About the Book:
ISBN: 9781571313010
Growing up in the Arctic, pragmatic, simple questions had useful answers. And frostbite was a way of life. In Shopping for Porcupine, Seth Kantner returns to the setting of his debut novel, Ordinary Wolves, with a fascinating account of life on North America’s last frontier.
In these essays and photographs, Kantner chronicles the “by-hand times so recently passed,” watching through the lens of his life the transformation of the Arctic as mainstream America moves relentlessly north. His story begins with the arrival of his father, Howard Kantner, to this world in the 1950s and ends with Kantner, a grown man, settled in the same landscape. “My memory begins under snow,” he writes, recalling his early and longstanding respect for the old Iñupiaq ways, cold nights on caribou hides, swimming in the ice floes for wounded waterfowl, and fur-clad travelers stopping with their dog teams for visits.
Bracing and humorous, perceptive and profoundly illuminating, this extraordinary collection offers an ode to respect—that oft-forsaken, unromantic quality—for the land, for animals, and for “something as virtuous as gathering food.”
About Tom Carter:
Tom Carter lives in Carnelian Bay, where he spends his time skiing and climbing as much as possible in the Sierra Nevada. He has lived most of his life in the Sierra Nevada, climbing, skiing and wandering The Range of Light. He has lived in North Tahoe for nearly 30 years.
Why Tom Chose This Book:
Welcome to Planet Alaska.This book connects you to vast and stunning northern landscapes teaming with wildlife, and answers every single question we’ve ever asked ourselves about what it takes to truly live off the land. Seth Kantner was born and raised in a sod igloo above the Arctic Circle and witnesses the modern challenges confronting the ancient culture of the Inupiaq. Kantner, his friends and mentors, all of whom are woven into the rich fabric of the North, discover themselves drifting from their once ancient, remote and independent past.
