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Consumption
by
Kevin Patterson (Goodreads Author)
In Rankin Inlet, a small town bordering the Arctic Ocean, the lives of the Inuit are gradually changing. The caribou and seals are no longer plentiful, and Western commerce has come to the community through a proposed diamond mine. Victoria Robertson wakes to a violent storm, her three children stirring in the dark. Her father, Emo, a legendary hunter who has come in off t...more
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published
August 7th 2007
by Nan A. Talese
(first published 2006)
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I just remembered to add Consumption to My Books. It is one of my favourite books of all time, but reading the personal reviews on Goodread shows that the novel has an either love or hate relationship.
My biggest puzzle has been that this book did not take off as a best seller anywhere. It is a blockbuster, a huge fill your heart story, a novel of moral and cultural contradictions, of best intentions gone wrong, of a clash between eras and the lure of modernization over tradition.
Consumption is...more
My biggest puzzle has been that this book did not take off as a best seller anywhere. It is a blockbuster, a huge fill your heart story, a novel of moral and cultural contradictions, of best intentions gone wrong, of a clash between eras and the lure of modernization over tradition.
Consumption is...more
WOW! LOVED IT!
Anomie. Ennui. The French have the best names for it; but it was the Americans who invented teenagers and adolescence and it is among the Americans that the phenomenon is the most impressive. People say that change is hardest for the old, but this is unlikely, because the old have the simple expedient available to them of just refusing to. New forms of music—swing, rock, hip-hop—are not embraced by anyone over forty, except poseurs. New languages are all but unavailable to anyone o...more
Anomie. Ennui. The French have the best names for it; but it was the Americans who invented teenagers and adolescence and it is among the Americans that the phenomenon is the most impressive. People say that change is hardest for the old, but this is unlikely, because the old have the simple expedient available to them of just refusing to. New forms of music—swing, rock, hip-hop—are not embraced by anyone over forty, except poseurs. New languages are all but unavailable to anyone o...more
Apr 30, 2009
Vivienne
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
The People, Qallunaats and Kablunauk
Recommended to Vivienne by:
Judged by Cover
Shelves:
northern-studies
The novel opens with Victoria's journey from Rankin Inlet in the eastern Canadian Arctic to a sanitorium in Manitoba, back to Rankin Inlet and marriage to an imported business mogul, to Polynesia and back to Rankin Inlet. Although most of the narrative features Victoria's relationships with family including her traditional Inuit parents and her children with her English-Caucasian husband, the book is mostly about Rankin Inlet's American doctor.
Patterson brings forward some Inuit points of view w...more
Patterson brings forward some Inuit points of view w...more
Consumption is an engaging, difficult to put down novel. Set in the Arctic, and covering a time frame from the 1950's to present day, this novel revolves around Victoria a young Inuit girl isolated from her traditional nomadic family to obtain treatment for tuberculosis during most of her pre-teen/teenage years in a sanatorium in The Pas (northern Manitoba). The novel really begins to pick up when Victoria returns to Rankin Inlet and tries to adapt to a family and culture that now seem foreign t...more
I liked reading this book partly for its unusual setting: the Arctic. Set in modern-day (50's - 80's), the Inuits and the "Southerners," the old and the new ways, coexist and clash. From natives married to southern Hudson Bay men, to southern doctors and teachers, the characters struggle and suffer through the collision, including an Inuit daughter who spends so many years away from her family at a sanatorium for consumptives that when she returns she has become a unique young woman with a foot...more
Kevin Patterson's Consumption is rich in information about the Arctic, the Inuit, the transition that contact has forced upon them especially in last half century, the medical problems facing not only people of the north but humankind over the past several centuries. For those people who read fiction for information about new places and people, this should wash. I enjoyed the book on that level as well. For anyone looking for a good novel, there is lots that a reader has to forgive beginning wi...more
Apr 07, 2008
Sara
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Peds ER book club, Lorie E., Cathleen, LInda (?)
Very well written by a physician. "Medical people" will enjoy the clinical aspects of the book. An interesting look at life in the Canadian Arctic and how it changes with industrialization. I definitely recommend this book to people who like to learn while reading an engaging story.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This story starts with a young Inuit girl whose family has been living in the traditional way - off the land. She is found to have TB and is sent south for treatment. We see her struggles when she returns, having been exposed to 1950's modern life. We follow her and her community as the new industries (mining etc) and government programs pull the natives into fixed residential comunities and their ancient traditional way of life begins to change. Victoria, the main female character is not the ea...more
This novel tells the story as seen through the eyes of the physician who treats a community of Inuit. He documents the changes in the Inuit culture, from a nomadic life living off the land to settlement in small communities and working for a “company” exploiting natural resources. He describes how their illnesses and diseases morph according to their changes in lifestyle and eating habits. This is not a dry documentary, but an engaging story focusing primarily on one family and their relationshi...more
There were many different stories weaving together throughout this novel. And perhaps that was its weakness for me. I would have preferred to focus on fewer characters, and thereby get to know them better, get to really hear their voice. At times it felt like Patterson let his belief in the cause of the people he was writing about to overshadow the story, it felt like he was trying to pack too much in. A sense of pace and close connection was lost.
