Verboseness

I've been blogging for less than a month now and each time my post gets longer, and longer...

Gold, Salmon and Glaciers

Chapters 8, 9 & 10 describe the discovery and exploitation of the two most lucrative strategic commodities in Alaska: gold and salmon. There is a third "commodity" that is certainly treated as ruthlessly as these two, but it is not unique to Alaska. I'll attend to that subject later in my review. One of the most enjoyable aspects of reading Michener is that I always learn something. I know more about the life cycle of the sockeye salmon than, I'll bet anybody else I know. J.M. illustrates for us the trials of one fish, Oncorhynchus nerka, or Nerka, for short, from alevin to fry to fingerling to smolt. There are no grilse or kelt stages in Pacific salmon as in their Atlantic cousins because Pacific salmon die after spawning only once. (Bet'cha didn't know that.) Anyway, J.M. weaves the story of Nerka the salmon within the story of Tom Venn, our young proletariat, now fully immersed in the Ross & Raglan monopoly. Of all of the characters, Tom is the most conflicted. he is uneasy with the way the company exploits the available resources to near extinction, and hates having to work with the malfeasant Washington worm Marvin Hoxey. The Hoxey character is fictional, but is allegedly based on a genuine wor...(I mean) person named Alexander J. McKenzie, who really was pardoned by President McKinley. Tom, however doesn't hate his job enough to quit. He in fact marries the boss' daughter and seals his deal with the devil. I'm hoping that somehow Tom will redeem himself, like Captain Schransky in chapter 7. The story about the Matanuska Valley was also new to me. Matanuska isn't really a town, as in the novel, but is rather the name of a river, a glacier and a borough (or county) in Alaska. The Valley, or rather the Matanuska Colony was a real settlement; part of a New Deal agricultural experiment during the Great Depression. Impoverished families were imported from Minnesota to the Matanuska Valley as homesteaders. They became known as "Alaska Sourdoughs". The Valley is apparently the only place in Alaska where the land can actually support farming. As if the Russian names weren't bad enough to pronounce, now I'm trying to master Scandinavian names: like Vickaryous, Vasanojas and Sjodin. I didn't know that the U.S. government was actively engaged in resettlement and repopulation. Didn't Germany try that in Poland in 1939? When I wrote about a third "commodity" I was referring to the exploitation of the indigenous people of Alaska. As I said, this is not anything new or unique to Alaska. It seems that wherever the white man goes, his arrival is a harbinger of death and destruction for the people and culture of the original inhabitants. To call it racism is to minimize the reality. It's like saying the events of 9/11 were a "misunderstanding". The treatment of the native Aleuts, Athapascans, Tlingit, Eskimo and immigrant Chinese by white American (perhaps I should say, Caucasian) prospectors and industrialists in Alaska was deplorable. I think it is a part of our history that few acknowledge, if they even know about it at all. Sadly, once the damage is done and the indigenous people and their heritage are decimated, they are lost forever. I think J.M. hints at this sentiment in these chapters.

There's gold in them hills!

Yesterday I was chatting with a friend about books. She talked about how she hates to part with a book even long after she has finished reading it. "I like to see them up on my bookshelf" she said. "It's like remembering time spent with an old friend." I couldn't agree more. I just made some new friends that I will think about each time I see Alaska on my bookshelf. John Klope, Tom Venn, Missy Peckham and Matt Murphy: ordinary people who lead extraordinary lives in the most desolate and inhospitable region on the continent. The austere, Norwegian reindeer herder turned gold prospector, Lars Skjellerup and his colorful side-kicks Mikkel Sana, a Laplander, and Arkikov, a Siberian Chukchi are so oddly matched, yet so loyal to one another, you can't help but love them. Then there are the big, strong, rock-solid guys, Sergeants Kirby and Steele of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who usher folks through Chilkoot Pass. You just know the country is a safer place when these guys are around. I will remember these people for their integrity, tenacity, determination and faith in the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush. They are all heroes; all worthy of honor and applause; and all purely fictional. Yep: not one of them is an actual person, nor the stories even based on an historical individual. However, I have faith in the integrity of the author and I'm confident that what I have read is indeed an accurate representation of what life was like for the thousands of people (men and women) who risked life and limb to get to the gold fields of the Yukon, and the fortunate few (very few) who actually found gold. I've always thought that money is a powerful motivator: people will do crazy and even criminal things in order to obtain it. Now, I'm convinced. Every elementary school history book had a picture of Chilkoot Pass at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush: a long line of human-like figures, marching, single-file up a snowy mountain like ants crawling up a sand hill. What I didn't know then, or at least can appreciate now is that Chilkoot Pass is a remote corridor through the Coast Mountains in Alaska and British Columbia. It was the route used by prospectors to access the gold mines on the Klondike and Yukon Rivers. In order to lawfully enter Canada, the prospectors were required to bring enough food and supplies to last 6 months. The trail was too rough, too cold and too steep for dog sled or pack mule, so prospectors had to make the trek on foot with all of their belongings carried on their backs. The trail was 33 miles from Dyea, Alaska to Bennett, British Columbia. The Pass itself is 3,500 feet above sea level. Some people literally dropped dead from exhaustion in the middle of the trail. (The site is now the Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park. For a fee, you can attempt the climb yourself). Fictional or not, this story is a testament to the incredible fortitude of the human spirit. Michener sums it up eloquently (page 522): "Missy...developed into a woman of towering strength, beautiful in her integrity, and Tom Venn had grown from a callow youth into an amazingly mature man, but they achieved this through hardship and failure, not success, and the lessons they acquired would last them through life." This is an incredible story.

