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Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade
Sunny Deauville's duties as proprietor of the best brothel in Alaska and her lusty, guilt-free life are counterbalanced by her obsession with finding her father, lost years before in the backcountry wilds.
395 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
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About the author
John Hawkes
109 books192 followersJohn Hawkes, born John Clendennin Talbot Burne Hawkes, Jr., was a postmodern American novelist, known for the intensity of his work, which suspended the traditional constraints of the narrative.
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, and educated at Harvard University, Hawkes taught at Brown University for thirty years. Although he published his first novel, The Cannibal, in 1949, it was The Lime Twig (1961) that first won him acclaim. Later, however, his second novel, The Beetle Leg, an intensely surrealistic western set in a Montana landscape that T. S. Eliot might have conjured, came to be viewed by many critics as one of the landmark novels of 20th Century American literature.
Hawkes died in Providence, Rhode Island.
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, and educated at Harvard University, Hawkes taught at Brown University for thirty years. Although he published his first novel, The Cannibal, in 1949, it was The Lime Twig (1961) that first won him acclaim. Later, however, his second novel, The Beetle Leg, an intensely surrealistic western set in a Montana landscape that T. S. Eliot might have conjured, came to be viewed by many critics as one of the landmark novels of 20th Century American literature.
Hawkes died in Providence, Rhode Island.
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February 2, 2026Ausgerechnet im zweitkältesten und dunkelsten Winter seit 30 Jahren muss ich einen Roman über Alaska lesen – wo ich doch Frost, Eis und Sturm noch nie ausstehen konnte. Selber schuld! Gut war er trotzdem, schon weil ich nur aus dem Fenster schauen musste, um alles lebendig und echt zu erleben.
Die Geschichte wird von Sunny Deauville erzählt, einer burschikosen Bordellbesitzerin, in Jeans und Holzfällerhemd, die ihre eigene Cessna fliegt und einen Bärenschädel auf ihrem Schreibtisch hat. Die Handlung ist autobiografisch inspiriert, nur schlüpft Hawkes Stimme in die weibliche Erzählerin, um sich emotional nicht zu belasten, wie er sagt. 1930, Sunny war noch keine fünf, beschließt ihr ziemlich schräger Vater in Alaska das Abenteuer zu suchen. Und so übersiedeln alle drei in die alaskanische Hauptstadt Juneau. Sissy, die Mutter, ist nicht wirklich glücklich, aber die kleine Sunny ist begeistert.
Alaska im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, eine Welt der Pelzhändler, Goldwäscher, Gewalt und wirtschaftlichen Ausbeutung. Es erscheint weniger als realistischer Ort denn als mythisch überhöhter Grenzraum, in dem soziale Regeln aufgehoben sind und das Überleben stets prekär bleibt. Uncle Jake, wie sich Sunnys Vater nennen lässt, stürzt sich unerschrocken von einer Niederlage in die andere. Bei seinem letzten Abenteuer verschwindet er spurlos.
Sunny ist besessen von ihrem Vater. Er ist Beschützer und Vermittler der Welt – aber auch Manipulator. Er hat sie geprägt, er hat ihre Weiblichkeit immer ignoriert und einen Jungen aus ihr gemacht. Aber vor allem ist er Erzähler. Seine Geschichten formen die Wahrnehmung der Tochter: Er erzählt, um Angst zu bannen, um Sinn zu stiften, um Kontrolle zu behalten. Sunny lebt in diesen Erzählungen, sie sind ihre Wirklichkeit. Damit wird die Vater-Tochter-Beziehung ambivalent: Zärtlichkeit und Fürsorge stehen neben Abhängigkeit und subtiler Gewalt. Der Vater schützt nicht nur – er definiert, was erzählbar und damit denkbar ist. Nach seinem Verschwinden verfolgt er Sunny bis in ihre Alpträume. Erst als Uncle Jake in einem dieser Träume lebendig begraben wird und sich kurz darauf das Rätsel seines Verschwindens auflöst, findet Sunny zu sich selbst.
