Furrawn's Reviews > The Great Alone

Warning, I usually write quirky lyrical bits about a book. This is going to be more of a rant. There might be accidental spoilers so steer clear if that will bother you.

Again: SPOILERS though not clear spoilers.

Ok. I truly hated this formulaic flat stereotypes-everyone book. I LOVED The Nightingale. Made everyone I know read it. I thought The Nightingale hung the moon and stars. I was excited beyond words for the release of The Great Alone.

The Good:
The first few pages were great... Further into the book, the descriptions of the Alaskan landscape will move you and make you feel like you are standing there with the chill and snow kissing your face. The actual writing and turns of phrase are still beautiful in most places.

The Bad:
The book put a bad taste in my mouth almost immediately. Repeatedly, Hannah writes about Vietnam vets, alcoholism, PTSD, wife beating, etc as stereotypes. There’s no honest depth to the characters except Leni. Reading this book makes you think that ALL traumatized war vets become monsters. Ernst is a total worthless human being. Whatever he was before the Vietnam War, he comes back as a monster. There’s a brief nod to something a “shrink” once mentioned to him. Otherwise, there’s zero psychological or social support. Why was Ernst not seeing a therapist? Instead, he chose to be a raging alcoholic and to beat his wife and later his child. This is a choice. Plenty of war vets make other choices even though they’ve been through hell. NOT ALL THOUGH. The battered wife. I’ve known and worked with battered women. Most of them would have left an abusive husband over the rabbit heart. Most battered women will take abuse but will find the strength to leave the husband if he hurts their kids.
NOT ALL THOUGH.

That’s the thing. The book takes the worst case scenario for EVERY character. Every single character, even Leni, is the least of the best possibilities.

You know Job? Well, that’s Cora and Leni. It’s simply not believable. It’s like a formula for a bestseller. I feel like for the “bad thing happens that must be overcome” part of the fiction novel formula, there was a list about a mile long:

Vietnam War vet
PTSD
Mean
Extreme poverty
Pregnant at sixteen
Daughter will also be pregnant in high school.
Battered wife
Battered Daughter
Crazy preppers
Homesteading difficulties
Runaway
Fall off a cliff
Severe brain damage
Alcoholism
Murder
Cancer

Oh. Also, multiple times Hannah mentions Alaska and how people worship “weirdo Gods” there.I get that Alaska means you can be yourself. Hannah manages to make it sound like a lot of them are crazy. Idk. I doubt they are any crazier than the crazies in the lower forty-eight. She also writes about the flip side- the community spirit. Still, if I was from Alaska, I’d feel I was portrayed like a cartoon drawing.

Hannah piles on catastrophe after catastrophe.

How could she write The Nightingale and then this? I just am gobsmacked. It’s like two different writers... though the writing is always beautiful.

I read this overwrought mess of a book to the end. I’m sorry I did. I’d be happier dealing with my quiet guilt at an unfinished book than with my internal feelings of pervasive yuckiness over having read this book.

Just. No.