The Last Layer of the Ocean: Kayaking through Love and Loss on Alaska's Wild Coast

by Mary Emerick

There are five layers of the ocean, though most of us will only ever see one. The deepest layer is the midnight zone, where the only light comes from bioluminescence, created by animals who live there. In order to see, these creatures must create their own light. They move like solitary suns, encased in their own bubbles of freezing water. This is the most remote, unexplored zone on the planet. Though hostile to humans, it’s a source of rapt fascination for Mary Emerick, who would go there in a heartbeat if she could.



The year Emerick turned 38, the suicide of a stranger compelled her to uproot her life and strike out for Alaska, taking a chance on love and home. She learned how to travel in a small yellow kayak along the rugged coast, contending with gales, high seas, and bears. She pondered the different meanings of home from the perspectives of people who were born along Alaska’s coast, the first peoples who had been there for generations, newcomers who chose this place for themselves, and the many who would eventually, inevitably leave. When she married a man from another island, convinced that love would stick, she soon learned that marriage is just as difficult to navigate as the ocean.



Divided into sections detailing the main kayaking strokes, with each stroke serving as metaphor for the lives we all pass through and the tools needed to stay afloat, this eloquent memoir speaks to the human need for connection—connection to place and to our fellow travelers casting their bubbles of light in the depths.

Genres: Memoir, Travel, Environment

Paperback

First published April 30, 2021

About the author

Nature. Wilderness. Loves writing that includes the outdoors as character and influences personality. Author of essays and three books: memoir and fiction. Alaska has my heart always. Drawn to mountains. Scariest moment: kayaking in 12 foot seas.

Reviews

[Patrice La Vigne · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the nomadic life of a wildland firefighter, Mary moved to Alaska in her 30s for a more secure job, this time in the water, living and working in Sitka, Alaska. It’s hard for me not to love any book about Alaska. Plus, since she spent so much of her time out on the ocean patrolling the coastline, there are some unbelievable accounts from that, including one with a bear that gave me nightmares. But more than anything, watching Mary figure out where she belongs in life had me nodding my head time and time again, so I appreciated the emotional unpacking that took place through the pages of this book.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Journey of life, love, sense of home, and how to brave new skills and those things that we fear. How do we meld our lives to encompass what we need and want with other people? It's a constant dilemma and the author does a good job of describing these needs and wants with learning a new skill - sea kayaking. I can relate to many aspects of the book!

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, thought provoking. I took my time with this one.

[Ann Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful companion to Emerick's novel The Geography of Water, providing a very satisfactory answer to the question of how she could know the lands and waters of that novel so intimately. Emerick's other memoir Fire in the Heart: A Memoir of Friendship, Loss, and Wildfire is the story of a younger, stronger woman, determined to prove her worth in a harsh man's world. In this one, appropriately, she finds her balance. There are still plenty of hair-raising moments, and her strength and perseverance seem undiminished (though she says otherwise), but there ultimately a calm acceptance here that is a joy to see. I stayed up late at night reading this book, and then picked it up and finished it the next day. Highly recommended.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read. Nothing too spectacular, but also nothing tedious. Her adventures in Alaska are interesting to read about and I appreciated hearing about what it was like to adjust to living in such a wild and almost hostile environment. This is a memoir, so it is focused on Emerick's perspective and journey, but I do feel the book would have benefitted for some more depth to the other people/characters. Though her relationship with her husband is a focal point of the story, we never actually get to know him. Presumably this is because the author feels she never got to know him either, but he is described in such vague ways and their interactions are so glossed over that I found myself disinterested in that particular thread of the story. Overall the book could have used more dialogue for this reason. It is mostly reflections and descriptions of short episodes, but doesn't dive into scenes with any sort of depth making it difficult to connect with the people and situations in her life. It's saved by the fact that each of her adventures by kayak is so outside the norm - these stories are interesting even when only glazed over.