Obwohl die vielen skurrilen Geschichten für den Leser äußerst unterhaltsam sind, sind sie kein Mittel der Unterhaltung, sondern bürgen für Moral, Ordnung und Identität in einer lebensbedrohlichen Welt. Hawkes zeigt, wie Erzählen Wirklichkeit formt: Wer erzählt, bestimmt die Bedeutung der Ereignisse. Gleichzeitig schwingt stets die Frage mit, was verschwiegen, verzerrt oder verdrängt wird. Die Geschichten des Vaters sind nie neutral; sie sind Schutz und Bedrohung zugleich.
Hawkes verzichtet hier auf seinen gewagten und halluzinatorischen Stil und schreibt konventionell, aber gekonnt wie gewohnt. Thematisch bleibt er sich treu: Auch hier geht es um Macht, Abhängigkeit, die Kraft der Imagination und die Fragilität von Wirklichkeit.
Die Geschichte wird von Sunny Deauville erzählt, einer burschikosen Bordellbesitzerin, in Jeans und Holzfällerhemd, die ihre eigene Cessna fliegt und einen Bärenschädel auf ihrem Schreibtisch hat. Die Handlung ist autobiografisch inspiriert, nur schlüpft Hawkes Stimme in die weibliche Erzählerin, um sich emotional nicht zu belasten, wie er sagt. 1930, Sunny war noch keine fünf, beschließt ihr ziemlich schräger Vater in Alaska das Abenteuer zu suchen. Und so übersiedeln alle drei in die alaskanische Hauptstadt Juneau. Sissy, die Mutter, ist nicht wirklich glücklich, aber die kleine Sunny ist begeistert.
Alaska im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, eine Welt der Pelzhändler, Goldwäscher, Gewalt und wirtschaftlichen Ausbeutung. Es erscheint weniger als realistischer Ort denn als mythisch überhöhter Grenzraum, in dem soziale Regeln aufgehoben sind und das Überleben stets prekär bleibt. Uncle Jake, wie sich Sunnys Vater nennen lässt, stürzt sich unerschrocken von einer Niederlage in die andere. Bei seinem letzten Abenteuer verschwindet er spurlos.
Sunny ist besessen von ihrem Vater. Er ist Beschützer und Vermittler der Welt – aber auch Manipulator. Er hat sie geprägt, er hat ihre Weiblichkeit immer ignoriert und einen Jungen aus ihr gemacht. Aber vor allem ist er Erzähler. Seine Geschichten formen die Wahrnehmung der Tochter: Er erzählt, um Angst zu bannen, um Sinn zu stiften, um Kontrolle zu behalten. Sunny lebt in diesen Erzählungen, sie sind ihre Wirklichkeit. Damit wird die Vater-Tochter-Beziehung ambivalent: Zärtlichkeit und Fürsorge stehen neben Abhängigkeit und subtiler Gewalt. Der Vater schützt nicht nur – er definiert, was erzählbar und damit denkbar ist. Nach seinem Verschwinden verfolgt er Sunny bis in ihre Alpträume. Erst als Uncle Jake in einem dieser Träume lebendig begraben wird und sich kurz darauf das Rätsel seines Verschwindens auflöst, findet Sunny zu sich selbst.
Obwohl die vielen skurrilen Geschichten für den Leser äußerst unterhaltsam sind, sind sie kein Mittel der Unterhaltung, sondern bürgen für Moral, Ordnung und Identität in einer lebensbedrohlichen Welt. Hawkes zeigt, wie Erzählen Wirklichkeit formt: Wer erzählt, bestimmt die Bedeutung der Ereignisse. Gleichzeitig schwingt stets die Frage mit, was verschwiegen, verzerrt oder verdrängt wird. Die Geschichten des Vaters sind nie neutral; sie sind Schutz und Bedrohung zugleich.
