Literary Lizard

Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner

If you have ever had any romantic notions about Eskimos, this book will cure you of them. It is the story of Cutuk, a shy white boy growing up in remote Alaska. The book follows his life from that of a young boy to a young man. He grows up in a sod igloo with his father, a brother, and a sister. He desperately wants to fit in among the Eskimos that live nearby, but everywhere he turns he is beat up and ridiculed because he is white. He is a second-class citizen, discriminated against as much as a black person in the old south. And he lives more like a traditional Eskimo than the Eskimos themselves! He just cannot win. Then later on he moves to the city, but he doesn't fit in there either because he is so overwhelmed by the materialism there. I think Kanter captures very well the contrast between the two worlds.

Even though this book is a novel, it is so realistic that I think the author must have lived it. I don't think you can make this stuff up! And his short bio at the back of the book says he "was born and raised in the wildness of nothern Alaska." So maybe some of it IS true.

I googled Seth Kantner and found a short article he wrote recently:
http://www.adn.com/life/story/6547786p-6430049c.html

Evidently he is also a photographer. Here are some of his pictures:
http://www.kapvikphotography.com/