Cold Storage, Alaska

Told in a spare poetic style that takes command of your imagination, Cold Storage, Alaska is by turns funny, serious, frightening, philosophical, exaggerated... and intimate. It is filled with odd situations and the kind of offbeat characters that keep your attention glued to the page. As you read about ugly dogs, kayaking to see the Dalai Lama, bringing an old bar back to life, and greedy drug dealers, you slowly come to understand that this book is all about love-- that love has the power to bring together, to heal, to forgive-- and watching all these disparate characters let down their defenses is quite profound. Crimes may be talked about in the pages of this book, but that's not its focus, and that makes Cold Storage, Alaska one show more very special read. show less

Straley loves Alaska's waters, mountains, birds, bears, and trees and writes as though he in worship of them. His people are not as perfect as his eagles, especially in the way-outback, fly-in villages, so the characters are all on the edge of humanity, fighting capital-"P" Progress by drinking, carousing, taking saunas, fishing, and fighting. The author says he wanted to make a screwball comedy. The book is screwball, but the comedy is mixed with a compassion that makes the characters warm, even the would-be killers. The book does not march through a plot, but dallies with cinema-loving drug dealers, returning veterans--both of war and prison, the nicest guy in the world running a clinic,
and a musical wannabe worshiper of the Dali show more Lama. An interesting read, wacky, and slightly grey--not close to noir. You can chew through it slowly--it's no page turner. show less

Winter sets in long, cold, and lonely in Cold Storage, Alaska, but Straley sets us up with a comic narrative that takes most of the vinegar out of the population of “drunks and depressives” and sweetens it with romance. He introduces us to a fiercely independent and strangely cohesive group of folks who laugh (and make us laugh) in the face of adversity and who create the conditions for generosity of spirit. But not all is feasting on “King Salmon Every Day.” It continually astonishes me that characters in a fiction can make one feel actual sorrow and sadness, but we do in this one. Everything is going swimmingly and then something truly dreadful happens.

It is the year 2000 and Clive is thirty-five years old. He is being show more released from a seven-year prison stint in Seattle. After a brief detour to eat a fresh lettuce salad, Clive goes to collect his share of criminal proceeds from his pre-incarceration drug sales days. He is aiming for a small coastal town in Alaska where his brother, Miles, and his mother still reside.

Cold Storage is a failing fishing village of 150 residents on the outer coast of southeastern Alaska, originally settled by Norwegian fisherman who felt at home in the steep-sided fjord-like bay: “She’s hell for snug except when it’s coming straight down.” Some of my favorite passages in this novel come when Straley is describing the surrounding countryside, the changing quality of the water, the luminescent sky, the ragged rim of trees.

This novel is a little hard to characterize. It is not mystery, but it could be romance, though it is an unusual example of the genre. Falling in love is no more remarkable in Cold Storage than falling out of love. Both provide important entertainment to residents even when they themselves are not directly involved, except perhaps through the placing of bets on the timing of who is falling in or out of bed with whom...

No, this is a crime novel, though law enforcement is rarely in sight, and is the butt of jokes when it does come calling. This story is all about the ‘crims’ and their extended family of friends and partners in crime. We empathize with these oddball characters, many of whom act much as we have done (though we don’t wish to admit or recall), and all of whom change in the year or so since we meet them.

Straley claims in interviews “…I do not recognize revenge as the lifeblood of a great plot,” but he introduces a little revenge in this novel that upends his screwball comedy and changes lives forever. Straley then tells us his secret: “I still believe that love and compassion are what move through the hearts of all great characters.” And that’s exactly what we like about them.

This book was offered to me by Soho Crime in exchange for an honest review. show less

A very enjoyable, well-written, quirky without being cutesy novel about a forlorn harbor town in Alaska where Miles, a war veteran and native son, is the closest thing to a doctor. His brother, who has just gotten out of prison, comes home, trailing trouble from his drug-dealing days in Seattle. Though there are elements of a crime story, it's really not crime fiction, but it's delightful. More at Reviewing the Evidence="http:>

10/21/15 That wasn't very long between re-reads but I bought it by accident so I had to read it. I liked it better this time. There are still implausible corners and I still enjoyed it.

4/22/14 The first half is stronger than the last half. I had a good time in the rainy coastal Alaskan village and am fervently glad I don't need to try dating there. Not sure if I buy Jake's turnaround or Clive's return. I guess I need to read The Big Both Ways. The Cecil Younger books are more melancholy and beautiful.

Funny, charming, sad, sweet; both the story and the characters. I loved getting to know the people (rather eccentric in many cases) in this unusual little town on the Alaskan coast...and their collision with minor criminals. I would especially recommend this to anyone who enjoys a bit of magical realism and evolving characters.

What Carl Hiaasen does for Florida, John Straley does for Alaska. His quirky, loveable characters are what make this story about a down and old southern coastal village in Alaska. It is not necessary to read the first book Straley wrote about Cold Storage, but if you read this one, you'll want to find the first one. Fun reading with basically a circus of characters.