To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn IveyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
"It is remarkable how we go on. All that we come to know and witness and endure, yet our hearts keep beating, our faith persists."
This was a lovely escape from the sweltering heat of Manila. In these pages I felt the coldness of the Alaskan wildnerness, the icy hold of despair of a husband in pursuit of honor, and his wife who endures pregnancy in rough territory.
"We each of us brave our own darkness."
Despite its cover design, this isn't YA. There are so many themes, and the writing in some parts is very "literary." Part tender love story, part homage to Alaska and its people, part historical epic, and part treatise on nature and legend, it is a very wise book that is difficult to summarize. It is best read with a steaming hot cup of tea, in stark contrast with the deprivations of its explorer protagonists!
"Father spoke of a light that is older than the stars, a divine light that is fleeting yet always present if only one could recognize it. It pours in and out of the souls of the living and the dead, gathers in the quiet places in the forest, and on occasion, might reveal itself in the rarest of true art."
I particularly liked how the story came vividly to life, despite the epistolary style! Eowyn Ivey is a very skilled writer, all her characters had unique voices that made it no trouble at all to watch the novel slowly unfold its cool brilliance.
"As Allen and I make choices that will seem to us so mundane and ordinary, we will shape our child's vision of the world."
Eowyn Ivey's vision of Alaska is that of a terrible beauty. And her vision of humanity reveals such optimism for the eternal conquest of both land and soul.
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