The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

"In the vast expanse of this unpredictable wilderness, you will either become your best self and flourish, or you will run away, screaming, from the dark and the cold and the hardship. There is no middle ground, no safe place; not here, in the Great Alone."
            -Lenora Allbright Walker, from the novel

I loved The Nightingale by this author and it was a highly-rated selection for our Page Turners group. Since I had seen The Great Alone on the Bestseller list some time ago and knew it was set in Alaska, a favorite place to visit, I wanted to read it. When I spotted it on the New Fiction shelves at the library, it almost jumped into my hands.

Beginning in 1974 the story centers around the Allbright family---parents Ernt and Cora and daughter Leni, told in third person, but mostly from Leni's perspective, starting as a young teen. Leni's coming-of-age story is told in the midst of family dysfunction caused by Vietnam vet and former POW Ernt's apparent PTSD which was not very well recognized or treated in the '70s. Early in the novel Ernt inherits land in Alaska and decides to relocate the family to "live off the grid." Cora agrees, thinking her troubled husband will be happier there and for a while he is. The move turns out to be both blessing and curse.

I am always curious about the significance of book titles. I learned the term "Great Alone" came from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert Service. (excerpt follows)

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,

And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;

With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,

A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;

I was familiar with "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service but didn't realize he is known as the Bard of the Yukon.

Some of the setting seemed familiar to me. The first time I traveled to Alaska, a friend and I visited with some folks who had been pioneers in the '70s so much of this story rang true.

Among the themes of The Great Alone are domestic abuse, unconditional love and survival. I thought it was an excellent read---a page-turner---although much of the plot was not exactly enjoyable. I will rate the book a 4+. Not as good as The Nightingale. Just saying....