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Rankin Inlet
This is a novel about culture shock, love, loss, identify, belonging, the Inuit people, and the birth of the Nunavut Territory in Arctic Canada. The setting is a small Inuit community on the west coast of Hudson Bay in the early 1970s. The story is told from the perspectives of multiple individuals speaking of their own experiences. These include an elderly Inuit hunter, his son who is adjusting to many cultural changes, and a nurse-midwife newly arrived from England to provide medical care in a community where all is new to her. As the story unfolds, these lives become interconnected.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Mara Feeney
2 books2 followersMara Feeney went to Bryn Mawr College to take creative writing courses, but fell in love with Anthropology, instead.
While earning her undergraduate degree, she spent her summers working and travelling in the Canadian Arctic. Subsequently, she went to work full-time for the Government of the Northwest Territories in the capital city of Yellowknife, but she yearned to get back to Rankin Inlet, where she had formed lasting friendships with community residents. She did return there and worked for several years as a regional Housing Officer, serving remote communities around the Hudson Bay, before attending graduate school at the University of British Columbia.
After that, her life took surprising turns. She spent a year travelling around the world, then settled down to a career in socioeconomic consulting, first in western Canada and then in northern California, writing lots of environmental impact analyses and community outreach plans.
"On my fiftieth birthday, I smacked myself on the head and said, 'Hey, you meant to be an artiste!' That's when I cut back on consulting work and signed up for painting and writing classes." Mara has been making up for lost time in the creative arts. In addition to having her first novel published in 2009, she won first prize in the Great Northern Canadian Writing Contest. Her winning story, "A Keewatin Tale," was published in the September-October 2009 edition of Above & Beyond magazine. She also had a short story and a poem published in Manzanita: Poetry and Prose of the Mother Lode and Sierra, and she has sold several of her original acrylic paintings.
While earning her undergraduate degree, she spent her summers working and travelling in the Canadian Arctic. Subsequently, she went to work full-time for the Government of the Northwest Territories in the capital city of Yellowknife, but she yearned to get back to Rankin Inlet, where she had formed lasting friendships with community residents. She did return there and worked for several years as a regional Housing Officer, serving remote communities around the Hudson Bay, before attending graduate school at the University of British Columbia.
After that, her life took surprising turns. She spent a year travelling around the world, then settled down to a career in socioeconomic consulting, first in western Canada and then in northern California, writing lots of environmental impact analyses and community outreach plans.
"On my fiftieth birthday, I smacked myself on the head and said, 'Hey, you meant to be an artiste!' That's when I cut back on consulting work and signed up for painting and writing classes." Mara has been making up for lost time in the creative arts. In addition to having her first novel published in 2009, she won first prize in the Great Northern Canadian Writing Contest. Her winning story, "A Keewatin Tale," was published in the September-October 2009 edition of Above & Beyond magazine. She also had a short story and a poem published in Manzanita: Poetry and Prose of the Mother Lode and Sierra, and she has sold several of her original acrylic paintings.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 25, 2010
Rankin Inlet, a Novel by Mara Feeney
I find it incredible that this is a debut novel, it is so well-written. Mara Feeney has written a wonderful novel taking place in a part of Canada few people know about. The characters and descriptions of life in Rankin Inlet are so real that it is difficult to realize this is a novel and not a true story. Ms. Feeney has personal experience to draw from. The book is written with a very compelling knowledge of life in the isolated north, and no doubt at least some of her characters are based in some small part upon real people, or a combination of individuals she has known or met. To this Canadian reader I felt a connection to this far northern village through this book.
The story begins in 1971 when our heroine, Alison, comes from Liverpool, England to be a nurse in this remote location. After waiting for weather to clear she is on her way north in a small plane flown by a bush pilot, arriving in a village that looks completely alien to her.
The book is written as a diary by Alison, some pages devoted to the stories of the patients themselves, some to the families of patients. The stories are told in the voices of the characters. Historical and accurate, this is the first book I have read of this particularly remote area and am very glad I did. This is a delightful read with the characters bringing us from the old ways via a grandfather talking to his critically ill daughter, and later to his grandchildren. The novel continues to update right through the creation of Nunavut, the newest of the northern Territories of Canada in 1999.
