North of the sun: a memoir of the Alaskan wilderness by Fred Hatfield

This is a straightforward book with not much introspection, but told with enough detail so you can easily visualize his adventures.  Hatfield wrote this book some years back, in 1990.  (He was in his 80’s then.)  He tells how he left his home state of Maine as a young man in 1933 and took the bus out to Seattle, then went by ship up to the Alaskan wilderness, to Seward.  He settled in right away, with a storekeeper giving him a place to stay and some groceries before he had even found work. 

He had learned how to hunt and fish from growing up in Maine, and eventually makes his way from the town out to the wilderness.  The lake he lives on, Togiak Lake, is now part of a national park, but in those days the only way to get there was by bush plane.  Hatfield is matter of fact and resourceful, but in his adventures of panning for gold and fur trapping, he gets in some unexpected tight spots.  He does make it through these challenges - sometimes on his own, sometimes with the help of settlers or native people.  Hatfield gives us an interesting picture of how the settlers mingled with the natives.  Some settlers treated them badly and refused them service in stores and restaurants, but others made friends with them and respected their way of life. 

Hatfield doesn’t say much about how he was feeling in those many days spent alone in a cabin built by himself, with no one for company.  He breaks up his time by spending summers  in the small town of Dillingham, and works on the salmon boats there.  He meets a young nurse while getting his appendix removed.  They get married and she goes with him back to the wilderness, where they have three children.  Finally when the children start getting older, Fred moves his family back to civilization – in this case, the town of Homer, Alaska, where he ends up working for the power company.

What keeps your interest is that this is essentially a firsthand account of what real survival is.  It’s wonderful how he figures out what to do and also keeps learning through experience. The first winter he hurts his leg and has to try walking back to civilization. One night in his journey, he just tunnels into the snow and sleeps, hearing the wolves hunting caribou in the night. Hatfield’s relationship with his wife is also worth noting.  When he tells her that it’s time to move to town, she just smiles and says that she knew when the time was right he would decide.  Not many couples have that kind of trust, or know how to wait out each other’s decisions. 

In the end, he does open up more about what his life meant to him, and what he found out there.  What was the most precious is the time he spent with his wife - when they were appreciating the stars, the quiet, and the wonder of the wildlife there together.  There are a lot of good things to contemplate from this book, and I recommend it not only to the nature enthusiast, but also for those interested in learning what others have found in their search for peace and fulfillment. 

To see the catalog entry click here.

Amarcord (DVD) 1973 / a film by Frederico Fellini; starring Bruno Zanin, Armando Brancia & Magali Noel

.
In the Italian coastal village of Borgo, schoolboys play in the streets of the square, snatching at puffballs which float in the air. In the barbershop Gradisca, the town beauty, prances around in her fancy clothes doing her best to visually engage the leering male audience. As evening nears in the village square, a blind accordion player peddles for petty change while Volpina the prostitute, another of the town's pathetic down-and-outers, vamps about in the shadows. 12-year-old Titta Biondi observes it all from beginning to end--all of the bawdy shenanigans, the simple mundane patterns and sad but curious spectacles which are always on parade in his little corner of the world. It is the 1930's and the age of Fascism in Italy where the government has pledged to revive the country's prestige through strict authoritarianism and collectivist slogans. But despite the seeming enthusiasm with which directives of the regime are undertaken, the movement accomplishes little aside from providing a few small-minded men with the chance to wear stuffy-looking uniforms. The few Borgo residents who are wealthy or powerful enough to care about politics try to follow suit. They've been instructed to root out any signs of anarchy and so they do their best to follow-up on any petty squabbles or tomfoolery, even if it's merely a phonograph recording of an anarchist melody. For Titta and his family, nothing really changes. Titta still gets in trouble, his father is still easily angered, always griping at his wife. As a year passes and the seasons change, their simple lives remain much the same as the generations before them. But it's a sameness in which the magic of everyday is sharply revealed.
.
Amarcord, loosely translated as "I remember", is just that--a life's journey brought to the screen. With Fellini, one can always expect a world of quasi-fantasy mixed with archetypal images from the mind's eye. Yet Amarcord might be the director's most indelible portrait of just what that vision embodies: a starkly personal and illuminating ode to his youth and memory. Nothing compares with the beauty of Fellini's imagery; he is a master of aesthetic exposition. A peacock in the middle of the snow, the tragic splendor of a deserted seaside hotel, even the colorful procession of the new prostitutes arriving at the local brothel all absorb the viewer's senses, each a mesmerizing portrait of artistic clarity. With Amarcord, a true pinnacle of Italian art film, Fellini encapsulates his deepest convictions, exploring the subtle if contradictory truths behind memory, experience and conscious awareness. And though the content can seem perplexing and distant, the narrative at times enigmatic and confusing, the central concept remains grounded as one in which a profound insight can be expressed through the simplest of actions. Life is renewed daily, even instantaneously in Fellini's world. But just as life continues, its composition changed, even altered forever at times, memories are always being preserved in the most incandescent of ways--at times tragically, at others beautifully but always magically. (DVD AMARCORD)