Hawkes verzichtet hier auf seinen gewagten und halluzinatorischen Stil und schreibt konventionell, aber gekonnt wie gewohnt. Thematisch bleibt er sich treu: Auch hier geht es um Macht, Abhängigkeit, die Kraft der Imagination und die Fragilität von Wirklichkeit.
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August 21, 2016The Alaskan Skin Trade is a Hawkes approach to memoir, somehow. But forget about the memoir nature of the book, this is a gorgeous piece of father-daughter alaskan adventuring told with more concern about narrative than the classic, early phase of Hawkes' novelizing. Should you grow weary of the 'enemy of plot' school (founded by Hawkes himself?) of experimental prose-ification, please do pick up this little Adventure.
December 21, 2017
Should the initial phase of heroic manly deeds in the rugged outdoors of the last wilderness wear on the reader's patience, however engaging the storytelling voice may be, that reader is advised to watch for the cracks that Hawkes carefully underscores in the great American myths of frontier, manifest destiny, moral certainty, and endless expansion. Uncle Jake -- innocent, well-meaning, puritanical, blind to undercurrents and nuances, possessed by the fits of unseeing certainty of those incapable of self-reflection -- is an emblem of the American Hero in this mythic landscape, but his guideposts, were he able to fully note them, are the crash of '29, Disillusionment Bay, and his eventual biographer: his cynical, self-determining daughter, a successful bush pilot and prostitute preparing to leave Alaska behind for good. This is late Hawkes, fully embracing the joys of yarn-spinning narrative at last, but with a certain postmodern care in arranging his interlinked the novellas and a faithfulness to the yawning fissures prone appear in ideal lives elsewhere in his work.
August 17, 2018
John Hawkes, on his birthday August 17
Phantasms, grotesques, narratives of oblique intent, the capering of monstrosities; the novels of John Hawkes are experiments in transgression, of cruelties and impossible eroticism. Here we have the delights of that most American of diversions, the carnival freak show, as the metaphor for the whole world, and our distorted images are repeated endlessly in the funhouse mirrors, casting us adrift on infinite seas.
He intends to disorient, to obscure, to misdirect; John Hawkes employs the tools of a magician's show to transform the ordinary, and with the smoke and mirrors of his words make it wonderful and new.
As an author, John Hawkes has interchangeably played the roles which define an artist's relationship to his art and to his audience, partners in creating the meaning and value of that art; Oz, trickster god, guide of the soul, and man behind the curtain; the twin roles of Frankenstein and his monster signifying in this case the ambivalence of power as a shaping force in relationships, the passion of creative insight, and the dark side of the quest for excellence and beauty; and the Holy Fool as the jester of King Lear, who in mocking and challenging authority restores the balance of the world. On the whole, the novels of John Hawkes together represent an aesthetics which drives and contains an ontology of being and identity; the triadic dynamism of the artist, his art, and his audience acting as a metaphor of human relationships within us, among ourselves and others, and with the world.
The Cannibal, The Beetle Leg, The Lime Twig, Second Skin, The Bood Oranges, Travesty, Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade, The Frog; his Great Books are deployed as forces in a campaign against boundaries which define and limit us, a Napoleonic project of liberation, which rests on his aesthetics of relational identity as a fulcrum of change.
The Cannibal, an infinite montage of images like a magic film of our darkest passions and dreams, is a innovative and founding work of magical realism. Brimming with horrors and wild imagination, this is also one of a handful of novels about World War II and the fight against fascism written by a soldier who participated in it, and so one of the first novels I chose to put on the reading list for the American Literature classes I taught in high school.
The Beetle Leg is a nightmare of extremity in the guise of a western, unforgettable and compelling. Written as a protest against the Hollywood Blacklist and the repressive social policies of the McCarthy era, John Hawkes herein turns the lens of critical theory and literary methods he developed to combat fascism in Europe against its American counterparts as symptoms of the same disease. His analysis seems prescient and horrifyingly relevant today.
The Lime Twig, a crime drama parody of artfully constructed sadism and violence; like The Cannibal it is a Dantesque descent into an underworld of nightmares, in this case a criminal world which parallels our own as its dark reflection. As with all his works, beneath the surfaces of our illusions there is a deep well of inchoate passions, a Shadow realm in which all things may run amok. And its siren call ever beckons.