The "first hand" stories of the entire family of Nikmak, the grandfather, give the reader insight impossible to get without an actual non-fiction biographical work. When Alison marries into the family we really begin to see the changes as they occur in the lives of the Inuit. Using the true Inuktitut words in many cases adds to the authenticity of the book. Although explained as the words are first used, there is also a glossary at the back of the book.
It is a tale of hardship, family, lifestyles old and new. The coming of electricity, skidoos, and finally television and computers, while still trying to maintain some tradition in their lives becomes more difficult as time goes on. Children in the old days were sent away to school, later they were able to be schooled in Rankin Inlet. Many of the Inuit children are now able to go on to university in Manitoba and become a part of the evolution of the north while trying to protect the rights of the "people of the land". Alison's own sons and daughters become very active in the environment, the growth, and the government of Nunavut.
I would definitely recommend this book to any age group as a glimpse of the Arctic and its contribution to the development of this country, to the mix of ethnicities of Canada, and among the first peoples of Canada.
I find it incredible that this is a debut novel, it is so well-written. Mara Feeney has written a wonderful novel taking place in a part of Canada few people know about. The characters and descriptions of life in Rankin Inlet are so real that it is difficult to realize this is a novel and not a true story. Ms. Feeney has personal experience to draw from. The book is written with a very compelling knowledge of life in the isolated north, and no doubt at least some of her characters are based in some small part upon real people, or a combination of individuals she has known or met. To this Canadian reader I felt a connection to this far northern village through this book.
The story begins in 1971 when our heroine, Alison, comes from Liverpool, England to be a nurse in this remote location. After waiting for weather to clear she is on her way north in a small plane flown by a bush pilot, arriving in a village that looks completely alien to her.
The book is written as a diary by Alison, some pages devoted to the stories of the patients themselves, some to the families of patients. The stories are told in the voices of the characters. Historical and accurate, this is the first book I have read of this particularly remote area and am very glad I did. This is a delightful read with the characters bringing us from the old ways via a grandfather talking to his critically ill daughter, and later to his grandchildren. The novel continues to update right through the creation of Nunavut, the newest of the northern Territories of Canada in 1999.
The "first hand" stories of the entire family of Nikmak, the grandfather, give the reader insight impossible to get without an actual non-fiction biographical work. When Alison marries into the family we really begin to see the changes as they occur in the lives of the Inuit. Using the true Inuktitut words in many cases adds to the authenticity of the book. Although explained as the words are first used, there is also a glossary at the back of the book.
It is a tale of hardship, family, lifestyles old and new. The coming of electricity, skidoos, and finally television and computers, while still trying to maintain some tradition in their lives becomes more difficult as time goes on. Children in the old days were sent away to school, later they were able to be schooled in Rankin Inlet. Many of the Inuit children are now able to go on to university in Manitoba and become a part of the evolution of the north while trying to protect the rights of the "people of the land". Alison's own sons and daughters become very active in the environment, the growth, and the government of Nunavut.
I would definitely recommend this book to any age group as a glimpse of the Arctic and its contribution to the development of this country, to the mix of ethnicities of Canada, and among the first peoples of Canada.
May 20, 2012
I have often heard it said that you either fall in love with the Arctic or you cannot stand to stay for any length of time. Mara Feeney, author of this delightful, serious and fast moving novel, must have caught the love bug for the Far North more than thirty years ago. While studying for her degree in Anthropology in the 1970s, she spent considerable time in different parts of the Canadian North. With "Rankin Inlet", Feeney's first novel, she has created an unusual story full of original and authentic people.
In 1970 Alison, a British nurse, had come to work in Rankin Inlet for what was supposed to be a two-year commitment. However, life would unfold differently for her... Very quickly she is intrigued by the local people who live so closely connected to and dependent on their natural environment. She finds herself enamoured with the place, the beauty of its endless white horizons and its response to the changing seasons. The richness of the local culture attracts her while she is also enough of a realist to recognize the challenges that the community faces, whether through the influx of external temptations or the lack of opportunities offered to make a good living. The younger generation feels less connected to the land than the elders do and are more susceptible to the escape offered by alcohol or to the allure of easy loans for new gadgets like skidoos and tv.
