The Great Alone

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Average customer rating 4.2 (4 comments)

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THE GREAT ALONE is said to be a second departure for Kristin Hannah, the first being THE NIGHTINGALE. Her other books that I've read are what I call “chic lit,” young female centered and, to one degree or another, revolving around their love lives and petty issues like their need for a new hair style or outfit. While some women like that type of book, I don’t. I can’t yet speak for THE NIGHTINGALE, but THE GREAT ALONE is different, mostly. A married couple and their 13-year-old daughter flee Washington state and move to the wilds of Alaska. We read about their struggle to survive in such a harsh environment. The man gets violent often, especially during the winter, when days are short. That’s not chic lit. But most of the story is told from the point of view of the teenage girl. Although it is in third, not first, person, Hannah refers to the adult main characters, the parents, as “Mama” and “Dad” and uses their names only in dialog. It made feel like I was back in 8th or 9th grade. For that reason, even though THE GREAT ALONE is not chic lit, I give it only three out of five stars. I admit, though, I would have given it four stars when I was younger.

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This is a book I was scared to keep on reading but couldn't put down till I had read the last page. Leni Allbright is part of a family of three where her mother Cora and father Ernt have a toxic relationship.Ernt returns from the Vietnam war a broken man, a savage man,a violent man whom Cora and Leni love and fear. They move several times before Ernt decides to pack up and leave for Alaska.At first Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers but as winter approaches the darkness and cold brings out the worst in Ernt. Leni wanted to care that she frightened her mother but she couldn't hold on to that caring. She felt that it was Cora's choice to dig through the dirt of dad's porous toxic love for treasure but she, Leni, could not.Soon Leni learns that she loves and hates her dad at the same time and how difficult it is. The author Kristin Hannah writes a poignant tale with great skill. The story takes unexpected twists and turns and as the drama unfolded I had to keep reading to see if there was a happy ending.

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Thanks go to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.Leni Allbright is our protagonist, and she and her mother are inseparable. But when her father, a man she doesn’t know, is released from the POW camp and sent home, he is volatile, not the man Cora remembers. He has trouble keeping a job; he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. He likes firearms.Then word comes that a friend, a soldier he served with, has died and willed Ernst land in Alaska. Cora tells Leni it’s perfect, because once Ernt is happy, everybody can be happy. And so, clueless hippies that they are, they head north in a VW van with little more than the shirts on their backs and of course, Ernt’s weapon collection. Ernt wants his wife and daughter to be survivors;he wakes them from a sound sleep at odd intervals and forces them, bleary eyed and bewildered, to assemble and load weapons in the dark.But over time it becomes clear that the most dangerous person they will ever encounter is Ernt. Hannah is a feminist badass and an evocative, memorable writer. One of the finest things about this story is the recognition that domestic abuse often arrives hand-in-glove with some other challenge that muddies the water. Ernt is a POW. Then of course, there’s addiction and straight-up mental illness.Ernt says he is sorry, and it won’t happen again. Like so many abusers, he says it every time. By the halfway point, it becomes clear that someone is going to die; the three of them cannot continue together indefinitely through the dark Alaskan winters. But then Large Marge injects new life into their domestic situation with an ingenious plan. It doesn’t last forever, but it buys them some time.It’s for sale now, and I recommend it to you.

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Leni Albright is a thirteen year old living in the midst of her parents’ volatile and toxic relationship. I felt such sympathy for what Leni had to endure in this environment. Her father Ernt came home from the Vietnam war with a damaged mind, a violent temper and a growing doomsday mentality. Her mother Cora is spending her post-war reunion with Ernt as a prisoner in her own home, alternating between loving moments and as Earl’s punching bag when his temper flares. Ernt’s violence is most pronounced in darkness, so the family’s hope for a ‘new start’ moving to a small outpost in Alaska where daylight is short was not going to happen. After a brief respite, Leni and Cora once again become the objects of Ernt’s psychotic mood disorder and abuse. This story is one of resilience and survival amidst tragic circumstances not only within the family, but also the broader circle of neighbors in the small Alaskan town . There is a strong cast of supporting characters such as sensible and caring Large Marge and the Walkers who are a godsend to Leni and Cora. I couldn’t stop reading and ran through a gamut of feelings - hope, disappointment, anger. I was so angered by something that happened to one of the characters that squashed the happy ending I was longing for. This particular life-changing event and subsequent related storyline seemed completely unnecessary and I felt cheated. But kudos to Hannah for getting me so invested in this character that it brought on such strong emotion.Kristin Hannah draws from her family’s experience related to Alaska, a state she clearly loves and her description of the remote areas of this wild magnificent land makes me want to jump on a plane tomorrow to see its’ beauty in person. The story itself, flew by.