David Vann’s Caribou Island was a book that surprised me and exceeded my expectations. I had read this book on a summer vacation and forgot writing about it because of all the other books. But when I was looking for something in my library, it caught my eye and immediately took me to Alaska. This is an interesting novel that will take you to different places.
Caribou Island mercilessly and flawlessly depicts the drama of a couple whose dreams are ruined. They have a sad love story and a tragic past. Imagine reading the loneliness, violence, darkness of the soul and imperfections of humans while feeling the bitter cold in Alaska. You will find yourself in the characters. It will make you feel a little uneasy, a little sad, but you will love this book. While the weather still cold, read this one and enjoy!
Caribou Island
On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, a marriage is unravelling.
Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, and Irene, haunted by a tragedy in her past, are trying to rebuild their life together. Following the outline of Gary’s old dream, they’re hauling logs out to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health, to patch together the kind of cabin that drew them to Alaska in the first place.
Across the water on the mainland, Irene and Gary’s grown daughter, Rhoda is starting her own life. She fantasizes about the perfect wedding day, whilst her betrothed, Jim the dentist, wonders about the possibility of an altogether different future.
From the author of the massively-acclaimed Legend of a Suicide, comes a devastating novel about a marriage, a couple blighted by past shadows and the weight of expectation, of themselves and of each other. Brilliantly drawn and fiercely honest in its depiction of love and disappointment, David Vann’s first novel confirms him as one of America’s most dazzling writers of fiction.
David Vann
David Vann was born October 19, 1966 on Adak Island in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. He is a novelist and short story writer. And is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Warwick in England.
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