For me the section at the end - the doctors unp...more
For me the section at the end - the doctors unp...more
This is a great exploration of the ways that the modern way of life has changed native cultures, focusing on the Inuit people. The characters are all well thought out, and the way that the novel travels over years is engaging and at times heart-wrenching.
If you liked Julie of the Wolves you will find some similarities in the themes and even emotions, although the stories are very different in many ways (most obviously length and audience).
If you liked Julie of the Wolves you will find some similarities in the themes and even emotions, although the stories are very different in many ways (most obviously length and audience).
The author does an excellent job of evoking the atmoshphere of northern Canada and the way of life for those who chose to stay there after their nomadic way of life had been extinguished. He did almost too good of a job, making this a dark and unsettling read, not much good happens in this novel. The medical pieces he included were interesting and effective in moving the story line along. The inclusion of the doctor's niece's story did not fit as seamlessly. This book sparked some great conversa...more
Being literary does have a limit, and this book exceeded it. This book was literary-ed to death. It is kind of ironic, because the author tells rather than shows his point. There are chapters that are kind of asides to the reader explaining what the symbolism is that he had been writing about. The play on words for the title is clever, though. The book didn't pick up until halfway through, and then towards the end it started dragging, so it gets 2/5 stars for the 2/5 of the book that were intere...more
Consumption is not what I expected, but pleasantly surprised in reading it.
Get to know Victoria and her family, as they are, living in the harsh Arctic in 1950s being self-sufficient on the land (ice) with their nomadic tendencies. With contact of the "Southerners", they learn that Victoria is ill and must go South to a sanatorium in order to recover. During her stay there, she finally recovers, but heartbreak follows her.
Years later she is sent back to her village, to parents, who thought she...more
Get to know Victoria and her family, as they are, living in the harsh Arctic in 1950s being self-sufficient on the land (ice) with their nomadic tendencies. With contact of the "Southerners", they learn that Victoria is ill and must go South to a sanatorium in order to recover. During her stay there, she finally recovers, but heartbreak follows her.
Years later she is sent back to her village, to parents, who thought she...more
Here i go again, trudging through more arctic tundra cold...what can i say? It's a bit of an addiction. I'm not sure what it is about these books that draws me in so thoroughly, other than an evocation of my childhood, and a connection with my lost eskimo foster sister. There is also something about the epic nature of cold, and for that matter many kinds of endurance books (but cold especially~and have i ever told you with my obsessive reading of mountain climbing account books?) This time it's...more
I had mixed feelings about this book once I was done (I wanted to give it 2 1/2 stars). The writing is strong overall, and I found the descriptions of life in an Arctic town evocative and powerful. The characters are generally all flawed, at least somewhat sympathetic, fascinating people with rich interior lives. Most of the story is marked by violence, sad and lonely deaths, betrayal within families, etc., but still kept me interested in reading it (that is, I didn't get so depressed I couldn't...more
Victoria has tb as a child and is sent away from her native inuit family in northern Canada on the edges of the tundra to be treated in the South. When she returns years later, the way of life of the inuit has changed, and so has she. She becomes involved with Robertson, the white man from the Hudson Bay Company and starts a family. This is radical, and her own family has a hard time with it, but of course soften with the arrival of the children.
Balthazar is the doctor from NY/NJ who treats the...more
Balthazar is the doctor from NY/NJ who treats the...more
I began this book because of interest in the Inuit people and their way of life. I not only learned about life in the Arctic, but about worldwide trends in diseases and medicine, as the author is a medical doctor who practices in northern Canada. He states emphatically that "...we are fatter than our drugs can compensate for." A major theme is the societal changes to a society such as the Inuits when they leave the land and move into softer, communal living. "Something about the way we have cons...more
Very interesting novel about an Inuit girl growing up in Arctic Canada. Taken from her family at age ten when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis for six years. When she returned to her roots she had nearly forgotten her native language and was no longer used to living in an igloo. She grows and marries a white man which further stigmatizes her community. The ending was kind of flat but it kept interested. I thought it was a fascinating account of a way of life that has all but disappeared.
This is not a book I would ordinarily choose to read but as the novel took place in Rankin Inlet I was inspired to read it. I really liked the part of the book that was about the north. Although I have only ever been to the airport in Rankin inlet, I felt the descriptions of life there were probably close to the reality.
