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Jimmy Bluefeather
Old Keb Wisting is somewhere around ninety-five years old (he lost count awhile ago) and in constant pain and thinks he wants to die. He also thinks he thinks too much. Part Norwegian and part Tlingit Native (with some Filipino and Portuguese thrown in), he's the last living canoe carver in the village of Jinkaat, in Southeast Alaska. When his grandson, James, a promising basketball player, ruins his leg in a logging accident and tells his grandpa that he has nothing left to live for, Old Keb comes alive and finishes his last canoe, with help from his grandson. Together (with a few friends and a crazy but likeable dog named Steve) they embark on a great canoe journey. Suddenly all of Old Keb's senses come into play, so clever and wise in how he reads the currents, tides and storms. Nobody can find him. He and the others paddle deep into wild Alaska, but mostly into the human heart, in a story of adventure, love, and reconciliation. With its rogue's gallery of colorful, endearing, small-town characters, this book stands as a wonderful blend of Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN and John Nichols' THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR, with dashes of John Steinbeck thrown in it.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2015
About the author
Kim Heacox
39 books113 followersKim Heacox is the author of more than a dozen books, five of them published by National Geographic.
He’s won the National Outdoor Book Award twice, first in 2015 for his novel Jimmy Bluefeather, the only work of fiction in 25 years to win the award. And again in 2020 for his memoir, The Only Kayak, as an “outdoor classic” (originally published in 2005).
He writes opinion-editorials for The Guardian in celebration and defense of the natural world, and lives in a small town in coastal Alaska with his wife, Melanie, where they support the emerging Glacier Bay Leadership Program within Tidelines Institute. Learn more about him at www.kimheacox.com and download the Jimmy Bluefeather book club guide at westmarginpress.com.
He’s won the National Outdoor Book Award twice, first in 2015 for his novel Jimmy Bluefeather, the only work of fiction in 25 years to win the award. And again in 2020 for his memoir, The Only Kayak, as an “outdoor classic” (originally published in 2005).
He writes opinion-editorials for The Guardian in celebration and defense of the natural world, and lives in a small town in coastal Alaska with his wife, Melanie, where they support the emerging Glacier Bay Leadership Program within Tidelines Institute. Learn more about him at www.kimheacox.com and download the Jimmy Bluefeather book club guide at westmarginpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
February 16, 2024
audiobook version
🪶 What begins as a healing story or trope becomes a journey story. By canoe. A large canoe. Carved out of a huge tree trunk with hand tools like the adze. As a young Tlingit man, whose life dreams have been shattered by a freak accident, tries to find a new life geography at the side of his 90 year old grandfather. Completed, the canoe takes them out on sweeping Alaskan waters. The law tries to stop them. Friends try to help them. Maybe even Raven, the spirit bird, tries to guide them. But in the end, as with us all, grandson and grandfather have to choose the route of their journey. Even to the point of death.
But the journey is not just about moving across ocean waters and nudging scraping sky glaciers. It is about moving across mind and heart and beliefs, about moving across ideology and faith, about choosing freedom from idolatry and the lust for money - “people knew the price of everything but the value of nothing.”
🪶 You become at one with the characters, at one with the Alaskan coast, at one with the northern seas and the vast white glaciers. At one with the journey by canoe of the grandson and grandfather. At one with the past that vanishes in the present, but sometimes comes back.
Magically written and written with hope.
Remarkably read so that each sentence is a pleasure to hear, especially the words of the Tlingit language.
🪶 What begins as a healing story or trope becomes a journey story. By canoe. A large canoe. Carved out of a huge tree trunk with hand tools like the adze. As a young Tlingit man, whose life dreams have been shattered by a freak accident, tries to find a new life geography at the side of his 90 year old grandfather. Completed, the canoe takes them out on sweeping Alaskan waters. The law tries to stop them. Friends try to help them. Maybe even Raven, the spirit bird, tries to guide them. But in the end, as with us all, grandson and grandfather have to choose the route of their journey. Even to the point of death.
But the journey is not just about moving across ocean waters and nudging scraping sky glaciers. It is about moving across mind and heart and beliefs, about moving across ideology and faith, about choosing freedom from idolatry and the lust for money - “people knew the price of everything but the value of nothing.”