Second Skin, once again a reimagination of classical mythology, this time drawing on the Oresteia and the Iliad as its sources, describes the cannibalization of the old sailor by his own mad passions, acting as furies or hungry ghosts which, once awakened and loosed, are titanic forces beyond control. John Hawkes' use of Freudian decoding and interpretation of his classical sources is given free reign here, like an image set in bas-relief .
The Blood Oranges, a lyrical investigation of narrative truth which like the ourosbouros swallows its own form infinitely, also reshapes Greek mythology to the uses of a social criticism in which Beauty has replaced The Good as the highest ideal. Considered as the quadrants of a personality, its four main characters, moving among the frames of Alma Tadema's paintings, enact a process of creative individuation which predictably fails, due to the tragic flaw and sin of Pride of his energizing force in the narcissitic figure of Cyril, and resulting in the loss of Paradise. In this tragedy and reimagination of the Fall of Man, John Hawkes has launched his most unambiguous attack on Romantic Idealism.
Travesty, a homage to Camus' The Fall, is the monologue of a vile psychopath in a novel of existential terror which is the shadow of Ballard's novel Crash.
Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade, gloriously funny, a ribald satire of America as image and ideal, written for once as straightforward story with relatable characters. It is also point-precise social criticism, displaying an erriely accurate familiarity with his material; Alaska really is full of wonderful and eccentric characters, as are many frontiers where the law ends and we find ourselves entirely at liberty to be who we will. Our idea of America as a frontier, and ourselves as living beyond the boundaries of the known and ordered world, is presented here as the source of both our freedom and our folly. That which makes us great also makes us terrible. This is his most accessible work, which abandons not plot, character, and other recognizable signposts, and where anyone expecting to read an actual story should begin.
The Frog offers a strange fairytale, grotesque and sublime, filled with philosophical discourse and eroticisms.
Actually, if you read all eight of these novels in order, as I have done, and taking notes as you go, please let us know your answer to the great question of democracy posed by the lifework of John Hawkes; Can we escape the tyranny of other people, without ourselves becoming tyrants?
Phantasms, grotesques, narratives of oblique intent, the capering of monstrosities; the novels of John Hawkes are experiments in transgression, of cruelties and impossible eroticism. Here we have the delights of that most American of diversions, the carnival freak show, as the metaphor for the whole world, and our distorted images are repeated endlessly in the funhouse mirrors, casting us adrift on infinite seas.
He intends to disorient, to obscure, to misdirect; John Hawkes employs the tools of a magician's show to transform the ordinary, and with the smoke and mirrors of his words make it wonderful and new.
As an author, John Hawkes has interchangeably played the roles which define an artist's relationship to his art and to his audience, partners in creating the meaning and value of that art; Oz, trickster god, guide of the soul, and man behind the curtain; the twin roles of Frankenstein and his monster signifying in this case the ambivalence of power as a shaping force in relationships, the passion of creative insight, and the dark side of the quest for excellence and beauty; and the Holy Fool as the jester of King Lear, who in mocking and challenging authority restores the balance of the world. On the whole, the novels of John Hawkes together represent an aesthetics which drives and contains an ontology of being and identity; the triadic dynamism of the artist, his art, and his audience acting as a metaphor of human relationships within us, among ourselves and others, and with the world.
The Cannibal, The Beetle Leg, The Lime Twig, Second Skin, The Bood Oranges, Travesty, Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade, The Frog; his Great Books are deployed as forces in a campaign against boundaries which define and limit us, a Napoleonic project of liberation, which rests on his aesthetics of relational identity as a fulcrum of change.
The Cannibal, an infinite montage of images like a magic film of our darkest passions and dreams, is a innovative and founding work of magical realism. Brimming with horrors and wild imagination, this is also one of a handful of novels about World War II and the fight against fascism written by a soldier who participated in it, and so one of the first novels I chose to put on the reading list for the American Literature classes I taught in high school.