Rather than telling her story as a linear narrative or from the perspective of her protagonist, Feeney uses an uncommon technique to let a number of different and distinct voices come to life, alternating their contributions to establish the story's flow. In addition to Alison we meet Nikmak, an Inuit elder and story teller, who describes his family's history to his critically ill daughter, lying in the Nurses' Station. Through his reminiscences we are introduced to the contrasts between the traditional life style and the opportunities and pitfalls offered through more recent mining explorations and other industrial developments in the region. Ivaluk, a young Inuit and traditional hunter, writes to his kid brother, Thomasie, who is at a residential school in far away Churchill. Through his letters we get a sense of the challenges facing the young people in Rankin Inlet. Thomasie eventually will respond and has his own take on the events unfolding in the family and the community as a whole.
These and other voices, while maintaining their separate entries, gradually intertwine and overlap as the protagonists' lives more and more interconnect, drawing the reader into an integrated story and with it into a rainbow of human emotions: love, loss, personal identity, belonging and new beginnings. Taking a thirty year time span allows the author to generate considerable forward movement for the narrative, filling it with personal dramas, intergenerational tension and learning. Still, the chosen structure also imposes limitations on the narrative depth. Lengthy time gaps with few entries may not provide the reader with enough 'food for thought' or involvement with the characters personalities as letters and journal entries are confined to event and activity updates.
Mara Feeney has observed and captured the realities of life in the North more intimately than most outsiders would be able to. Like her "outside" protagonist, Alison, she has learned the local language, Inuktitut. While focusing on the inter-personal and community level through her different characters she nevertheless sets her story into the historical context of the Northwest Territories leading up to the birth of Nunavut on April 1, 1999.
In 1970 Alison, a British nurse, had come to work in Rankin Inlet for what was supposed to be a two-year commitment. However, life would unfold differently for her... Very quickly she is intrigued by the local people who live so closely connected to and dependent on their natural environment. She finds herself enamoured with the place, the beauty of its endless white horizons and its response to the changing seasons. The richness of the local culture attracts her while she is also enough of a realist to recognize the challenges that the community faces, whether through the influx of external temptations or the lack of opportunities offered to make a good living. The younger generation feels less connected to the land than the elders do and are more susceptible to the escape offered by alcohol or to the allure of easy loans for new gadgets like skidoos and tv.
Rather than telling her story as a linear narrative or from the perspective of her protagonist, Feeney uses an uncommon technique to let a number of different and distinct voices come to life, alternating their contributions to establish the story's flow. In addition to Alison we meet Nikmak, an Inuit elder and story teller, who describes his family's history to his critically ill daughter, lying in the Nurses' Station. Through his reminiscences we are introduced to the contrasts between the traditional life style and the opportunities and pitfalls offered through more recent mining explorations and other industrial developments in the region. Ivaluk, a young Inuit and traditional hunter, writes to his kid brother, Thomasie, who is at a residential school in far away Churchill. Through his letters we get a sense of the challenges facing the young people in Rankin Inlet. Thomasie eventually will respond and has his own take on the events unfolding in the family and the community as a whole.
These and other voices, while maintaining their separate entries, gradually intertwine and overlap as the protagonists' lives more and more interconnect, drawing the reader into an integrated story and with it into a rainbow of human emotions: love, loss, personal identity, belonging and new beginnings. Taking a thirty year time span allows the author to generate considerable forward movement for the narrative, filling it with personal dramas, intergenerational tension and learning. Still, the chosen structure also imposes limitations on the narrative depth. Lengthy time gaps with few entries may not provide the reader with enough 'food for thought' or involvement with the characters personalities as letters and journal entries are confined to event and activity updates.
Mara Feeney has observed and captured the realities of life in the North more intimately than most outsiders would be able to. Like her "outside" protagonist, Alison, she has learned the local language, Inuktitut. While focusing on the inter-personal and community level through her different characters she nevertheless sets her story into the historical context of the Northwest Territories leading up to the birth of Nunavut on April 1, 1999.
June 26, 2017
The author spent a number of years working in various areas of Canada's Arctic region and territories and some of those years were spent in the village of Rankin Inlet, located on the northwest edge of Hudson Bay. She knows the region and the people well. Thus, this book feels very true.
