Play Book Tag discussion

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey - 5 stars

PBT Comments: This book contains both beautiful writing and a beautiful cover.

Set in 1885 in Alaska Territory, Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester has been requested by the U.S. military to lead a small expedition to explore the interior, draw maps, and report on the nature of indigenous people. He and a member of his team keep journals of their travels, while his wife, Sophie, documents the activities at Fort Vancouver during his absence. In addition to a sense of adventure, the narrative provides an intimate portrait of a marriage and a journey of personal discovery. The author interweaves journal entries, letters, postcards, news articles, artifacts, photos, official reports, and other documents. She includes current-day communications between Allen Forrester’s great nephew and an archivist at an Alaskan museum to whom he has entrusted the expedition’s surviving journals and artifacts. Though the story is fictional, the author states in the Afterward that it was inspired by a real expedition led by Lieutenant Henry T. Allen.

This book offers a satisfying combination of exploration in an extreme environment, historical detail, interactions among diverse people, and atmospheric writing. The prose imparts both the majesty and brutality of this stark landscape. I thought the author did an exceptional job of giving a unique and consistent voice to each character’s journals. The main characters are deeply developed through first person journal entries. Ivey weaves the narrative together in such a way as to keep interest in both storylines. I was especially impressed by her ability to make Sophie’s “life at the Fort” into a compelling story of personal discovery. Her husband’s journey into previously unexplored wilderness is, of course, filled with the joys of new discoveries, and the challenges of surviving in rugged terrain with little food. I tend to enjoy tales of exploration, especially in extremely cold climates. I am not a huge fan of magical realism, in general, but I thought it worked well here in conveying the mystical quality of the beliefs and folklore of the native people. In conditions of near-starvation, sickness, injury, and exposure, we are left to ponder the line between the real and the imagined.

This book has many qualities that form a successful story: adventure, historical context, peril, mysticism, interpersonal relationships, and dramatic tension. The inclusion of the present-day letters provides insight into the ultimate outcomes of this type expedition and provides much food for thought. I thought the entire effort was masterfully executed. Highly recommended.

Samples of the beautiful writing:
“Such icy stillness. Our breath turns to hoarfrost in our beards, hair. Our eyelashes stick together in clumps of frost. Our lungs ache with cold. The others look to me like creatures with fur of snow; no doubt I am to them as well. The harder we work, the more our sweat & breath encases us in ice.”

“I took hold of the trunk of the small tree and peered into its lowest branches, where at last I saw it. The smallest, most precious thing – the nest of a ruby-throated humming bird. The nest was not much larger than a child’s cupped hand, and cradled in its thistle down and fern were two white eggs the size of peas.”

“How can I describe something so specific yet ethereal? If I could describe it perfectly, there would be no need for the pursuit. Isn’t the service of art to bring into focus something that cannot otherwise be defined?”

“When we are young, we consume the world in great gulps, and it consumes us, and everything is mysterious and alive and fills us with desire and wonder, fear, and guilt. With the passing of the years, however, those memories become distant and malleable, and we shape them into the stories of who we are. We are brave, or we are cowardly. We are loving, or we are cruel.”


Link to My GR Review

I'm so glad you liked this. It's one of my favorites. I just reread my review and saw a note to myself, 'need to own this soon'. I don't own it. I'd forgotten that I wanted a hardback copy. But now ..... I've just made more room on my bookshelves. :)

Thanks, Jgrace & Ann. I shied away from The Snow Child for the same reason. I will probably read it at some point based on how much I enjoyed this one.

Yay! Joy, I'm so glad you liked it. It made my top 10 list the year I read it.

Very nice review.

I have this on my TBR - I loved The Snow Child. Thanks for your lovely review!

Theresa wrote: "I have this on my TBR - I loved The Snow Child. Thanks for your lovely review!"

Theresa, I'm pretty sure you will like this. It features a strong woman.

I wrote a review of this one too a very long time back. I did like it, but as usual I was slightly under the rave. I think I had read a bunch of other books that were also extraordinary around the same time. And sometimes a very good book can suffer for what’s around it on the queue.

Amy wrote: "I wrote a review of this one too a very long time back. I did like it, but as usual I was slightly under the rave."

It's interesting how we react differently sometimes to books others love. I've had quite a few of those.

This one hit so many of the areas I enjoy reading... exploration, extreme cold, journeys of personal discovery, deep characterization. I read lots of non-fiction of this type, and thought the author did an excellent job of capturing the spirit of exploration as well as the ultimate damage it can do to the people and environment.

Amy wrote: "I wrote a review of this one too a very long time back. I did like it, but as usual IAnd sometimes a very good book can suffer for what’s around it on the queue."

Agreed, Amy!

Joy D wrote: "This one hit so many of the areas I enjoy reading... exploration, extreme cold, journeys of personal discovery, deep characterization. I read lots of non-fiction of this type, and thought the author did an excellent job of capturing the spirit of exploration as well as the ultimate damage it can do to the people and environment.."

I read that and thought, we must have a lot in common, so I compared books and we have 520 in common and 87% similar.

I will definitely note what books you read.