Kabloona (Graywolf Rediscovery Series)

Rating:
Summary: De Poncins: the last competent observer of the Eskimo.
Review: This book is many things. For me it was an important and interesting study in human ecology. The organism in question is the well-adapted Eskimo. The book is also an object and abject study in how the white man (Kabloona) fails to adapt to the Arctic environment, frequently displaying aberrant and bizarre behaviour. De Poncins doesn't spare himself in this anthropological study. Beyond De Poncins actual words lies a haunting memory of a world that has now ceased to exist. I will never understand how Barry Lopez, in "Arctic Dreams", implies (by neglect) that this primary source doesn't exist. Please read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Magical Book
Review: This is a magical book which I first read when I was young. It inspired in me dreams of adventure which I did not follow, but which became a part of my inner life. Now that I am old, I am reading Kabloona again so that I can remember that I once was young.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book...
Review: Whenever I am asked the pitifully unfair question, "What is your favorite book?", I still seem to spew the title Kabloona year after year. I don't honestly know why the book has touched me so, and why I keep comparing Gontran de Poncins to all others pretending to find themselves. Maybe that is why the book means so much to me, that Gontran is not perfect, that he needs to find that piece of him which is vital, and would go to the top of the world to see if it was there. I am still thanking him for thinking to put it all down on paper.

Rating:
Summary: A human, compelling account of life in the northern Tundra.
Review: Whether owing to the time when it was written or just because de Poncins--a wealthy man with too much time on his hands--was blessed with a reporter's eye and a poet's soul, this account of life among the eskimos is refreshingly human. There is no mushy anthropology going on here, no p.c. sentimentalizing about noble savages or any of that rot, just a beautifully written rendition of life within the barren cold. The characters in de Poncins' account are thoughtfully drawn, as if they were players in a novel--from a hermit priest to white traders to the eskimoes themselves. And the writing truly is special--for example, fierce winter winds are described as a wild old man stomping around upstairs, and the ecstasy of the newborn spring is experienced with such clarity that a reader will (almost!) experience the same libidinous exhilaration shared by the eskimoes. This book is a delight. For those who crave adventure/exploration stories it's a must (especially those interested in the Great White North but uninterested in below zero temperatures), but it is equally important for those who simply like a good read.