Wow, what a beauty. It’s 1974 and a thirteen year old Leni’s family are moving to Alaska. It’s the latest in a string of unsuccessful schemes to hold the struggling family together since Leni’s dad, Ernt, came home deeply damaged from Vietnam. The wildness and beauty of Alaska initially appear to heal Ernt but come winter, he spirals downwards into paranoia and violence.
This novel is so good at conveying Leni’s utter helplessness and the sickening silence at the heart of family violence, the twisted loyalties and her mother’s conviction that Ernt will get better. Leni eventually comes to realise he won’t and we share her sense of claustrophobia and desperation as she recognises the danger she and her mother are in. They must leave, they must, and yet they don’t, time and again. There’s a creeping sense of dread when Ernt starts constructing a wall around their land – the ultimate irony being that the greatest danger to his loved ones is him, not what’s outside. Something must happen and it does, finally.
The true unsung heroes of the book are the townspeople who care enough to intervene – everyone needs a Large Marge in their life. In the end it’s a believable story of the way the great love within people can sometimes survive terrible circumstances. Not always, as with Ernt, but great love does survive within Leni, and her relationships with her mother and her soul mate Matthew and their son bear witness to that. You may, like me, finish the book convinced you could never ever live in Alaska, but nevertheless grateful to The Great Alone for taking you there.
