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Surviving the Island of Grace: Life on the Wild Edge of America |  | Author: Leslie Leyland Fields
Publisher: Epicenter Press
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $11.49
as of 11/24/2009 06:12 CST details
You Save: $6.46 (36%)
New (19) Used (10) from $8.50
Seller: sbd-
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 501668
Media: Paperback
Pages: 330
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0980082595
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780980082593
ASIN: 0980082595
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Reminiscent of the best of Matthiessen, Dillard, and Erlich, Leslie Leyland Fields's Alaskan memoir is an inspiring narrative of life in the wild. SURVIVING THE ISLAND OF GRACE is a beautiful and haunting memoir of a woman who left the East Coast and moved to Alaska looking for a new life. In brilliant prose, Leslie Fields tells her story of adapting to life on a wilderness island without running water, telephones, or other 20th century conveniences. Here, as a 20-year-old newlywed, she is immersed into the world of commercial salmon fishing. With an unflinching gaze, she explores the extremes that define her new life: the beauty and brutality of commercial fishing, the startling land and seascape around her, the isolation, the physical labor, the intensity of communal island life. Among these extremes, she must find her way from a young woman to wife, commercial fisherwoman, and mother. She explores as well, perhaps most eloquently of all, her unique New Hampshire childhood and its role in preparing her for her life in the bush. With its dramatic Alaskan setting and moving narrative, SURVIVING THE ISLAND OF GRACE is a poetic and powerful book.
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| Customer Reviews:
Remarkable Woman, Remarkable Book October 6, 2009
Marilou Chapman (Anchorage, Ak USA)
Recently, I was fortunate enough, to receive a "loaner" book from my neighbor, who stated that it was GOOD!!!! As I live in Anchorage, Alaska, and my husband is a former set-netter for salmon in Cook Inlet/Silver Salmon Creek, I was already interested in the story, and the picture on the cover, drew me in the rest of the way. I would advise putting on your life jacket, grabbing a steaming mug of coffee/tea, resting your feet on the coffee table, and jumping right in.
Leslie's writing flows as smooth as silk, as she escorts the reader through her early years of childhood, her marriage to an Alaskan fisherman, and her move from the East to the West Coast, and on up north to her future. What a ride!
I had to keep reminding myself, that the book was not fiction, as it reads so easily and comfortably. The author was born to write, and to have babies, and to lead a very adventurous life.
I thank her, for sharing it with us.
Very enjoyable book October 4, 2009
Janis Prejean (Flowery Branch , GA USA)
Our daughther and grandson live in Anchorage so I enjoy books about people relocating and growing up in AK. It was the type of book that I looked forward to reading it but didn't want it to end. I could visualize what the writer was expressing. Again it was a very good book.
A unique perspective on living in the Alaskan wilds May 17, 2009
Cheryl Russell (United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Surviving the Island of Grace tells the story of Leslie Layland Field's struggle as a new bride unfamiliar with the life she has married into and how she fought to make that life her own. It's a life most people can't begin to imagine--isolated a good part of the year at a remote fishing camp under fairly primitive conditions, with no guarantees of a prosperous outcome.
Her writing brings alive the hardships and rewards of this difficult life. It's a story of a journey--from her difficult childhood, her adventures in college, travels around the world, building a home on an isolated Alaskan island bereft of what most people consider the necessities of life, and finally embracing this life of her choosing.
It's also a book about Alaska and it's harsh, unforgiving, and spectacular landscape, told from the perspective of a person living in this environment for the first time.
The book covers the first fifteen years of this harsh, not always rewarding, life in an honest, forthright manner. Her writing draws you into her story--bringing to life her trials and triumphs.
A gripping and compelling read. January 5, 2009
Mark A. Bickford (Sandwich, NH)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Surviving the Island of Grace" is, in effect, two books in one. It is a gripping picture of an adventurous and unique lifestyle. Complete with Triumph, tragedy, danger, suspense, sorrow and joy. Well written and well paced it is an enjoyable read. But Leslie Leyland Fields also opens her heart and shares the inner turmoil of her experiences. Both the baggage she brings to the Island and the struggles she encounters there. Although we may not be able to relate to her circumstances we can all relate to times in our lives of isolation and confusion. Islands in our lives that tore at the very fabric of our being. Leslies' openness and transparency through extreme circumstances and hardship bring hope for those island time in our lives.
My favorite book this year! December 4, 2008
Beverly J. Earley (Palmer, AK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Surviving the Island of Grace: Life on the Wild Edge of America
I have no experience with boats, fishing, island life and the sea except for the occasional Carnival cruise vacation. So, it was fascinating to imagine living a life like Leslie's on a small Alaskan island. She tells both of the personal details of the day-to-day life on an island (how do you get a gallon of milk without a Walmart down the street?) and also of the adventures.
What drew me in to this book was Leslie's transparency. It was as though I could really try on her life. She writes of the dynamic period of when she is completing college through starting her young family. The time she was sailing her skiff alone back to her home and was caught in a snowstorm and couldn't see land was especially captivating. Poor Leslie! How can you put down the book until you find out how she going to get out of that one?!
I met Leslie in Hatcher's Pass, Alaska this fall before ever reading her book. She was the speaker at our women's retreat. You could not tell by looking at this beautiful petite young lady that she had lived for years as a fisherwoman. Her life-long love for words has paid off as she unfolds her life to us. I became even better friends with her after reading her story.
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