Sad Saga

Each time I have said to someone that I'm reading a Michener novel their response is "Oh...his books are really long." Yep: I'm on Chapter 8, page 366 of Alaska and I'm not even half way through the novel. I would not at all characterize this as drudgery. Michener has done such a good job developing the characters and weaving fact and fiction that I actually feel like I'm part of the community where these people live! I was made aware of this while reading Centennial: I cried when Hans Brumbaugh died. Thus...don't judge a book by the number of pages it contains! These novels are worth every page. Given the enormous amount of research he had to do for these novels (yea, I know. He probably had a team of graduate students helping him), his book list is impressive. Michener wrote 26 such novels in his 40 year career, 13 of which were adapted to film. He also wrote volumes of non-fiction and was extensively involved in television and radio. He might still have been teaching at the University of Northern Colorado while he was doing all of this. I've just finished Chapter 7: Giants in Chaos, a bittersweet saga about two controversial pioneers who (individually and together) left an indelible mark on the Alaska territory. Captain Mike Healy and Reverend Sheldon Jackson are both historical figures. Healy was the first American of African descent to command a ship of the United States government. He was the captain of the USS Bear, a real steam powered sail ship in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (predecessor to the Coast Guard) that patrolled the Alaska coastline in the latter 19th century. Captain Healy became quite a local hero and even has a modern USCG ship named for him, the USCGC Healy, commissioned in 1999. Reverend Jackson was an irascible Presbyterian missionary with boundless energy. He traveled extensively and established hundreds of missions and churches in the western U.S. While he was very successful in achieving his goals, his methods almost always infuriated his superiors. He too became a local hero and there is today, a college on the island of Sitka, Alaska named after him. Both were men of integrity, capable of profound generosity and compassion; tireless in their commitment to justice and passionate with regard to their respective calling. Both were deeply flawed: arrogant, incorrigible and sometimes down right abusive toward their subordinates and colleagues. In spite of their truly heroic achievements on behalf of the indigenous people of the region, they are regarded by their colleagues only for the mistakes they make and their good works are undermined by powerful factions in the church and the government. It made me sick to read the court martial proceedings, but near the end of the chapter, there is a heartening turn of events that gives me hope for the human race. Chapter 8 is simply titled: Gold.

Michener update

I am really enjoying "Alaska". The Russian names are a challenge: Petropavlovsk, Kuchovskaya, Praskovia Kostilevskaya...the native American tribal names aren't much easier. Cidaq, Alaxsxaq and Tlingit to name a few. The story is, of course, classic Michener: a blend of history and fiction. Alexandr Baranov was a real person (for whom the Alexander Archipelago and Baranof Island are named). There really was a Battle of Sitka in 1804, and the island's name really was changed from Sitka to New Archangel and then back to Sitka. However, the sad island of Lapak is fictional (thank God!). The Tlingit leader Kot-le-an is real, but Raven-heart is fictional. Father Vasili Voronov is fictional, but some of the pivotal events in his life echo that of a Russian missionary priest who later became the supreme leader of the Orthodox church in St. Petersburg. So, I'm enjoying a great story and getting a history lesson to boot.

More Michener

Hubby Steve surprised me with two new books yesterday: "Alaska" and "Hawaii" by James A. Michener. I'm well into "Alaska" and am already completely absorbed in the story. I am amazed at the tremendous amount of research that has gone into producing these excellent novels. Michener was not only a master of his craft, but a relentless perfectionist with an obsession for accuracy. The list of acknowledgments is replete with geologists, paleontologists, volcanologists and a passel of historians and anthropologists. Although the story is fiction, I'm thinking it is a highly realistic representation of the evolution of life and the history in this God-forsaken region called Alaska. I happened upon some interesting information this morning. I learned what a pasquinade is: a satire or lampoon posted in a public place. It can also means to assail. I thought of the incorrigible and self-indulgent French trapper, Pasquinel in "Centenniel". I like Michener's sense of humor.

Centennial

Just finished reading "Centennial" by James A. Michener. I highly recommend it. It's a long story--1038 pages--but well worth reading. Although it is fiction, I think I've learned more about the history of the American west from this one novel than I learned in all of my American history classes put together. The saga begins in prehistoric times with a thorough explanation of the geological formation of the Rocky Mountain range. Unless you are some sort of geology geek, this part can be rather tedious. Hang in there: it's a relatively short part of a fastinating saga. What I really love about Michener (I've also read "Chesapeake" and "Poland") is that he is an expert at mixing actual history with engrossing fiction. While the characters are fictional, certain background events and people are real. For example, there never was a Colonel Frank Skimmerhorn, but there really was a John Chivington, a Union soldier and leader of the Colorado Territory Militia who lead a massacre of Native Americans on their reservation at Sand Creek in Kiowa County, Colorado in 1864. I also like the way Michener engages in subtle play on words, especially surnames. For example, the greedy and unscrupulous Thespian-turned-real estate baron named Mervin Wendell. In the name "Wendell", I think Michener may be alluding to a risky, trick-taking card game in which players must be cunning in their calculation of risk. The name of the card game: Wendellhead. Then there are the irritable and flatulent Mexican Colonels Frijoles and Fabregas.