|  | Author: Seth Kantner
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
List Price: $18.00
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Seller: firsttrust_books
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 40776
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
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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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 19
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."
from the author of GOING TO EXTREMES November 20, 2008
Joe McGinniss
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There are almost as many "real" Alaskas as there are native-born Alaskans, but none is more real than the original Alaska: the land, as it was before the mechanized incursions of modern man. Seth Kantner was born in that Alaska and has lived his life there and in this book he writes about it with a precision, grace and beauty unmatched by any other prose I've ever read about the state, and state of mind, that Alaska is. And I say that as one who has tried to do the same.
--Joe McGinniss
author, "Going to Extremes"
Life above the Arctic Circle October 30, 2008
Scott D. Mcmurren
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Seth's book was powerful and overwhelming. There are brushes with death, moments of wild abandon, tales from many generations--along with some great pictures. Even tho' I live in Alaska, Seth's description of his everyday life is completely foreign to me. I've hunted caribou. I've picked salmon from a gill net. I've ridden a snowmachine and spent the night outside when it's -20F. But Seth was born and grew up in a sod house and in a special harmonic relationship with the wild world outside his front door...with the caribou, the dogs, the occasional visitor and the river. Me? I've always had an address on the house, lived on a paved street and enjoyed daily mail service, a telephone that works, city water and two cars in the driveway. Read this book and learn more about the Alaskan wilderness. It's an example of that wise saying: "You don't know what you don't know." Wow.
Life imitates Art October 22, 2008
Nick Jans (Juneau, AK USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'll be honest; I tried to talk Seth out of writing this book; told him he should get on to the next novel and can this essay business. But Seth was stubborn, and, like a porcupine that had its mind made up, kept shuffling down the trail. Well, I hate being wrong, but I'm used to it by now. This is a fine, fine book in several respects. First, it's a series of sharply focused, vivid, evocative snapshots of of life in arctic bush Alaska--some from the rapidly fading past, some from the present, and some toward the southern horizon, where the sun keeps reminding us that the future, for better or worse, keeps coming. By the way, I wasn't talking about the photos when I said 'snapshots', but the essays themselves. The color images round out and anchor the text, and are a beautiful, understated addition to a book that isn't quite a memoir, not quite a collection of essays, and not quite a nonfiction narrative--but manages to blend and shift between these three forms in unique, original fashion. What I like best about Shopping For Porcupine is its wry, totally original voice--like the book itself, a blend of colloquial simplicity, wry insight, sharply etched imagery, and elevated, poetic elegance. Seth spent a bunch of time sanding and polishing these words down, and while the blisters don't show, the sheen, elegant and rich as the patina of fossil mastadon ivory, does. Just the writing is enough for me, and would be enough for anyone who believes that the story is merely a convenience to the words themselves, where all meaning, art, and emotion lie. If you're a fan of Alaska writing, or writing at all, you owe it to yourself to read this book. And though you don't owe it to Seth to buy it, do it anyhow, and spring for the hard cover. This is the kind of book you'll keep. Nick Jans
Showing reviews 6-10 of 19
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