Cabin 135: A Memoir of Alaska

by Katie Eberhart

As a young adult, Katie Eberhart moved to Cabin 135, a house on a knoll in remote Alaska. Over the next decade, growing up and growing into her home, she found herself thinking through her ever-changing ideas about aging and place, a lot of which were wrapped up closely in her experience of living in the house itself. Cabin 135 provided shelter and security, and it also offered lessons on economic disruptions and how ideas of normalcy change. In these pages, we share Eberhart’s experience of digging into the past—figuratively and, in her garden, at an archaeology site, and in a national park, literally. Every layer peeled back, we find, reveals another story, another way of thinking about nature and the past—our own and that of others. In greenhouse and garden, yard, forest, and more distant places—a beach in southeast Alaska, the Arctic coast, Swiss Alps, Iceland, and even Biosphere-2 in Arizona—Eberhart engages with the world around her, and, through it, reflects on her own experiences and journey through life. Offering a journey of wonder and curiosity, through the author’s mind, a house’s structure, and other places, Cabin 135 is a deft combination of memoir and nature writing, rich with thought and full of appreciation for—and profound concerns about—the world and our place in it.
 

250 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2020

Reviews

[Kathy Kysar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interesting part of this book for me was that most of it is set just a few miles down the road from where I live. There were some historical insights and local facts that compelling. However, mostly this book seemed to ramble from one vignette to another making it feel more like a personal diary than anything and most people find their diary to be more interesting than it is to outside readers, so by the second half, I was just scanning for interesting parts. If you live in the Wasilla/Palmer area of Alaska, you might find it interesting.

[Lara]

I had gotten this book to bring with me out west as the memoir seemed to touch on some points of my own work that I had done in the past, and general interest. A bit slower paced than some of the other memoirs that I have been reading this year, and focused on a lot of similar points. Enjoyable, but not my favorite memoir this year

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book after visiting Anchorage for the first time. I liked reading about different historical aspects of the area and the general tone of the book. However, it felt a bit off topic at times and somewhat difficult to follow.

[Yvonne Leutwyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 points rounded up due to the beautiful cover art and map (by Ruth Hulbert), my personal familiarity with the area, and interest in basic building science, historical cabins, and gardening.
I also liked the author's format to provide tidbits categorized into different headings (such as "cabin", "terrain", and "time"), rather than a chronological storyline.
With all respect for goodreads' summary, the author did NOT move to a cabin in "remote" Alaska. Not even close. There is a better summary of the book provided by the publisher, University of Alaska Press. (Excerpt:) "Cabin 135 was built near Palmer, Alaska in1935 for the Matanuska Colony, a New Deal resettlement project. (...) Cabin 135, A Memoir of Alaska offers a journey of wonder and curiosity through the renovations of an old house, looking to the garden and greenhouse, the forest, and beyond to grapple with persistent worries regarding habitation, nature, and the planet. It is a story of life."