The Great Alone

Love And Loneliness In Alaska 

The title of Kristin Hannah's new novel comes from a 1907 poem by Robert Service called The Shooting of Dan McGrew, which has these lines:

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,

And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear?

The Great Alone is set amidst the splendid beauty and bleak winters of Alaska. Those who go there to get away from civilisation are bewitched by it. If they are able to survive one bitter winter with the eighteen hours of darkness, they invariably stay on.

Hannah, whose last book, The Nightingale, was a bestseller, was inspired by her own family’s history for this novel. In the 1980s, her parents established the Great Alaska Adventure Lodge, which is still operating. So when she writes about the isolation of vast snow-bound landscapes, she can find the right words and emotions.

The story opens in 1974 when a mentally damaged army veteran, Ernt Allbright inherits a cabin and some land an Alaska, from Bo, an army mate, who was killed in Vietnam. Ernt's restlessness, alcoholism, violent rages and inability to hold on to a job have already dragged his long-suffering wife Cora and teenage daughter Leni from one place to another. To make up for uprooting them yet again, he promises that this time they will settle down for good on their own homestead. 

It does not matter to him that neither he nor his wife have any skills to survive the tough conditions in Alaska. When he tells Cora to think of, “A house that’s ours. That we own. In a place where we can be self-sufficient, grow our vegetables, hunt our meat, and be free,” he has no idea of what they are in for.

The cabin is decrepit shack, without electricity, running water or telephone; there is no police station in the tiny peninsular settlement, and the nearest neighbour is too far to call for help. They don't know how to grow vegetables or hunt for meat, or that they will have to stock firewood and food for the long, dark winter, or risk starving and freezing to death. If it weren't for the incredibly helpful townsfolk, the Allbrights would be totally lost.

Still, in this harsh land, Cora and Leni find unconditional friendship and a sense of community. Unfortunately,  Ernt befriends Bo’s father, Crazy Earl, who shares his love for booze and nutty conspiracy theories;  the already unhinged man goes dangerously berserk. His relationship with Cora is described by Leni as “toxic.” 

Cora puts up with savage beatings because she takes it as a sign of her husband's love. Also, having broken off with her well off parents who disapproved of Ernt, she has no one to turn to, except the generous neighbour and provision store owner, Large Marge. 

Leni finds love in the form of Matthew, whose father Tom Walker is wealthy and wants to develop the town into a tourist spot. This enrages Ernt, whose destructive streak, pushes his family to the brink of tragedy.

Hannah goes from the epic to the mundane by the end of the book, but by then the reader is so invested in the characters’ fates that it doesn't matter. Alaska is the star and driving force behind the fascinating novel.

The Great Alone

By Kristin Hannah

Publisher: St Martin's

Pages: 440