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Loading... The Great Alone: A Novel (edition 2019)by Kristin Hannah (Author)
Work InformationThe Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
  
Books Read in 2019 (315) Books Read in 2021 (500) Books Read in 2024 (347) » 19 more Top Five Books of 2018 (661) GAL Book Club (3) To Read (30) Books Read in 2020 (2,758) FAB 2023 (5) Family Drama (46) READ in 2023 (62) Books Tagged Abuse (92) To Read (18) No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) kdegour23 | May 29, 2024 |  For me, "The Great Alone" has been perhaps the most unintentionally timely book of the year. Set in 1974, at the most basic level the book is the story of 13-year-old Leni Allbright, who moves to Alaska with her parents. Her father, Ernt, is a former POW from the Vietnam war and is clearly suffering from PTSD (in the time before medical professionals would know how to diagnose or treat this condition). Ernst's condition manifests itself in terrible ways for both his family and himself. The themes of the book feel like they could have been taken from today's headlines: a rage against modernity, conspiracy theories, suspicion of "the government," and an obsession with guns: "Alaska was full of fringe-ists. People who believe in weirdo things and prayed to exclusionary Gods and filled their basements with equal measures of guns and Bibles." I couldn't help but read the book and think of all the divisions that exist in our country today. Hannah pulls all these themes together and creates a moving (and highly-readable) story that the reader won't soon forget. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( ) jj24 | May 27, 2024 | The book is well-written and made me long for long northern summer nights and the aurora, for that clean fresh air and sea-scented breeze that is the smell of the sub-Arctic. I love the Canadian north and this book reminded me of all that is good there. However, the book became too predictable too soon. The originality and the vitality of the text ends at the conclusion of the 1974 section of the novel, and from then on it's pretty commonplace, with an ending you can see a mile away. Still, it was good reading, and absorbing, but ultimately not as good as the only other book I've read by Hannah: The Nightingale. (  ) ahef1963 | May 5, 2024 | ) TraSea | Apr 29, 2024 | I must admit, I had absolutely no idea what The Great Alone was about. The only thing I've ever really heard about it was how great it was, but never anything specific or simple, like what the storyline was about. (And I thought the cover looked boring, so I kinda avoid it - just being honest.) I'm torn in half with thoughts over this book. The first camp sits with the book itself, and the second is the fact that I have never quite understood why my son, who chose to move to Alaska when he was twenty, still resides there twelve years later. I've been to Alaska - man, that place is harsh. Gorgeous like no other but harsh. The book is an incredible story about the Allbrights, Ernt, a Vietnam vet/POW who struggles with serious deep-rooted demons, Cora, who is unnaturally loved by Ernt to the point of obsession and to which she reciprocates, and their daughter, Leni, who at the age of 13 is thrown into the wilderness without running water, indoor facilities, electricity, and so on. Somehow, this family forges a way of life and not just survives but thrives, in their ways, in The Great Alone. There is great tragedy in the Allbright family, but Ms. Hannah spins the tale to where no matter how awful the event, as the reader, you can't, won't, and don't want to put the book down; you actually turn the pages faster. If you are like me and thrown off by the dull cover, rip it off and open up this incredible piece of work. You will thank me. And now, I must write my son a letter of understanding. I get it now, as with Leni Allbright, my son, Kowboy, belongs in The Great Alone. ( ) LyndaWolters1 | Apr 3, 2024 | no reviews | add a review
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Lenora Allbright is 13 when her father convinces her mother, Cora, to forgo their inauspicious existence in Seattle and move to Kaneq, AK. It's 1974, and the former Vietnam POW sees a better future away from the noise and nightmares that plague him. Having been left a homestead by a buddy who died in the war, Ernt is secure in his beliefs, but never was a family less prepared for the reality of Alaska, the long, cold winters and isolation. Locals want to help out, especially classmate Matthew Walker, who likes everything about Leni. Yet the harsh conditions bring out the worst in Ernt, whose paranoia takes over their lives and exacerbates what Leni sees as the toxic relationship between her parents. The Allbrights are as green as greenhorns can be, and even first love must endure unimaginable hardship and tragedy as the wilderness tries to claim more victims. No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.08)
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