The story is about Alison Clark, a Liverpudlian nurse who decided to travel to the Canadian north to work for a couple of years in Rankin Inlet and ended up staying for 30 years. The narrative comes from several points of view, not just Alison's and through those, we learn quite a lot about Inuit culture, the history of how some of the Inuit came to live in these kinds of towns which were founded by companies like Hudson's Bay Company and various mining and other companies. These towns were shored up and supported by the Canadian Government, a history that would seem to be a relatively common one to many of the Inuit settlements. We learn of their beliefs, spirituality, customs and challenges.
It's a way of life that intrigues Alison as she settles in, tries to learn the language, makes friends and even finds love. She marries and has a family and we see the town grow through the eyes of her, her husband, her father-in-law, her brother-in-law and one or two others on occasion. This tells the story from different points of view, where the culture clashes with her own background. For non-Inuit who are not born and raised here, it is often difficult to survive in such an environment let alone thrive. The weather alone is forbidding and the isolation can be difficult but some really do thrive and come to love the land and it's people as Alison does. I'm pretty sure I couldn't manage it but it's fascinating to read and become part of it for awhile.
As with many books that cover a spread of time, the first half of the book is more detailed, while the second half jumps through the years more quickly with catch up entries from the diaries, letters and thoughts of the characters as the north moves towards becoming a new territory, Nunvut, and the old ways fade away as the settlements become towns and even cities. This is progress. It may or may not be a good thing. Struggles to survive off the land may not be there anymore, but the corruption of progress can have devastating effects, too. It's interesting to see how some of the children in the family grow up and leave, embracing the modern world and some, while being used to the "modern conveniences" and technology, still look to their heritage to fulfill their lives and livelihoods.
It's not a traditional happy ending or a sad one, there's no real event to end the book. The books ends on a "circle of life" or "life goes on" kind of philosophy.
The story is about Alison Clark, a Liverpudlian nurse who decided to travel to the Canadian north to work for a couple of years in Rankin Inlet and ended up staying for 30 years. The narrative comes from several points of view, not just Alison's and through those, we learn quite a lot about Inuit culture, the history of how some of the Inuit came to live in these kinds of towns which were founded by companies like Hudson's Bay Company and various mining and other companies. These towns were shored up and supported by the Canadian Government, a history that would seem to be a relatively common one to many of the Inuit settlements. We learn of their beliefs, spirituality, customs and challenges.
It's a way of life that intrigues Alison as she settles in, tries to learn the language, makes friends and even finds love. She marries and has a family and we see the town grow through the eyes of her, her husband, her father-in-law, her brother-in-law and one or two others on occasion. This tells the story from different points of view, where the culture clashes with her own background. For non-Inuit who are not born and raised here, it is often difficult to survive in such an environment let alone thrive. The weather alone is forbidding and the isolation can be difficult but some really do thrive and come to love the land and it's people as Alison does. I'm pretty sure I couldn't manage it but it's fascinating to read and become part of it for awhile.
As with many books that cover a spread of time, the first half of the book is more detailed, while the second half jumps through the years more quickly with catch up entries from the diaries, letters and thoughts of the characters as the north moves towards becoming a new territory, Nunvut, and the old ways fade away as the settlements become towns and even cities. This is progress. It may or may not be a good thing. Struggles to survive off the land may not be there anymore, but the corruption of progress can have devastating effects, too. It's interesting to see how some of the children in the family grow up and leave, embracing the modern world and some, while being used to the "modern conveniences" and technology, still look to their heritage to fulfill their lives and livelihoods.
It's not a traditional happy ending or a sad one, there's no real event to end the book. The books ends on a "circle of life" or "life goes on" kind of philosophy.
September 5, 2014
I grew up reading Farley Mowatt short stories about northern Canadian adventures such as Never Cry Wolf. This book is right there with them if you enjoy those type of stories. This is a novel about contemporary Inuits and other people that choose to live up where most would not and what their lives are like in the late 20th century at the dawn of the Information Age. The author Mara Feeney is also a local Amador county wine maker and farm producer for the CSA we belong to.
November 17, 2025
Historical Fiction about a young British woman that accepts a position as a nurse-midwife in the Canadian wilderness. Written in the form of diary entries and letters over the course of her time in Rankin Inlet on Hudson Bay. Not my normal reading genre so it took me awhile to get into the story. All in all it is well written. The characters and the scenes are very believable. In the end the book actually spoke to me. Some of lessons learned resonated with my current life situation. I would highly recommend this book.
