Arnannguaq's Prize & Stories from Greenland by Chris Paton is as moving and riveting as
Peter Høeg's 1993 bestseller Smilla's Sense of Snow. A similar gritty edge
exists in both works that viscerally grabs you and pulls you along through the
story.
*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! ***
Âjak and his brother, Tulugaq, are on a hunt for bear
meat. They are in the Artic which is a
character in and of itself. Each moment
they are out in this element they are in danger because of the frigid and
hostile environment.
Âjak's team of dogs pulls he and his brother
inexorably closer to a nanoq (an ice bear) and the dogs are in a frenzy. After a verbal tussle, the brothers agree to
release the dogs so they can attack the bear before it escapes -- success! The bear is down and the men and the dogs
partake of hot fresh bear meat to replenish their energies.
During this
downtime, the reader learns that Tulugaq is a shaman and a matter of love
weighs heavily on Âjak's mind and he asks his brother to scry for
him. Reticent, Tulugaq agrees. What he sees changes the course of both men's
lives in very short order creating a ripple effect in their village.
The tension is palpable and the story arc, very unlike
American tales, is not at all what you expect!
Throw the action-thriller out of your mind for this story and be open to
new ways of story development.
In reading both stories by Paton and Høeg about characters
from Greenland, the similarity I see is that both
authors pull from the same cultural milieu which shapes the stories into works
of art that are beautifully complex and foreign to many Western readers. In addition to learning the thought
progression and emotional patina of a group of people that is not constantly in
the public eye, the reader gets a bird's eye view of one of the most pristine
undeveloped areas in our world.
This is a fast, quick read which takes less than a half hour
to breeze through but the story will stay with you for some time to come.
Rating: 4 Blogairy Notebooks
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