Book Review: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

REVIEWERS NOTE:   

I have read books by Kristin Hannah before. My favorite being Firefly Lane.  I was not prepared for the domestic violence in this book.  I had to try my best to skip over those scenes in the book due to personal reasons.  I just kept envisioning my mother who lived through abuse in 1970 and luckily had the courage to find a way to leave and save me before I was born.  PTSD and war were not a part of my mother's situation, but mental illness and alcoholism was.  And as stated in the book, there wasn't any help or assistance for battered women in those days.  

The Great Alone follows the Allbright family from 1974 until 1986.  Ernt Allbright is a former POW and is a changed man from the Vietnam war.  His wife Cora 'stands by her man' no matter what.  Their daughter Lenora, whom they call Leni moves with her family like nomads because her father cannot hold down a job.   Ernt is notified that one of his friends that was killed in the war has left him his piece of land in Alaska.  The journey begins with him moving his family north.  They will live off the grid and start over.  They are unprepared for Alaska-living; the hard work it entails and the isolation.

Without giving too much of the story away, I must say that the writing in this book is extraordinary.  You feel like you are in Alaska...which is why I read this book in the winter.  I'm usually a beach-book reader, so this was an adjustment for me.  Kristin Hannah's writing is vivid, descriptive, picturesque and true to life.  The story flows genuinely and you definitely want to know the outcome of this family.  It surely is not a 'fluff' book.