To the Bright Edge of the World

Ivey does such a great job bringing the mystery and natural magical realism of Alaska to her readers. This book is quite a different experience than The Snow Child (which I did enjoy more), but I thoroughly enjoyed the medium in which this one is told (entirely through letters, journal entries, newspaper reports, etc) and was easily drawn in to the story throughout the entire read.

Favorite passage:
page. 138

“There is a mythical element to our childhood, it seems, that stays with us always. When we are young, we consume the world in great gulps, and it consumes us, and everything is mysterious and alive and fills us with desire and wonder, fear, and guilt. With the passing of the years, however, those memories become distant and malleable, and we shape them into the stories of who we are. We are brave, or we are cowardly. We are loving, or we are cruel.”

I received an uncorrected ARC of this book for free through Net Galley.

I really, really loved [b:The Snow Child|11250053|The Snow Child|Eowyn Ivey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327098624s/11250053.jpg|16176521]. I think Eowyn Ivey is an enormously talented writer and so I was excited to read her next book, which I was fortunately able to get an ARC of. To the Bright Edge of the World has the same sense of gentle, quiet beauty that The Snow Child has, but the deliberate pacing can make the story seem a bit drier than many readers would like. This particular novel took me quite a while to read because it's at its best when you can sit down and really devote your time and attention to it, something I was never able to do when I went to read it. However, the times that I was able to give it my full attention, I found a story that was full of life and beauty, populated by characters that were carefully drawn and fascinating.

This book isn't going to be for everyone, but you'll find something great if you're willing to look.

A 19th century adventure story of a small group of American military venturing through Alaska along the harsh Wolverine River, in order to document terrain and locals. The story is told in the form of letters and diary entries, from the men, from the Colonel's young wife who stayed back at the barracks, and even an ancestor and historian in modern times. Novels told in the form of diaries and text clippings (an epistolary novel as wiki just taught me) is usually not something I enjoy, but all parts were equally engaging and the audiobook also took off the usual edge I assume.

The story finds a good way of weaving magical realism - shamans, shape-shifting, birthing kids from spruce trees - into the elementary themes of survival and adventure. I mostly enjoyed the women of the story: Sophie, the stay-at-home wife who rebelled from strict society by discovering her love and destiny for field photography, and Nat'aaggi - the mysterious Indian woman who accompanies the scouting party, where one can never tell if she is in their care of if they are in hers.