“You can free a train from its tracks, but then it won’t go anywhere”
“You can free a train from its tracks, but then it won’t go anywhere”
June 6, 2021
This was a neat book to read closely after Minds of Winter, and with a friend living up in Nunavut now. Written in letters and diary entries, from interleaving perspectives, over several decades.
October 29, 2009
I love reading books that help me discover a new culture or country. Although I am Canadian, I felt I discovered for the first time part of my country with this novel set in Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, formerly the Northwest Territories. It’s the Canadian Arctic after all and very different from my own multi-cultural Montreal.
The story begins with Alison Clark, a young British woman who in 1970 leaves England to work as nurse-midwife in the remote village of Rankin Inlet. She experiences a sense of community belonging there and falls in love with the land and its people. It's a moving story of love and losses, changes and adaptations, ingrained beliefs and traditions.
The story is told through diary entries and correspondence of several of the characters, mainly Alison, as well as Ivaluk and Nikmak—both Inuit man. Through Ivaluk (Nikmak’s son) and his letters to his adopted kid brother Thomasie, we learn what the life of an Inuit is like, their joys, struggles, beliefs and customs. Through Nikmak, an Inuit elder, we get a true sense of the older generation and the changes and adaptations they experienced throughout the years into our modern era. Feeney also explores such topics as alcohol, inter-racial marriages, depression, and the influence of modern technology on a traditional people.
The beginning of the novel is a little confusing as Nikmak’s entries are initially seven months ahead of Alison’s and Ivaluk’s, but when theirs catch up to his, their stories intertwine beautifully. I feel the author truly grasped the voice of the Inuit people and brought them to life through the Inuktitut language and expressions. For example:
Snowflakes fat as ptarmigans are spinning down from the sky now. p.190
My legs feel as weak as a newborn tuktu calf. p.234
Nikmak’s entries would always end with a sing-song expression such as Aiyayayaaiieh and I could clearly hear in my mind his deep male voice singing.
As the story evolves and spans thirty years, we see the changes that take place among the Inuit people who went from hunt-gatherers to wageworkers. Positive political and cultural changes were brought about with the 1993 Land Claims Agreement Act that finally entitled Inuit with certain aboriginal rights. Because of this, the Inuit culture, beliefs and customs are now taught in Canadian schools so that I was somewhat familiar with some of the things I read in this novel, such as the food called bannock. My daughter came home with the recipe one day from her Social Studies class.
There are some sex scenes in this novel, but they are short and not explicit. One is described briefly but does not involve the main character.
Mara Feeney is a talented writer who has written a novel that kept my interest throughout, with believable, remarkable characters and a setting unlike any I have read before. I would certainly read another novel by this author.
The story begins with Alison Clark, a young British woman who in 1970 leaves England to work as nurse-midwife in the remote village of Rankin Inlet. She experiences a sense of community belonging there and falls in love with the land and its people. It's a moving story of love and losses, changes and adaptations, ingrained beliefs and traditions.
The story is told through diary entries and correspondence of several of the characters, mainly Alison, as well as Ivaluk and Nikmak—both Inuit man. Through Ivaluk (Nikmak’s son) and his letters to his adopted kid brother Thomasie, we learn what the life of an Inuit is like, their joys, struggles, beliefs and customs. Through Nikmak, an Inuit elder, we get a true sense of the older generation and the changes and adaptations they experienced throughout the years into our modern era. Feeney also explores such topics as alcohol, inter-racial marriages, depression, and the influence of modern technology on a traditional people.
The beginning of the novel is a little confusing as Nikmak’s entries are initially seven months ahead of Alison’s and Ivaluk’s, but when theirs catch up to his, their stories intertwine beautifully. I feel the author truly grasped the voice of the Inuit people and brought them to life through the Inuktitut language and expressions. For example:
Snowflakes fat as ptarmigans are spinning down from the sky now. p.190
My legs feel as weak as a newborn tuktu calf. p.234
Nikmak’s entries would always end with a sing-song expression such as Aiyayayaaiieh and I could clearly hear in my mind his deep male voice singing.