🪶 You become at one with the characters, at one with the Alaskan coast, at one with the northern seas and the vast white glaciers. At one with the journey by canoe of the grandson and grandfather. At one with the past that vanishes in the present, but sometimes comes back.
Magically written and written with hope.
Remarkably read so that each sentence is a pleasure to hear, especially the words of the Tlingit language.
November 15, 2015
I don't read much fiction. I read this book because not long ago I traveled with the author and have kept up a correspondence; he's a good guy. But that's not why I am saying that Jimmy Bluefeather is perhaps the best-written novel I've ever read, one of the best books I've ever read, and certainly one of the most memorable. The writing is incredibly beautiful. Almost every paragraph gifts us some stunning turn of phrase that made me stop and savor. The characters seem like people we all know. And they ring true, and feel vivid. The reason for this book is that the author has a lifetime of closely observed heartfelt wisdom that he wants to share. Instead of spewing it, he takes careful aim like a Zen archer. Then the arrow flies. The biggest illusion of the book is its seeming weightless effortlessness, like something that had merely waited to be born whole. It's a tremendous achievement.
March 15, 2021
I found this well conceived and well written storyline exceptional and engrossing, with enough different characters and connected threads to keep a reader attentive, or a lazy reader annoyed. A story both inspiring and poignant, with a bonus in conveying much more than the printed words with insights to spare.
“Used to be it was hard to live and easy to die. Not anymore. Nowadays it was the other way around. ”
“Wasn’t it enough, Keb wondered, to feel the wind in your face, to drink the rain and pet a friendly dog and know the softness of a woman’s thigh? Wasn’t it enough to hear a wolf howl, to build a morning fire in the kitchen cookstove, to taste the first nagoonberry pie of summer, to carve a spoon from alder? Wasn’t it enough to feel the tide run beneath your boat, a boat you built with hand tools and great heart?”
“More and more though, men died in the wreckage of their own lives, shadowed by false prophets, lost in the thumping, grinding world those same men created for reasons that didn’t seem reasonable anymore. ”
“. . . we like someone because; we love someone although.”
“. . . when men set out to destroy each other, the first victim was always the same: truth.”
“Old Keb figured that if a greedy man could put his money where his mouth is, stuff it all in there, then he couldn’t talk anymore and that would be a good thing . . . men that are often wrong but never in doubt.”
“ . . . the hardest thing when you’re digging yourself into a hole is to stop digging.”
“You don’t have to master nature. You only have to master yourself.”
“ . . . the best revenge is the one not taken.”
And the eco-lit aspect has teeth.
“Highly regarded scientists see the natural world failing everywhere, and at nobody’s peril more than our own,” Kate said. “If we pass any single tipping point beyond all mitigating strategies, we’ll never again have the bountiful world we once did. When I was a little girl watching TV, I rooted for the Indians, not the cowboys. I never liked Scarlett O’Hara on her big plantation, or Clint Eastwood with his big gun. This legal case isn’t anti-Native. It’s about big business buying whatever it wants, including our own government, and destroying the natural world. Well, guess what? We’re part of that natural world. ”
“Everything was bigger these days, except open space. . . . The greatest gift we can leave this world is the forest and the sea the way we found it, separate and the same, the oldest home of all, older and more beautiful than all the things industrious people pride themselves in building.”
“Men talk about change, how everything must change, how it’s inevitable, and so they bring about change with their own greed, seeing only what they want to see. But do they themselves ever change? These men?”
“The world is not ours to be mastered, only cared for.”
And so much more for those that have a heart of natural world wonderment. To those that don't yet but have an open mind, maybe this will nudge some enlightenment.
“Used to be it was hard to live and easy to die. Not anymore. Nowadays it was the other way around. ”
“Wasn’t it enough, Keb wondered, to feel the wind in your face, to drink the rain and pet a friendly dog and know the softness of a woman’s thigh? Wasn’t it enough to hear a wolf howl, to build a morning fire in the kitchen cookstove, to taste the first nagoonberry pie of summer, to carve a spoon from alder? Wasn’t it enough to feel the tide run beneath your boat, a boat you built with hand tools and great heart?”
“More and more though, men died in the wreckage of their own lives, shadowed by false prophets, lost in the thumping, grinding world those same men created for reasons that didn’t seem reasonable anymore. ”
“. . . we like someone because; we love someone although.”
