Old days Alaska

 To the Bright Edge of the World
by Eowyn Ivey

Inspired by the real-life 1885 journey into Alaska let by Lieutenant Henry T Allen, Report of an Expedition in the Copper, Tanana, and Koyukuk Rivers in the Territory of Alaska.  Knowing that, I enjoyed it more in the after-reading period, because so much of it was beautiful beyond imagining and I thought it must be sheer, imaginative storytelling. Which it is--but with a ton a research behind it.

The actual narrative--beautiful, heartbreaking, sometime exciting and always intriguing--didn't flow through my heart so well that I wanted to read and savor every word. For one thing, she told four stories interwoven and while they both complimented and teased each other, one of them fell flat, one puzzled, and one seemed pulled apart by the constant interruptions from the switch of perspective.

In particular, the narrators were Lieutenant Colonel Forrester, who was traveling to explore the unknown regions of Alaska; his wife, left behind in Vancouver Barracks, his scientist and photographer, Lieutenant Pruitt, and the modern-day people who are archiving and reviewing the materials left behind by the other three. Forrester's narration was "the story" that suffered from interruptions. His wife's story was fascinating and could have made a book all on its own. Pruitt, whom I think was the other narrator but was never mentioned by name, only appearing by disjointed ramblings of a degenerating mind that didn't fit into the rest of the story at all (in my opinion.) And the modern day people appeared late enough on the stage that I never really understood who they were and what they were about.

A more careful reader would adore this work.  Me, I enjoyed...but only just.