As the story evolves and spans thirty years, we see the changes that take place among the Inuit people who went from hunt-gatherers to wageworkers. Positive political and cultural changes were brought about with the 1993 Land Claims Agreement Act that finally entitled Inuit with certain aboriginal rights. Because of this, the Inuit culture, beliefs and customs are now taught in Canadian schools so that I was somewhat familiar with some of the things I read in this novel, such as the food called bannock. My daughter came home with the recipe one day from her Social Studies class.
There are some sex scenes in this novel, but they are short and not explicit. One is described briefly but does not involve the main character.
Mara Feeney is a talented writer who has written a novel that kept my interest throughout, with believable, remarkable characters and a setting unlike any I have read before. I would certainly read another novel by this author.
October 17, 2016
I was interested in this book in particular because I have been living in Rankin Inlet for about two years now, so I am by no means an expert on the north either. I read the entire book in a day. It was a light and easy read. It was generally well written and it is evident that Mara Feeney is a talented author. I asked others from Rankin what they thought and we all had the same perspective: it felt like it was written by a white person who was not here for very long.
I appreciated Mara Feeney's perspectives through Alice, the white nurse, particularly when she was new to Rankin. Her portrayal of most of the white characters felt quite realistic and even mirrored many of my own experiences, though it started to stray as the book went on. I did not like the way she portrayed the Inuk characters she wrote through a first person view though. Her Inuk characters did not feel authentic to me.
I think she downplayed a lot of the trauma and injustices that occurred during colonialism of the Inuit. She spoke of people killing their own sled dogs, when I have mostly heard numerous tales from people whose dogs were massacred in front of them, to force them to settle. Her portrayal of residential schools seemed atrociously lighthearted compared to the stories I heard here, from people who were beat by the priests and nuns for speaking Inuktitut. There was a residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, one of the communities she mentions in the book, where the tales are horrific and have impacted a great deal of Inuit of the Kivalliq region today, yet she did not even mention the school there. I found her book made it seem like the change from nomadic to settled living was willing on the part of Inuit, when from what I have heard it was not.
I was concerned by how much she romanticized the Inuit and Nunavut, which I am saying as a white person who absolutely loves it here. It is certainly true that Nunavut has changed drastically from 1970 to 2016, so we likely have had entirely different experiences. Furthermore, she came up as an anthropologist whereas I am here in another completely different field.
I suppose what I am essentially saying is take this book with a grain of salt. Please do not, under any circumstances, let this book be your primary representation of Inuit life and experiences in Nunavut. I would highly encourage you to read other novels, written by Inuit and life-long residents of the north for a more authentic portrayal.
Happy reading!
I appreciated Mara Feeney's perspectives through Alice, the white nurse, particularly when she was new to Rankin. Her portrayal of most of the white characters felt quite realistic and even mirrored many of my own experiences, though it started to stray as the book went on. I did not like the way she portrayed the Inuk characters she wrote through a first person view though. Her Inuk characters did not feel authentic to me.
I think she downplayed a lot of the trauma and injustices that occurred during colonialism of the Inuit. She spoke of people killing their own sled dogs, when I have mostly heard numerous tales from people whose dogs were massacred in front of them, to force them to settle. Her portrayal of residential schools seemed atrociously lighthearted compared to the stories I heard here, from people who were beat by the priests and nuns for speaking Inuktitut. There was a residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, one of the communities she mentions in the book, where the tales are horrific and have impacted a great deal of Inuit of the Kivalliq region today, yet she did not even mention the school there. I found her book made it seem like the change from nomadic to settled living was willing on the part of Inuit, when from what I have heard it was not.
I was concerned by how much she romanticized the Inuit and Nunavut, which I am saying as a white person who absolutely loves it here. It is certainly true that Nunavut has changed drastically from 1970 to 2016, so we likely have had entirely different experiences. Furthermore, she came up as an anthropologist whereas I am here in another completely different field.
I suppose what I am essentially saying is take this book with a grain of salt. Please do not, under any circumstances, let this book be your primary representation of Inuit life and experiences in Nunavut. I would highly encourage you to read other novels, written by Inuit and life-long residents of the north for a more authentic portrayal.
Happy reading!
November 23, 2010
Mara Feeney’s novel, Rankin Inlet is a beautifully written piece of Canadian literature that truly captures the spirit of the north. The Arctic is a place of harsh terrain and skilled survivors; it may be geographically isolated but the connections between the inhabitants are deep and lasting.