“. . . when men set out to destroy each other, the first victim was always the same: truth.”
“Old Keb figured that if a greedy man could put his money where his mouth is, stuff it all in there, then he couldn’t talk anymore and that would be a good thing . . . men that are often wrong but never in doubt.”
“ . . . the hardest thing when you’re digging yourself into a hole is to stop digging.”
“You don’t have to master nature. You only have to master yourself.”
“ . . . the best revenge is the one not taken.”
And the eco-lit aspect has teeth.
“Highly regarded scientists see the natural world failing everywhere, and at nobody’s peril more than our own,” Kate said. “If we pass any single tipping point beyond all mitigating strategies, we’ll never again have the bountiful world we once did. When I was a little girl watching TV, I rooted for the Indians, not the cowboys. I never liked Scarlett O’Hara on her big plantation, or Clint Eastwood with his big gun. This legal case isn’t anti-Native. It’s about big business buying whatever it wants, including our own government, and destroying the natural world. Well, guess what? We’re part of that natural world. ”
“Everything was bigger these days, except open space. . . . The greatest gift we can leave this world is the forest and the sea the way we found it, separate and the same, the oldest home of all, older and more beautiful than all the things industrious people pride themselves in building.”
“Men talk about change, how everything must change, how it’s inevitable, and so they bring about change with their own greed, seeing only what they want to see. But do they themselves ever change? These men?”
“The world is not ours to be mastered, only cared for.”
And so much more for those that have a heart of natural world wonderment. To those that don't yet but have an open mind, maybe this will nudge some enlightenment.
February 2, 2016
A crystalline gem of a book - one of the best I have read recently. There is a surface story of Keb Wisting, a Tlingit-Norwegian canoe carver, who helps his grandson heal emotionally after an accident destroys his NBA dreams. The deeper layers of this story reveal the humor and heart of being human. Myth and magic mix with pragmatism and culture. Whether or not you love Alaska, you will love this book for its showing our fallibility and our best selves simultaneously. The reader becomes part of the story. Broad paint strokes of right and wrong dissolve and run together in the mists and rains of the North woods. And we are revealed to ourselves.
October 22, 2015
Best book I've read all year. Wonderful characters, beautiful scenery descriptions, heartwarming story about Alaska.
October 19, 2015
This is the story of Old Keb Wisting – who is part Norwegian, part Tlingit - and his grandson James, who live in the small community of Jinkaat, Alaska. As the eldest man in his family, and in the entire village, Keb is an old canoe carver who represents the old ways, the ways that are quickly disappearing. When James’ leg is crushed in a logging incident and his future dreams of NBA stardom are ruined, James suddenly sees his future as a question mark. But Old Keb is not content to let James brood about his future. He sets about carving his final canoe and enlists the help of not only James, but the entire community, as they all pitch in and help him finish the canoe. Once it’s done, Keb takes his grandson and a few others on a canoe journey to try and reconnect with the old ways and “get back to where he once belonged.” James’ love for his grandfather is very heartfelt and tender and as he helps his grandfather reconnect with his roots, he ends up transformed as well, connecting with his Tlingit roots and truly becoming the “Jimmy Bluefeather” of the title.
Both the characters and the setting come alive in this book. I felt like I was there, that I knew all the characters, like Little Mac, Kid Hugh, Kevin, even Steve, the dog and I cared what happened to them. It made me fall in love with small town Alaska, “the last best place.”
A great and worthwhile read. I highly recommend it!
Both the characters and the setting come alive in this book. I felt like I was there, that I knew all the characters, like Little Mac, Kid Hugh, Kevin, even Steve, the dog and I cared what happened to them. It made me fall in love with small town Alaska, “the last best place.”
A great and worthwhile read. I highly recommend it!
December 19, 2015
There are a lot of things I liked about this book - its setting (the wild coastlands of southeast Alaska), its lyrical writing style that describes the natural world found there, the respect and celebration of Tlingit culture, and the premise of the story. There were a few things that I didn't like - primarily related to one of the central characters, a government employee who ends up helping Old Keb get to where he wanted to go. I've just spent too many years working for a natural resource agency in Alaska myself, to buy the notion that she could get away with doing all the things she did for as long as she did, and that was constantly in the back of my mind distracting from the story. But that aside, this is a quick easy read that will give you a taste of life in the remote villages of southeast Alaska. And, why not support a local Alaskan author?