''I once thought to kill myself so that I would no longer wander through a fog such as this. How could it be any greater crime than that which I have already faced, committed, failed to undo? Yet I am a coward.''I had included To the Bright Edge of the World on my list, long before I know of Ivey's [b:The Snow Child 11250053 The Snow Child Eowyn Ivey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327098624l/11250053.SY75.jpg 16176521]- a book that touched me deeply. My interest was picked for two reasons: First, I have a deep love for the region of Alaska, and second, the book synopsis brought to my mind a beautiful film called ''The Snow Walker with the brilliant Barry Pepper. In the film, a Canadian pilot is stranded in the arctic tundra, in Canada's Northwest region and comes to terms with the true meanings of life through the eyes of a young Innuit woman. If you haven't seen the film, please do. You'll thank me later:)Now, there are so many things to love in this book. Ivey's writing shines through beautiful sentences and well-composed dialogue and inner monologues. She ties the worlds of the past and the present by using elements of myth and folklore of the indigenous people of Alaska and, at the same time, she presents the first steps of the art of Photography to describe the beginning of a new era and the newly-found life of our heroine, Sophie.''When expectation fails to ruins, what is there left for love?''I have an immense admiration for ravens and wolves, I find them to be fascinating, full of mystery, darkness and questionable intentions. Therefore, I will devour every book with references to either of these creatures (or both, as is the case here.) So, Ivey uses symbolism and sets of contrasts to tell the parallel lives of Allen and Sophie as he is in a deadly expedition and she remains behind to wait for him and for the child she's carrying. The raven, here, is an ominous symbol of death that must be exorcised, witnessed by Sophie and by Allen who come to believe that the black bird has been following their steps all along.Another contrast takes place between Sophie and the young indigenous woman who follows the expedition. While the latter is free to choose her own husband and roam wherever she wants, Sophie is stuck in the outrageous patriarchal restrictions of the past. The majority of the men consider her to be a frail, vain woman when she is the complete opposite. The narrow-mindness of the woman of her social circle comes through as they have been brought up with such notions as ‘‘propriety'' and ‘‘female behaviour''. They constantly try to infect Sophie with their views and she is as trapped with them as Allen is trapped in the ferocious Wolverine river.The use of birds links the couple in a diverse way. Sophie loves the fluttering sound of hummingbirds and their presence is a source of happiness and tranquility for her. For Allen, however, the geese he often sees appear frightening as monsters and unreal like hallucinations.The couple compliment each other in every way, not unlike Jack and Mabel of [b:The Snow Child 11250053 The Snow Child Eowyn Ivey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327098624l/11250053.SY75.jpg 16176521]. For me, though, they are not as interesting as the elder couple. I enjoyed Allen's parts, I was waiting for the continuation of his expedition eagerly. The parts of Sophie, however, didn't attract my attention as much as I thought they would. There were some I liked and quite a few that tempted me to scan and skim.The character of Sophie is one I am on the fence about. I found her too docile to the insulting and hateful company of Mrs Connors and the ‘‘ladies'' of the ‘‘polite'' society. I admired her determination, and courage, her persistance and bravery, but I don't consider her a particularly memorable character. Allen is more interesting, probably, because his adventure is fascinating, mystical and unpredictable and this is an advantageous ark for the development of a character. He is brave, rational and not easily susceptible to fear and prejudice. However, he isn't a hero we haven't seen before nor one we won't see in other stories. Like Sophie, he is well-developed, but I won't remember him in detail after some time has passed.This is a slow burn. As the narration is largely supported in diary entries and correspondence, there is not much dialogue. Newspaper clippings and some beautiful photographs and sketches create a unique combination. I admit, though, that the letters between Josh and Walt were a torchure. I understand that this was a way to connect the past to the present, but I found them tedious, repetitive, soap-operish. They slowed the narration even more. In my opinion, they didn't offer anything interesting to the story and the writing in them was too mellow for my liking.I can't say I connected to the story and the characters the way I did in [b:The Snow Child 11250053 The Snow Child Eowyn Ivey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327098624l/11250053.SY75.jpg 16176521], but this is a vastly different book. The beauty of Ivey's writing is present along with elements of magical realism and folklore that she uses in a convincing way. She doesn't repeat herself, prefering one book over the other is purely subjective. So, this may not have worked that well for me- mainly because I found Sophie too blunt- but both books are unique and Eowyn Ivey is a writer that is certain to offer us many more great stories, full of beauty, magic and hope. God knows how much we need all three in this time of ours...

Fantastic. A marvel. Loved this book.

Eowyn Ivey's second novel, To the Bright Edge of the World, in an impressive feat. This epistolary novel shows considerable research and passion for the subjects. Personally, I'm not a big fan of correspondence-based novels. Often, I find it is poorly done—authors too often rely on giving information that they wouldn't share or need to share with the recipient, all for the sake of advancing the plot. I roll my eyes every time. I guess you could say it's a pet peeve.

Had I known To the Bright Edge of the World was an epistolary novel before I picked it up, I might have delayed my read. I liked Ivey's previous work, The Snow Child, immensely, but not enough to suffer through four hundred pages of fictitious documents. But Ivey does it flawlessly. She truly gets into the minds of her characters and writes as they would have. She trusts her readers to discover what was left unsaid and to piece it all together to make a plot. The different periods and perspectives all come together to create a rather engaging read.

That said, I'm still not a fan of the epistolary novel. To the Bright Edge of the World is such a fantastic example of how it can be done well, but I didn't fall in love. For me, stories with an overly present narrator force me to take a step back from the tale, and that's exactly what happened here. I enjoyed the characters and scenery (Oh, the setting of this one!) from a distance, but never felt fully committed.