The story is presented from the point of view of several characters in the form of diary entries, letters and oral history, spanning nearly 30 years. It all begins in March of 1970 with Alison a British nurse/midwife, who finding jobs scarce in England, chooses the adventure of administering healthcare to the Inuit people in an isolated community in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
One of her Inuit patients, Kublu is comatose and is visited frequently by her father, Nikmak. It is through the stories he tells to try and awaken his daughter that the culture, values and fierce devotion of the peoples of Rankin Inlet are revealed. Kublu’s older brother, Ivaluk the brilliant hunter is another key voice. He represents the generation of youth beginning to break away from the old ways.
As the story progresses the lives of these people become intertwined. Alison falls in love with Ivaluk and must commit to a new way of life, learning to raise a family in the sometimes desolate Canadian Arctic. Coming to terms with cultural practices proves to be challenging as does stretching resources to provide for a growing family. Ivaluk often communicates his frustrations and joys with his adopted brother, Thomasie, who takes an important role in government, helping to bring about the creation of the province of Nunavut.
As their family grows, we are introduced to Alison and Ivaluk’s youngest daughter, Ukaliq who treats us to the perspective of an Inuit youth with a bright future. The threads of all of their stories create a wisely woven tale that shows us that all people, no matter how diverse their backgrounds may be, are connected by the common thread of love.
To read the rest of this review, please go to the following link http://www.metaxacunningham.com/wakin...
May 20, 2012
Rare Look into the North
Arctic fiction is a taste that is difficult to sate. Having been raised on Canadiana and returning to it on a regular basis as a now ex-patriot, I try to be alert to new voices and writers within this genre. I also have a long line of disappointments to show for the effort. You can imagine then, my excitement to learn of none other than Farley Mowat giving praise to the novel, Rankin Inlet. Mowat and Berton have been the standard by which I measure most other offerings and so with Rankin Inlet being available on the Kindle, it did not take much prompting for me to download this book.
Feeney uses a creative non-narrative approach and speaks through several voices in her intriguing book. In doing so she weaves a story that ties both her anthropological background, which is richly evident, and creates a multi-cultural feast that also ties-in very well developed characters who are rich and endearing to the reader. She does this while dealing with very real issues of the far north that are familiar to those who have experienced it, or read of it to any depth.
Issues such as alcoholism, suicide, economic and ecologic exploitation both past and present, the fight for native Canadian independence and reparations are all woven into a story that ties strongly to actual recent history.
While the genre is decidedly different than what I've sought in the standards of Mowat and Berton, I found it bringing back memories and a sepia toned nostalgic type feeling I haven't experienced since the early reads of Lost in the Barrens and People of the Deer (Death of a People).
A remarkable first novel and worthy read for anyone who loves the far north, or even just a very well crafted novel.
5 Stars
Bart Breen
Arctic fiction is a taste that is difficult to sate. Having been raised on Canadiana and returning to it on a regular basis as a now ex-patriot, I try to be alert to new voices and writers within this genre. I also have a long line of disappointments to show for the effort. You can imagine then, my excitement to learn of none other than Farley Mowat giving praise to the novel, Rankin Inlet. Mowat and Berton have been the standard by which I measure most other offerings and so with Rankin Inlet being available on the Kindle, it did not take much prompting for me to download this book.
Feeney uses a creative non-narrative approach and speaks through several voices in her intriguing book. In doing so she weaves a story that ties both her anthropological background, which is richly evident, and creates a multi-cultural feast that also ties-in very well developed characters who are rich and endearing to the reader. She does this while dealing with very real issues of the far north that are familiar to those who have experienced it, or read of it to any depth.
Issues such as alcoholism, suicide, economic and ecologic exploitation both past and present, the fight for native Canadian independence and reparations are all woven into a story that ties strongly to actual recent history.
While the genre is decidedly different than what I've sought in the standards of Mowat and Berton, I found it bringing back memories and a sepia toned nostalgic type feeling I haven't experienced since the early reads of Lost in the Barrens and People of the Deer (Death of a People).
A remarkable first novel and worthy read for anyone who loves the far north, or even just a very well crafted novel.
5 Stars
Bart Breen
January 25, 2014
Great characters and descriptions; original.
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