April 14, 2016
Outstanding! It is a pleasure to read a book about the "old ways" that does not ignore life in the modern world. "Jimmy Bluefeather" does not sacrifice realism or plausibility for the sake of a look at traditional Tlingit life. Each character in the book is a diverse, realistic individual with unique perspectives and ideas. I didn't notice a single superfluous sentence in the entire book. Each paragraph expresses an original idea or paints a picture, well thought out, without resorting to cliches or mangling the flow. Kim Heacox certainly did his homework on this impelling story with scientifically and historically accurate details, which are as important as the story itself.
May 2, 2016
Gunalchéesh. (Thank you)
"Many Tlingits spoke softly and musically, as Gracie Wisting did, with a rhythm a thousand years deep, sentences like waves. Can you put it on paper, a voice like that, a voice from the sea?" (pg. 169). I think Kim Heacox came as close as you can to putting a voice like that on paper.
"Many Tlingits spoke softly and musically, as Gracie Wisting did, with a rhythm a thousand years deep, sentences like waves. Can you put it on paper, a voice like that, a voice from the sea?" (pg. 169). I think Kim Heacox came as close as you can to putting a voice like that on paper.
February 3, 2016
Great Alaskan tale, well told!
March 9, 2020
This book drew me back to Alaska, a place I love. Alaska is sacred, and this book illustrated that beautifully. It takes the reader on a journey to an ancient glacier that reminded me of the Margery Glacier in Glacier Bay, which is sacred to the Indigenous people there. It is a story of ravens and whales and people who love the land.
Alaska is the protagonist, but there are several human protagonists. The primary protagonist is Keb, a Tlingit-Norwegian man in his nineties who lives in a small town on Chicagof Island, which is part of Tongass National Park. Keb is a loving man, whose heart embraces nature and people. Then there's his grandson, James, who people thought would become a basketball star until he was injured in an accident. Concerned about James's bitterness, Keb shows him how to build a traditional canoe, which leads to an epic journey. Another viewpoint character is Anne, a whale biologist who grew up in the area and has returned to study the whales there.
If your heart thrills at the beauty of this world, you probably will appreciate this book.
Alaska is the protagonist, but there are several human protagonists. The primary protagonist is Keb, a Tlingit-Norwegian man in his nineties who lives in a small town on Chicagof Island, which is part of Tongass National Park. Keb is a loving man, whose heart embraces nature and people. Then there's his grandson, James, who people thought would become a basketball star until he was injured in an accident. Concerned about James's bitterness, Keb shows him how to build a traditional canoe, which leads to an epic journey. Another viewpoint character is Anne, a whale biologist who grew up in the area and has returned to study the whales there.
If your heart thrills at the beauty of this world, you probably will appreciate this book.
January 9, 2024
3.5 ⭐️ I am glad to have read it, I love when I feel like I walk away with some wisdom, in this case from a fictional 90-something man. The second half of the booked seemed to drag on for me.
August 20, 2018
One of the best novels I have ever read! Kim Heacox captures many of the cultural layers of Alaska, as he blends old ways with the new.
March 22, 2023
Lovely, amazing, wonderful book. Main character is 95, but there’s a middle-aged woman and a kid just out of high school featured here, too. This is the story of the last living canoe carver in the village of Jinkaat, in Southeast Alaska. It's a rich depiction of a vanishing culture (the Tlingit natives, with their art and hunting and healing).
Other themes: Family, who offer both frustration and sanctuary. A boy’s coming of age. A middle-aged woman dealing with grief and finding her true direction in life. The conflict between commerce, politics, power, and ancient lands. Losers and outlaws redeemed; the mighty brought low. There’s humor, wit, and compelling characters.
Of course, my favorite thing is to read about elders who bring strength, wisdom, and a bittersweet flavor to the story. When we meet him, Keb is on his way to a hospital to see his grandson, a star athlete whose career has ended before it began due to a logging accident. Here's the old man, in a restroom at the Juneau airport, enroute to Seattle.
