the world he describes and the world of the Inupiat once knew, Nick Jans invokes with stunning power the life of the Eskimos in the harsh arctic and the mystical aura of the wilderness of the far North. With the eye of an outdoorsman and the heart of a poet, Jans weaves together these 23 essays with strands of Native American narrative, making vivid a place where wolves and grizzlies still roam free, hunters follow the caribou, and old women cast their nets in the dust as they have for countless generations. But looming on the horizon is the world of roads and modern technology; the future has already arrived in the form of stop signs, computers, and satellite dishes. Jans creates unforgettable images of a proud people facing an uncertain future, and of his own journey through this haunting timeless landscape.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Memoir, Anthropology, Nature, Native Americans, Biography

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Nick Jans is an award-winning writer, photographer, and author of numerous books, including The Grizzly Maze. He is a contributing editor to Alaska Magazine and has written for Rolling Stone, Backpacker, and the Christian Science Monitor.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Inupiaq language has no future tense. This book is about northwestern Alaska and what the future holds for it. How will this culture adapt?

This book is a collection of essays written about the author's experiences and life in this area during the 70s and 80s. Mining and oil and park authorities have and will continue to leave their imprint. The author worked in a store, been a basketball coach, taught in school, hunted and observed wildlife. He has been part of the Arctic community - helped put out fires, been at funerals, camped and hunted - shared their grief and their appreciation of the land.

The reason I gave this two stars is that I found the focus on hunting, basketball, park administration and mining boring.

[B Zimp]

Read for a course. Drier and hard to get through. Nice Alaska stories

[Sherry Tamone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd lived in Alaska for about 5 years when I first picked up this book and gave it a read. I was immediately immersed in the descriptions of life in the interior. Nicks essays are so well written and descriptive. About a year later I met Nick and his wife and have enjoyed a friendship ever since. I think I'll pick this up again and re read some of the essays

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nick Jans' first full length book. He's still writing thirty years later about life in remote parts of Alaska. The writing is enjoyable, and I appreciate his balanced depiction of life in Alaska...acknowledging that he's always going to be an outsider, not glossing over the issues when traditional ways and modern technology collide(and this was 30 years ago!), etc.

[Kristin Martini · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Alaska. I enjoyed many of the chapters, and I felt myself immersed in the region HOWEVER I do wish I had picked an own voices book for Alaska. Not a bad book at all, and Nick had lived there for 14 years by that point, but I think I was looking for something different.

[Chester · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, I really didn't get the last chapter. At any rate, I have read books about this culture but not one written during this period of time. So, it did give me insight into lives in transitions which only a person that lived there could recorded. Enjoyed the read.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the essays were wonderful, others were too much like Outside magazine or sportsman journals that cover fishing and hunting. The people and scenery worth a quick read.

[N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Warlock Mike North · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Nick Jans' books are amazing!!!!

[Yvonne Leutwyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Alaska non-fiction books ever. It is right up there with Tom Kizzia's "The wake of the unseen object", and Seth Kantner's "Swallowed by the great land".

[Jenifer Sora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

[Billy Goddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book surprised me. I was hoping for a good book about Alaska wilderness and got more than I expected.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in the process of moving to Anchorage, Alaska and I can't wait to get there. This book did not curb my enthusiasm and excitement either! I've followed Nick Jans for the last few years and now that I have the opportunity to be a part of The Great Land in the coming months, his writing is even more inspiring. If you have any interest in traveling, or exploring new lands and culture - this is a great read. Even if your interests are more of the "armchair traveling" kind - this is insightful and entertaining.

I hope my family won't be too surprised to find copies of various Nick Jans' books in their Christmas stockings this year.

Hope to meet you in person when I get there Nick!

[Danae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick Jans taught (teaches?) in Ambler, which is a village in the Northwest Arctic Borough in which I taught last year. It was so interesting to go through this and reminisce on my time in the Arctic. It helped me to remember some things that others might be interested in hearing about. Things that felt normal after a while to me, but really weren't. I might have forgotten about some of those experiences otherwise. I made notes throughout the book as I read, and I'd like to expand on those and actually write in the margins of the book for future readings.

I do kind of get bored during the chapters on hunting, but other than that, it's a nice way to revisit that year of my life.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is kinda neat. It's autobiography, and as such is a great extended personal essay, a great example of the form. I'm not sure it could pass as scientific ethnology of the Eskimo; everything in it is so personal. But you certainly do know more about the Inuit after reading it than when you started. And as I say, it's a great example of autobiography, in this case the story of a young man who moved to Northern Alaska in 1979 and stayed 13 years.

[Linnae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this really brought it all back. Growing up, we lived among the Inupiat people in Barrow for 7 years, and in a small Yupit village for 2 years before that. We experienced much of what the author talks about in this book, from the 4-seater Cessnas to nightly open gym basketball at the high school. Aarigaa. Good book.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting glimpse into a culture shaped by a demanding environment, a culture that is changing rapidly and one that I know little about. The love the author has for the land and the respect he has for the people that live there is wonderfully evident.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is non-fiction by a guy who lived in the same village as my aunt, uncle, and cousins. So it was interesting to me from that perspective because my aunt and uncle are mentioned, but he also is a darn good writer.

[Cammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. I was fascinated by Jans' stories about living in NW AK. I've been reading as much Alaskana as I can find int he last year or so and this collection of essays in at the top of the 'best of' list.

[John Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful meditative essays reflecting on the author's life in rural AK, the clash of cultures, the changing lifestyle and culture of the Inupiaq Eskimo. Having lived in this region myself, Jans powerfully captures many of the nuances and anachronisms of life here. Highly recommended.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a neat insight into living in the arctic circle! Wonderful native shorts & lessons included.

[Connie Kronlokken]

Nick Jans is one of my favorite writers about living in Alaska. Current, insightful, has been teaching there since 1980. This is his first book.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is here: http://www.billdahl.net/articles/the-...

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This valuable, sometimes lyrical, collection of essays paints a sympathetic, carefully observed but not uncritical picture of the Inupiat Eskimos of northwestern Alaska, both today and historically.

[Emily Mcilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Haunting.

[Jiorgia]

Great descriptions
Can get a little melancholy