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl / by Timothy Egan

.

How could a natural disaster be man-made? Yet the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930's was just that. For many in the great plains states, most notably Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the Dust Bowl was not just a difficulty, like the financial woes others faced because of the country's economic depression. It was a catastrophe of epic scale, akin to some sort of biblical plague, begetting wide-scale damage, destruction and death in over 100 million acres, much of it centered in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Many of the mostly farmers and their families, lots of them recent immigrants, simply up and left in the wake of the "Black Blizzard" even with nowhere to go. More than a few, like the Joads of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, traveled west to California where life was little better (and in more than a few cases, worse), though at least the air was breathable.

.

But for those who stayed behind, life was not unlike hell on earth. The 'earth' itself quite literally turned against the farmers who were more or less deceived into cultivating the less-accommodating soil of the region. Seduced originally into buying land not accustomed to growing greener, more arable crops, the settlers had to learn the truth the hard way. Following decades of errant farming, defective crop rotations and years of famine and drought, the ruined topsoil caught up in the wind until a mass of flurrying dust, like mountains, blurred everything in its wake, terminating all organic life and causing epic amounts of ecological and agricultural damage.

.

Author Egan does a good job of illuminating this not necessarily neglected, but perhaps less-scrutinized niche of American history. When most people think of the Dust Bowl, they think of drought, of windstorms and of families traveling westward wearing worn, haggard clothes and looking downcast in despair. But few even consider the plight of those who stayed, a forgotten collection of doomed souls--entire families and communities--left without any protection, sustenance or adequate relief. Thrust into starvation or made deathly ill by the dust itself, through "dust pneumonia", the region and the people consumed by the disaster would never be the same. (978.032 EGAN)

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder : a novel / by Evelyn Waugh

A masterpiece of twentieth century literature perhaps most known as an award winning miniseries (1981) starring Jeremy Irons, Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is a timeless classic set during the pivotal interwar years in Britain, uniquely examining the wealthy upper classes--their family values, social obligations and the peculiar, often tragic situations in which they live.

An officer in the Second World War, Capt. Charles Ryder heads a reserve infantry unit currently being shuffled between training grounds still awaiting their marching orders for deployment to the front lines. A dismal, brooding and melancholic Capt. Ryder has grown apathetic to his job, morbidly depressed by the situation and wholly disillusioned with life in the Army. By chance, when his platoon is restationed near an extravagant estate house, Charles himself is "revisited" by memories of past times spent at the grand home and his interaction with the charming, yet troubled family who lent it its namesake--the Flytes of Brideshead Manor. Initially recalled are Charles' years at Oxford when as a first year student, he became associated with young Sebastian Flyte, an eccentric young man from an extremely wealthy family whose oddities and peculiarities--always dressing in party clothes, carrying a Teddy bear at all times, over-expressive acts of generosity and contrition, etc.--were only rivaled by his extravagant taste, equally extravagant friends and incorrigible reckless behavior.