"He grabbed a paper towel and dabbed the sweat off his brow and thought about all the old farts in the rest home who sit around killing time until time kills them. Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. What to do? Keb straightened up and sealed his mind. He'd go south to the city by the sea, the city named for the great chief who said all men were children of the Earth, the city of coffee and computers. He'd visit his grandson and tell him Raven doesn't care about fame or fortune. Raven doesn't care about diplomas or degrees. Raven looks for scars, the signs of suffering that give a man his depth. Add this wound to the others no strangers see. Add it and move on because it's the only thing to do. There are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting it. That's what he would tell his gifted, tormented grandson. After that, Old Keb Wisting would return to Alaska and walk into the woods and lie down and die."
This book is one of the best I've ever read. I highly recommend it.
Other themes: Family, who offer both frustration and sanctuary. A boy’s coming of age. A middle-aged woman dealing with grief and finding her true direction in life. The conflict between commerce, politics, power, and ancient lands. Losers and outlaws redeemed; the mighty brought low. There’s humor, wit, and compelling characters.
Of course, my favorite thing is to read about elders who bring strength, wisdom, and a bittersweet flavor to the story. When we meet him, Keb is on his way to a hospital to see his grandson, a star athlete whose career has ended before it began due to a logging accident. Here's the old man, in a restroom at the Juneau airport, enroute to Seattle.
"He grabbed a paper towel and dabbed the sweat off his brow and thought about all the old farts in the rest home who sit around killing time until time kills them. Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. What to do? Keb straightened up and sealed his mind. He'd go south to the city by the sea, the city named for the great chief who said all men were children of the Earth, the city of coffee and computers. He'd visit his grandson and tell him Raven doesn't care about fame or fortune. Raven doesn't care about diplomas or degrees. Raven looks for scars, the signs of suffering that give a man his depth. Add this wound to the others no strangers see. Add it and move on because it's the only thing to do. There are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting it. That's what he would tell his gifted, tormented grandson. After that, Old Keb Wisting would return to Alaska and walk into the woods and lie down and die."
This book is one of the best I've ever read. I highly recommend it.
January 17, 2018
When a Tlingit teenager is injured in a logging accident, his dreams of playing professional basketball far, far away from his small island home come to a sudden end. Through his tragedy, and slow painstaking recovery, the reader enters the wilderness of southeast Alaska, populated by a rich, overlapping community of natives, government scientists, loggers, park rangers and fishermen, as well as ravens, whales, bears and otters.
At the center of it all is Old Keb Wisting, a part-Tlingit part-Norwegian elder nearing a century old, struggling with pain and forgetfulness and ready for death, preferably on a bed of moss in the forest, “or better, in a boat.” The last living canoe carver in his village, Old Keb finds renewed purpose in his twilight days helping his grandson recovery from the somewhat-suspicious logging accident. Together, they wrestle a twenty-five foot red cedar log in to a traditional ocean-going canoe using hand tools, determination, memory and muscle.
“A totem pole tells a story,” Old Keb explains, “a canoe makes a story.”
Heacox translates this particular story of familial bonds, mythology, adventure and reconciliation with great heart, lively dialogue and vivid details.
At the center of it all is Old Keb Wisting, a part-Tlingit part-Norwegian elder nearing a century old, struggling with pain and forgetfulness and ready for death, preferably on a bed of moss in the forest, “or better, in a boat.” The last living canoe carver in his village, Old Keb finds renewed purpose in his twilight days helping his grandson recovery from the somewhat-suspicious logging accident. Together, they wrestle a twenty-five foot red cedar log in to a traditional ocean-going canoe using hand tools, determination, memory and muscle.
“A totem pole tells a story,” Old Keb explains, “a canoe makes a story.”
Heacox translates this particular story of familial bonds, mythology, adventure and reconciliation with great heart, lively dialogue and vivid details.
October 5, 2015
I wish I could give this book 6 or 7 stars, instead of 5. There are very few novels I have wanted to read more than once over my 69 years - "Stranger in a Strange Land" [except for the stupid ending], "Dune," "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," and, now, "Jimmy Bluefeather." It is both similar to "Zen ..." and completely different. Imagine "Zen ...,"BUT
A grandfather and Grandson, instead of father and son
A Tlingit canoe, instead of motorcycles
The Whale Highway, rather than roads
Alaska Native Spirituality, instead of Western Philosophy
If I had my way, this book would be required by anyone wanting to understand Alaska in full.
READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A grandfather and Grandson, instead of father and son
A Tlingit canoe, instead of motorcycles
The Whale Highway, rather than roads
Alaska Native Spirituality, instead of Western Philosophy
If I had my way, this book would be required by anyone wanting to understand Alaska in full.
READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 10, 2015
This was a very good book that was densely packed into a small package of just over 250 pages. I really liked some of the characters created here and felt that more could have been done with the Alaskan background for the story. As it was the Alaskan background was kind of Green Peaced in with a lot of ecological disasters forewarned. Overall not such a bad book if you focus on the old guy and his grandson.
January 9, 2016
I read this one slow because I kept needing to stop and re-read that gorgeous paragraph I had just finished. This is a lyrical, beautiful story. Probably one of the best examples of the written word I have had the pleasure to read. I'm so thankful for those end of the year lists that included this as a book I needed to read. How did they know??? They were so right. Brilliant.
April 8, 2024
This is the story of an old Tlingit/Norweigen man, Keb Wisting, and his grandson James. Keb is the oldest canoe builder in his Alaskan village. He misses the old ways, everything on his body hurts, and he wonders why he’s still alive - he is ready to move on. When James is injured in an accident that ends a promising basketball career, Keb recruits him to help build one last canoe and take an adventure of a lifetime. One of the best parts of this book was seeing the love and support of the community who came together to help them. It makes one wonder who benefited the most from this effort - was it Keb, James, his daughters or one of the countless other people they encountered? The characters were all varied and different but my favorite was a young girl, Little Mac, for her empathy and kindness to the old man.
The writing is very beautiful with humor and wisdom interspersed.
Favorite quote:
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey,… We are spiritual beings on a human journey, born into our lives for one reason only: to seek the road that makes death a fulfillment.”
The writing is very beautiful with humor and wisdom interspersed.
Favorite quote:
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey,… We are spiritual beings on a human journey, born into our lives for one reason only: to seek the road that makes death a fulfillment.”
April 18, 2024
3.5 some really good parts but too slow for me. I feel like the first half was better than the second, that part dragged. Some good characters but I didn’t really know the point of Anne to the whole thing. That sideline could have been left out.
That being said, this would be a good movie or series. Better seen than read.
That being said, this would be a good movie or series. Better seen than read.
March 26, 2019
I can't add too much more than the blurb about the book, except to say that the writer does a wonderful job of making you "see" the images of Alaska, and that the story made me stop and think at times about our purpose in life and mortality. Love the characters.
Highly recommend!!
Highly recommend!!
November 2, 2020
Beautifully written.
January 4, 2023
Absolutely beautiful book. Highly recommend.
October 23, 2022
I was positive I was going to rank this book 5 stars when I was halfway through. I loved its vibrant sense of place, rich and varied characters, and the nuanced way he explored what it means to be Tlingit in the modern world. But I just couldn't buy into the "fleeing from the government " plot thread that arose, and it drug like crazy in the last half. To be fair, I tend to hate books that take place on boats, so maybe you shouldn't trust me. It is rare for a book with a prominent boat journey to get more than two stars out of me. I'm still very glad I read this, and would gladly read more of Heacox's works, but finishing it was a slog.
November 4, 2018
This book was highly recommended by my wife, Carolyn. Almost 100% of Carolyn’s recommendations turn out to be really good reads; this was one of those great books.
“Jimmy Bluefeather” was enjoyable for a number of reasons. I enjoyed learning about the Tlingit ways within a rural coastal setting in Southern Alaska. I appreciated “ getting acquainted with” a diverse set of characters playing different parts within the story. I did not read it "at one sitting." I enjoyed being able to put it down for a while and come back to the story.
I am going to let you research the story. It is well worth looking at and deciding to read.
“Jimmy Bluefeather” was enjoyable for a number of reasons. I enjoyed learning about the Tlingit ways within a rural coastal setting in Southern Alaska. I appreciated “ getting acquainted with” a diverse set of characters playing different parts within the story. I did not read it "at one sitting." I enjoyed being able to put it down for a while and come back to the story.