The Beetle Leg is a nightmare of extremity in the guise of a western, unforgettable and compelling. Written as a protest against the Hollywood Blacklist and the repressive social policies of the McCarthy era, John Hawkes herein turns the lens of critical theory and literary methods he developed to combat fascism in Europe against its American counterparts as symptoms of the same disease. His analysis seems prescient and horrifyingly relevant today.
The Lime Twig, a crime drama parody of artfully constructed sadism and violence; like The Cannibal it is a Dantesque descent into an underworld of nightmares, in this case a criminal world which parallels our own as its dark reflection. As with all his works, beneath the surfaces of our illusions there is a deep well of inchoate passions, a Shadow realm in which all things may run amok. And its siren call ever beckons.
Second Skin, once again a reimagination of classical mythology, this time drawing on the Oresteia and the Iliad as its sources, describes the cannibalization of the old sailor by his own mad passions, acting as furies or hungry ghosts which, once awakened and loosed, are titanic forces beyond control. John Hawkes' use of Freudian decoding and interpretation of his classical sources is given free reign here, like an image set in bas-relief .
The Blood Oranges, a lyrical investigation of narrative truth which like the ourosbouros swallows its own form infinitely, also reshapes Greek mythology to the uses of a social criticism in which Beauty has replaced The Good as the highest ideal. Considered as the quadrants of a personality, its four main characters, moving among the frames of Alma Tadema's paintings, enact a process of creative individuation which predictably fails, due to the tragic flaw and sin of Pride of his energizing force in the narcissitic figure of Cyril, and resulting in the loss of Paradise. In this tragedy and reimagination of the Fall of Man, John Hawkes has launched his most unambiguous attack on Romantic Idealism.
Travesty, a homage to Camus' The Fall, is the monologue of a vile psychopath in a novel of existential terror which is the shadow of Ballard's novel Crash.
Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade, gloriously funny, a ribald satire of America as image and ideal, written for once as straightforward story with relatable characters. It is also point-precise social criticism, displaying an erriely accurate familiarity with his material; Alaska really is full of wonderful and eccentric characters, as are many frontiers where the law ends and we find ourselves entirely at liberty to be who we will. Our idea of America as a frontier, and ourselves as living beyond the boundaries of the known and ordered world, is presented here as the source of both our freedom and our folly. That which makes us great also makes us terrible. This is his most accessible work, which abandons not plot, character, and other recognizable signposts, and where anyone expecting to read an actual story should begin.
The Frog offers a strange fairytale, grotesque and sublime, filled with philosophical discourse and eroticisms.
Actually, if you read all eight of these novels in order, as I have done, and taking notes as you go, please let us know your answer to the great question of democracy posed by the lifework of John Hawkes; Can we escape the tyranny of other people, without ourselves becoming tyrants?
January 10, 2009
Have been familiar with Hawkes name since coming across it often in "The Habit of Being," the letters of Flannery O'Connor. I found this novel to be disappointing; while the writing was good (as one would expect), it seemed to be one tall tale after another, linked by highly improbably characters who were, most of the time, more caricature than flesh and blood.
July 3, 2024
I've read a few of Hawkes books this year because I was\am high on his work so I bought about 4 at the same time. This honestly is one of my favourite of his books. It's a longer one for him and not really one of his most famous, his style of writing is different, it's more accessible, but it is really fun and marches to its own beat. It's not perfect, it's not 5 stars, but really enjoyable.
December 22, 2010
Enjoyable, but possibly more for atmosphere than actuality
December 6, 2019
J'avais lu ce livre à sa sortie, il y a plus d'une trentaine d'années. J'en avais gardé un assez bon souvenir, mais à le relire aujourd'hui, je me suis profondément ennuyé. Qu'est-ce que c'est bavard ! De très belles situations sont gâchées par leur longueur. Ça n'avance pas ! J'ai fini ma lecture en tournant les pages par paquets de 20. Si vous lisez une page sur trois, le livre fonctionne aussi.