Through his friendship with Sebastian, Charles becomes acquainted with the other Flytes; of whom Sebastian himself views unfavorably (identifying them as "beasts"), but with whom Charles grows especially close to throughout the successive months, years and accompanying decades. Sebastian's mother Lady Teresa Flyte ("Lady Marchmain") is the matriarchal head of the family and defacto proprietor of the Brideshead estate. The situation stands that, after a falling out with her husband Lord Marchmain, who has since remained abroad in conspicuous attempt to avoid any contact with his wife, Lady Marchmain has basically reared their four Children--Bridey, Julia, Sebastian and young Cordelia--alone, bringing them up in the tradition of her own stringent Catholicism and instilling in them the faith's truths, principles and particularly dire implications on life, death and eternity.

It is the incontrovertible convictions imparted by the faith upon each Flyte family member which Charles sadly discloses as the legacy he most associates with Brideshead. From Charles' viewpoint, the outdated, absurd and innocuous aspects of the faith, its rules and regulations, standards and strictures have directly influenced the tragic demise of the family and, indirectly, the dissolution of his own happiness. This is truly a remarkable novel; brilliant as a reflective, epochal, incisively critical and passively satirical period piece illuminating the era's class system, the obligations of the aristocracy, its paradoxical family values, multiple obstacles to relationships and still-lingering restrictions of religion. Waugh's masterpiece has withstood the test of time to not only maintain its initial success since its 1946 publication, but has grown in popularity over the years, attracting new readers with each passing generation. (DVD BRIDESHE)

I Capture the Castle / by Dodie Smith

Cassandra Mortmain lives in a castle (moat and all). But in depression-era Britain this derelict, centuries-old stone heap is more of a cave than a king’s palace (“…nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud.”). Yet it’s strangely suited for a 17-year-old with little to do but chronicle her family's eccentricities; her author/father's writer's block essentially leaving the family financially bereft. Her ashamed-to-be-poor older sister Rose and artsy stepmother Topaz--whose experimentalism includes lute-playing and outdoor nudism--each add their own bit of ambiguity amidst decidedly 'medieval' surroundings. It's a 'roughing it' kind-of-life even from Cassandra's laid-back perspective; acknowledging the castle's limitations while simultaneously promoting its bohemian distinction.

Salvation appears one rainy night when a pair of (wealthy) American brothers--Neil and Thomas--happen upon the doorstep (car trouble). Their arrival kindles new life to the castle; sparking interest from both girls and even resurrecting the despondent father James--Neil being a devotee of James' only popular book. It doesn't take long for Neil to fall in love, propose, and become engaged to the beautiful Rose; throwing the plot into full-swing nearly overnight.

But this faux faerie tale is only a setup as Neil, though not a bad guy, doesn't quite complete the 'prince charming' profile; leaving room at the forefront for secondary characters--Thomas in particular--to steadily emerge with time. All is revealed in rhythm with Cassandra's emotions (Neil being the object of Cassandra's affection), which indirectly recieve attention even if offset by the other characters. Domestic fiction it may be, 'Castle' (despite appearances) is no faerie tale upgrade. Any satirical element is subtly downplayed by the narrator's authenticity--a lighthearted, if enigmatic style which manages to level the playing field; slyly rooting out any presumptious or sentimental notions.

Water for Elephants / by Sara Gruen

An award-nominated novel by author Sara Gruen, the book is set mostly during the Great Depression with brief, present-day interludes of the protagonist as a geriatric patient. Water for Elephants tells the story of Jacob Jankowski who at 23 is days away from an ivy league degree when his parents die in a car accident. Grief-stricken and penniless (his parents entire estate paying his tuition); he literally 'hops' the next train. The locomotive is a circus caravan complete with aerialists, freak shows and an animal menagerie; the latter employing Jacob as a veterinarian.

This book is less about amusements though; focusing instead on the pitiless world of depression-era showbiz. Gruen's tone begins mildly but eases into more sinister territory as Jacob falls desperately in love with Marlena, wife to an evil-hearted ringmaster. Beyond the love triangle is the stark reality of genuine hard times endured by nearly all characters: "red-lighting" of unneeded circus workers, the greed of the management at the expense of food and medicine, and the austere cruelty in beatings doled out to animals who won't perform. Gruen manages to balance the weightier issues through Jacob's eyes as he confronts the human condition with its inevitable paradox; brilliantly interweaving carnality and wickedness with love and harmony. (FIC GRUEN)