I am going to let you research the story. It is well worth looking at and deciding to read.
January 24, 2016
I love Alaska. When I fantasize about a place to be; it is Alaska. The novel, Jimmy Bluefeather, took me to the place of my fantasies and kept there through each page. Wonderful, clearly drawn characters throughout the book made it another book that pulled me through it.
Represented in Jimmy Bluefeather was native culture of Alaska, together with the dreams of achieving the pinnacle of modern society has to offer and how the two do not coexist.
Wonderful, global wisdom made the book more than just a enjoyable read, but a source of spiritual guidance. A couple of examples -"There are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting it." "We make our homes from parts of ourselves -the laughter of our kids, the friends who drop by. They become our finest decorations, our best memories, the things no fire can burn."
This book is also the source of a new favorite to join my top ten favorite quotes, "Often wrong, but never in doubt."
Kim Heacox has filled the book with some real wit. "And Todd Banikovich? Hated his job and complained about it up until the day it killed him; got very quiet after that." "What always struck Keb about a photo of a fat man holding a fish was the beauty and intelligence of the fish."
Jimmy Bluefeather is a story of beautiful places, of 95 year old Keb Wisting his daughters Ruby and Gracie, his grandson James, a dog named Steve the Lizard dog and a whole community who love beautiful places and Keb.
Represented in Jimmy Bluefeather was native culture of Alaska, together with the dreams of achieving the pinnacle of modern society has to offer and how the two do not coexist.
Wonderful, global wisdom made the book more than just a enjoyable read, but a source of spiritual guidance. A couple of examples -"There are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting it." "We make our homes from parts of ourselves -the laughter of our kids, the friends who drop by. They become our finest decorations, our best memories, the things no fire can burn."
This book is also the source of a new favorite to join my top ten favorite quotes, "Often wrong, but never in doubt."
Kim Heacox has filled the book with some real wit. "And Todd Banikovich? Hated his job and complained about it up until the day it killed him; got very quiet after that." "What always struck Keb about a photo of a fat man holding a fish was the beauty and intelligence of the fish."
Jimmy Bluefeather is a story of beautiful places, of 95 year old Keb Wisting his daughters Ruby and Gracie, his grandson James, a dog named Steve the Lizard dog and a whole community who love beautiful places and Keb.
December 25, 2015
Beautiful, beautiful nature writing that makes me miss Alaska. Keb Wisting is a Norwegian/Tlingit/Alaskan man who has lived one heck of a life. Now his grandson has been injured in a logging accident that ruins his dreams of playing professional basketball. The two of them (and some friends) set off in a canoe that they built to find life's meaning.
Silly summary, but this is a deep book about family, living, dying, forgiveness, and all things good in life. This is one that they will be selling in Alaskan bookstores for a long, long time.
If you like travel memoirs or anything about the importance of place, give this novel a try.
Silly summary, but this is a deep book about family, living, dying, forgiveness, and all things good in life. This is one that they will be selling in Alaskan bookstores for a long, long time.
If you like travel memoirs or anything about the importance of place, give this novel a try.
April 20, 2016
This is a gentle story which immersed me in Alaska, a place far from my home, and a culture equally distant. Keb is 95, a traditional carver who is getting to the end of his life but has experience and perspective to share, and James is an angry young man who had a sporting career which was curtailed by an accident. They come together to build a traditional canoe, which leads to a community being pulled apart and then coming strongly together. A story about family squabbles and eventual triumph.
January 18, 2016
Wow wow wow, what a fantastic book. Think a Kent Haruf story only instead of taking place on the Colorado plains, it is set In Alaska. This was a fantastic book, spiritual, life learning, and a beautiful story.
In the back of the book the author says it took 12 years and many revisions to write the book, and while the outcome was worth it, it saddens me to think it will be another 12 years for the author to write another book.
In the back of the book the author says it took 12 years and many revisions to write the book, and while the outcome was worth it, it saddens me to think it will be another 12 years for the author to write another book.
March 28, 2019
I loved this novel -- so beautifully written and so Alaskan. It touched on all the things that matter... Living and dying, loss and transformation, connection to the world around us as well as to one another, finding hope, pilgrimage, love. Great characters. After I loan it out to everyone I know, I look forward to reading it again!
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