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Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska |  | Author: Seth Kantner
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $10.41
as of 11/23/2009 05:34 CST details
You Save: $7.59 (42%)
New (22) Used (7) from $10.41
Seller: a1books
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 34678
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Trade Paper Edition
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 6.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1571313117
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781571313119
ASIN: 1571313117
Publication Date: April 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Seth Kantner’s Ordinary Wolves told the story of a white boy raised in a sod igloo on the Arctic tundra. A heartbreaking vision of a vanishing world, it established Kantner as one of the nation’s most original and authentic writers. Here, he returns to the setting of his debut novel with an autobiographical account of his own life in a rapidly changing land. Beginning with his parents’ migration to the Alaskan wilderness in the 1950s and extending to his own attempts to balance hunting with writing, Kantner recalls cold nights wrapped in caribou hides, fur-clad visitors arriving on dog sleds, swimming amidst ice floes for wounded waterfowl, and his longstanding respect for the old Iñupiaq ways. Captured in words and images, these details combine to reveal a singular landscape at a pivotal moment in its history. Both an elegy and a romp, the book illuminates a world few will see as Kantner has. |
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
An Alaska I knew July 10, 2009
Judith Pex (Eilat, Israel)
Shopping for Porcupine is an exceptional book that gives us an insight into "An Alaska most of us will never know," (from the back cover). In fact so much has changed from the Alaskan childhood living in a sod igloo that the author describes.
I am one of the few people who can say that this is an Alaska that I did know, having lived in Ambler, the nearest village to the Kantners, in the late 1960's for 3 years. I remember Seth's parents and he and his brother as little boys.
Seth Kantner's poetic language and descriptions as well as his amazing photographs brought my whole experience back to me, though it seems it was in a different lifetime. And of course his depth of understanding goes far deeper than mine, since he was born there and continues to live in the area.
I am recommending this book to all my friends and look forward to reading more of his writing.
Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in the Arctic Alaska May 13, 2009
E. Hoffman (Mobile, AL USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Product was in excellent condition to have been used, and it arrived in ample time.
Porcupine Dundee would be a good name for a movie May 9, 2009
W. Jamison (Eagle River, Ak United States)
This is a beautiful book. It has been selected as the book of the year for the community by UAA for academic year 2009-2010. SK's earlier book "Ordinary Wolves" was selected several years ago when it was published and we had the opportunity to meet Seth and here him read from the book. That was an exceptional experience. No one reads their own book as the author does, especially when replicating the appropriate accents used by different characters. (Well, maybe Jim Dale does a fantastic job with the Harry Potter series - but that is a different sort of thing.) One of the added benefits in this book that OW did not have is color pictures made by the Kantner family - mostly Seth. Since he is now, besides a hunter, fisherman, father, and author, a photographer - that makes the book special. The book's language is beautiful but sad since he writes lovingly of a way of life that is disappearing and he doesn't know what to do about it. The pictures are gorgeous. A telling note: that he spent his money going to the University to find out that he doesn't fit anywhere. But this doesn't just apply to Sess. And this is something that closely touches a main theme in OW as well. What brought about the demise of a way of life?
Mixed emotions while reading this April 9, 2009
ladyfingers (Northern Michigan)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Seth Kantner shares with us the meaning of a subsistence lifestyle/culture. What it was, where it is going, and how he too reluctantly accepts human and technological intervention in this fragile ecosystem. I enjoyed learning about Inupiaq ways, and his pictures help readers understand what is being lost. I used to be a proponent of Alaskan oil exploration. After reading this book, I'm not so sure anymore. I can see why Mr. Kantner feels like a man caught in the middle--he is witnessing the disappearance of what he knows and loves.
Life in Alaska - Irreversible Changes January 13, 2009
Jed Williamson (Hanover, NH)
Seth's parents Howie and Erna, Keith and Anore Jones, and a few others of us lived in a large homestead together back in the early 60's when we were all attending U. of Alaska. I was a graduate student in anthropology, specifically interested in looking at the ways in which the Inuit were transitioning to our culture - and losing theirs.
Seth has captured this theme perfectly in his book.
The skills to live with and from the land - especially in a harsh environment - start being learned at an early age from elders and from experience. Once lost, these skills cannot be acquired again easily. The book "Into the Wild" is a clear example of this.
Seth's book is both a lens and a window to look through for understanding what has been lost as a result of "modern technology."
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
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