The plot of the book was too dark for me at times and the ending not as uplifting as I would have enjoyed but I was glad to have read it.
The plot of the book was too dark for me at times and the ending not as uplifting as I would have enjoyed but I was glad to have read it.
Can I give s book 6 stars? I loved this book. Yes, the heroine, a Canadian Eskimo, contracts TB as a child, but the book is about how her entire life is affected by being sent away for 6 years to a sanitarium at the age of 10. It is also about how the Eskimos are changed by the white man's culture, how the Eskimo once lived on the land, and there is also some very interesting medical information. Beautiful writing. Fascinating story. And some geography lessons as well if you care to look up the...more
Beautifully written – I even liked the last bit at the end, very interesting!
There is so much to consider when you try to imagine the lives described in this story, so I feel a little silly that the thought that kept running through my head was ‘I’d starve’.
I don’t eat meat and I don’t know why people always ask ‘what about fish and chicken’? but they do so I’ll answer – no, no animal flesh for me.
I am not a vegan as I still eat honey and write with plastic pens, I don’t ask if the lactic aci...more
There is so much to consider when you try to imagine the lives described in this story, so I feel a little silly that the thought that kept running through my head was ‘I’d starve’.
I don’t eat meat and I don’t know why people always ask ‘what about fish and chicken’? but they do so I’ll answer – no, no animal flesh for me.
I am not a vegan as I still eat honey and write with plastic pens, I don’t ask if the lactic aci...more
This had the potential to be an interesting story but I got ahold of it at a time when I couldn't spend extended periods reading and I lost the drift. It's about a mixed Inuit-Anglo family living near Hudson Bay at the time that the old ways of living off the land gave way to living in communities and adopting Anglo ways. Maybe I'll return to it some day when my time is less fragmented but I lost patience with it and gave up about 1/2 way through.
Apr 01, 2009
Pennydublin
added it
Interesting (but slightly disjointed) somewhat autobiographical story of a doctor/writer who works in public health in the far northern villages of the Hudson Bay area, with the Inuit. Story told from pt of view of different members of the tribe. History of TB interwoven, and raises larger questions about the impact of new cultures on old cultures. Good read.
Perhaps this book was a test of my patience. I guess I passed. It took me 220 pages (380 total) to commit even to finish it. While I am generally okay with a book where nothing really happens, this one tried my patience. Although there are a myriad of characters, I could not find one (save perhaps the doctor whose issues are hinted at/glossed over without real resolution) that drew me in/made me want to read it. In the end, I merely soldiered on but would not recommend the book as there's no con...more
Life in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, a place I've never been and might never go, but find fascinating nonetheless. It's the kind of place, way up North, where things have changed from a traditional way of life (with some Hudson's Bay presence in certain months) to a "modern" way of life, with villages (instead of nomadism), ATVs (instead of dogs), houses (instead of igloos), satellite TV (instead of seal oil lamps), and chef boyardee (instead of cariboo and seal and whale and char). Consumption certai...more
As a friend and colleague of Kevin Patterson, who worked with him in the Arctic, I think he did a fine job of depicting the lives of the Inuit and the feeling of the landscape. I read this book long after I had left those frozen lands and was transported back to one of the most magical places on earth. Well done Kevin, and thanks.
An interesting book that deals with the artic north and the interplay between the old customs and modern conveinences. The story focuses on one family and the way their relationships and lives changes as their village becomes more and more modern. Intriguing but the author did not capture my attention from beginning to end.
There are some truly insightful moments in this book and the doctor's journal entries about disease are really fascinating. The assimilation and acculturation of the Inuits is really heartbreaking to watch. Patterson does a good job of chronicling that. However, I'm not sure if he succeeded in tying in the lives of the many many characters he had in the novel. Could be a much tighter novel with more editing.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBC Books: Consumption: A Novel by Kevin Patterson | 10 | 36 | 31 de May 11:06 | |
| this book one of the best published in last ten years | 1 | 17 | 18 de Mar 15:02 |
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“The idea of latency is worth thinking about. Biology rewards patience. Mycobacterium tuberculosis understands this. It estabishes its toeholds and then it becomes dormant. And in that restraint it demonstrates the full extend of its power. It is not necessary that every thirst be slaked. In not acting upon a desire, that desire is diminished neither in intensity nor in merit. Priests fall in love with parishioners and display it all the time--we read about this in the newspapers. What we do not read about are the times, over and over again, when those words are not said, those kisses are not offered, or solicited. But such unexpressed love does not amount to nothing. When we love it is because we have seen especially clearly. And a clear view of human beauty is a treasure that endures for as long as the possessor of such insight breathes. And endurance is the final measure of importance: of ideas and of organisms. Love lies latent sometimes, as tuberculosis does--but, as any epidemiologist will tell you, latent is nothing like gone.”
—
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