April 18, 2021
Hawkes long novel, eschews his brilliant post modernism for a more mainstream type of style - seems like a different author. this lacks the sparkling, luminescent prose of earlier works, like Travesty - but offers an exotic, moby dickish breadth to it's events eg. bear fights, boat journeys, the violence of nature, etc. it seems like the kind of book that would contain philosophical underpinnings and exposition, but it's strictly surface - one event after the other.
August 6, 2021
Hawke's long novel, eschews his brilliant post modernism for a more mainstream type of style - seems like a different author. This lacks the sparkling, luminescent prose of earlier works, like Travesty - but offers an exotic moby dickish breadth to it's events eg. bear fights, boat journeys, the violence of nature, etc. it seems like the kind of book that would contain philosophical underpinnings and exposition, but it's strictly surface - one event after the other.
August 22, 2019
A woman who runs a brothel in Juneau in 1965 recalls her father’s brave adventures in rural Alaska in the early 1900s. Beautifully written and exceptionally detailed. This is the first Hawkes novel I’ve read. I liked it.
June 22, 2025
I’ve had a couple glasses of wine—someone remind me to come back and share my thoughts. Homoerotic romanticization of the idea of the Alaskan outdoorsman—looking at you, Uncle Jake. Martha Washington, yes please.
February 19, 2024
This was good and quite with its own sense of morality like many John Hawkes novels. This plot was much more linear and clear than other Hawkes novels I've read.
June 9, 2013
Hawkes Räuberpistole aus der Welt der Fuchszüchter und Schnapsbrenner in Alaska wird von Sunny Deauville erzählt. Deauvilles Vater Jake zieht mit Frau und Kind nach Alaska, um u. a. auf den Pazifikinseln der Westküste nach einem Totempfahl zu fahnden, der als oberes Segment eine Figur Präsident Lincolns trägt. Wenn man weiß, dass die Ureinwohner der pazifischen Westküste ihre Totempfähle nach strengen Regeln anfertigen, klingen Jakes Abenteuer stark nach einem Schelmenroman mit Lagerfeuerromantik. Jake Deauville ließ sich von seiner kleinen Tochter mit "Uncle Jake" anreden und wollte nie so recht wahrhaben, dass ein Mädchen nicht allein dadurch zum Trapper wird, dass man es in Hosen und Holzfällerhemd steckt. Juneau scheint in den 30ern des 20. Jahrhunderts ein so kleiner Ort gewesen zu sein, dass Jakes Hilfe immer gefragt ist, wenn jemand aus einer brenzligen Situation in der Wildnis zu retten ist. Von Mückenstichen wahnsinnig Gewordene und durch Bärenangriffe auf Jagdgesellschaften schwer Verletzte müssen zum Paket verschnürt mit dem Wasserflugzeug ausgeflogen werden. Aus abgestürzten Wasserflugzeugen sind Tote zu bergen. Wer hierher zieht, setzt sich nicht allein den Gefahren der Wildnis aus. Schlimmere Herausforderungen können Einsamkeit und entzündete Zähne sein. In dieser Umgebung lernt Sunny, Männer als eine Art Maskottchen anzusehen. Am Ende ihres Lebens findet sie sich als Bordellbesitzerin wieder und muss diesen Roman schreiben, um mit ihrem sonderbaren Vater endgültig abzuschließen.
Zu diesem Buch eine Meinung zu formulieren ist schwierig. Der Grundgedanke mit dem Totempfahl wirkt kurios, die Atmosphäre in Juneau und Umgebung und Erlebnisse der Figuren dagegen sehr glaubwürdig. Ein mit listigem Augenzwinkern verfasstes Stimmungsbild Alaskas in den 30er Jahren, in dem Winchesterbüchsen und splotzende Flugzeugmotoren entscheidende Rollen spielen. Lesern zu empfehlen, die die Die Vereinigung jiddischer Polizisten gern gelesen haben.
