Customer Reviews

Four Quarters of Light

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A wonderful insight not just into the cold mosquito ridden vastness of Alaska, the life of native people, the eccentricities of the inhabitants, but the spiritual searching of the author.

Beautifully written.

Brian Keenan is undoubtedly a talented writer. He conjures up the places and inhabitants of his Alaskan journey with vivid precision. At first, his fumbling cultural faux pas provided some amusement. But eventually, they got frustrating and detracted from my enjoyment of his story. There's some self-effacing humor throughout as he confesses to his cluelessness, but when I got to a chapter in which he imagined a spirited conversation between himself and a crow, I gave it up. By that point, Keenan reminded me of the character of the BBC reporter in Robert Altman's "Nashville." Too "deep" for his own good, and kind of missing the point.

What was expected from this author, and this book, was never delivered. The narrative passages are workmanlike, but his interpersonal encounters are dismally unfleshed. I soon got tired of the ham-fisted way he deals with his and others feelings and the way he rubs up against them. I would have found him poor company on the road, as I suspect some Alaskans did. By the time he got me to page 163, in the cab of Tex' rig on the Truckers Road I had reached a "don't care" relationship with him - and then he dropped his credentials again by describing Tex as saying he carried a ".395 Magnum" when he checked his traps. It *could* be a typo, that's true, but going on the form this author had amassed by this point in the book I suspect he actually wrote that down. Why does this matter ? becuase a writer needs to be scrupulous with his research and his detail. I stopped at that point in the book, and returned it to the library, quite pleased it was a borrowed book that I had not wasted good money on. I accept that for many naive readers this book will give pleasure - and that's fine. But Alaska deserved a better author, and his readers deserve a more polished writer with less self-absorbtion.

I was enjoying the book UNTIL the part where he and his family arrive in a campground outside of Fairbanks.

As he is taking a stroll, he comments that he sees several campers with "Jesus Loves You" and "Are you saved?" He then HAS to add these comments "Where do all these people come from?" and that "I wish they would stay away."...or something to that effect. He then closes the paragraph by stating, "I could not get away fast enough."

Gee this guy really shows some tolerance. He has no idea who these people are and yet he has to put THIS in his book???...which is TOTALLY not necessary. Sorry but this book has been "deep sixed" after I read it.