John Hawkes (1925-1998) veröffentlichte 1949 seinen ersten Roman, wurde jedoch erst 1961 mit "The Lime Twig" bekannt.
Abenteuer unter den Pelzhändlern in Alaska ISBN 978-3518401361
Zu diesem Buch eine Meinung zu formulieren ist schwierig. Der Grundgedanke mit dem Totempfahl wirkt kurios, die Atmosphäre in Juneau und Umgebung und Erlebnisse der Figuren dagegen sehr glaubwürdig. Ein mit listigem Augenzwinkern verfasstes Stimmungsbild Alaskas in den 30er Jahren, in dem Winchesterbüchsen und splotzende Flugzeugmotoren entscheidende Rollen spielen. Lesern zu empfehlen, die die Die Vereinigung jiddischer Polizisten gern gelesen haben.
John Hawkes (1925-1998) veröffentlichte 1949 seinen ersten Roman, wurde jedoch erst 1961 mit "The Lime Twig" bekannt.
Abenteuer unter den Pelzhändlern in Alaska ISBN 978-3518401361
April 1, 2012
The book had such an interesting title that I felt I just had to read it. The skin trade not only refers to Sunny's brothel but also to the fox trapping and seal skins and for that matter all skins that can be sold in Alaska. It was a good adventure story recounted by Sunny who was brought to Alaska by her father. Her father, Jake is a pompous arrogant fool who was on my nerves for most of the book since those are traits that together make a character unbearable for me to read. But I did find some of the stories about him to be entertaining. The book was kind of sad and kind of funny but the story was told in a matter of fact way so I think different readers might interpret it differently depending on their experiences with people like the ones in the book.
I do recommend this book to those who like character driven novels, but it you are a member of PETA stay away there are a lot of animals killed in this story, after all it is the wilds of Alaska in the 1930's and 1940's.
I do recommend this book to those who like character driven novels, but it you are a member of PETA stay away there are a lot of animals killed in this story, after all it is the wilds of Alaska in the 1930's and 1940's.
July 31, 2019
The imagery of Alaska is perfect, but the best part is the outstanding characterization of Sunny and her father, Uncle Jake. It captures so poigantly the complexities of their relationship--the good points and the bad points. It also, without coming right out and saying it, explains both Sunny's and Uncle Jake's courses of action. I felt bad for Uncle Jake, who ultimately couldn't live up to his (and his perceptions of others') expectations for himself, but worse for Sunny who was left to deal with the consequences of her father's actions. And yet I did not, by any means, find this book to be depressing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, male or female.
July 19, 2015
Postmodern Jack (and Jill) London. A series of tall Alaskan tales constructed around a central saga of a father --a clueless, two-fisted adventurer -- a daughter -- a tom-boy turned courtesan -- and the last American frontier. This is the first Hawkes novels I've read, so I don't know if it's typical of his work, but it certainly is distinctive. A style that reminds me a little of Barthelme and narrative that stays just on the mundane side of absurdity with a larger meaning that remains, I think, deliberately oblique, perhaps indefinable, unless all the dentistry is a metaphor for something that escapes me.
September 24, 2013
wow. certainly nothing like Blood Oranges. I would have given it three stars if not for Martha Washington. what on earth was her point?! well, I know what her point was, but you know what I have to say? meh. heavy handed and coarse to the point of gross. Uncle Jake had his ... quirks, but he was SO much more ... presentable? than she.
July 4, 2014
Very interesting descriptions of Juneau and the the Alaska Panhandle from about 1920s to 1950s. The characters were right on and the life styles were well done. Dragged a bit in places especially if the reader is not from the North as I am. Not much about sex or the fur trade so the title is a little misleading.
May 30, 2016
Great adventure novel and family memoir about life in Alaska in the early 20th century and how one's early life can shape what's to come. Hawkes throws in the usual naughty bits. Read with the hummmmm of engine in my ear on a long haul flight and was ideal for that situation - despite all the plane crashes described.
May 25, 2012
Amusing but overlong.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews