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The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos
 
 
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The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos [Paperback]

Nick Jans (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 1, 2007
From his home in remote Eskimo Village, Nick Jans leads us into a vast, magical world: Alaska's Brooks Range. Drawn from fourteen years of arctic experience, The Last Light Breaking offers a rare perspective on America's last great wilderness and its people--the Inupiat Natives, an ancient culture on the cusp of change.

Making a poignant connection between the world he describes and the world of the Inupiat once knew, Nick Jans invokes with stunning power, the life of the Eskimos in the harsh arctic and the mystical aura of the wilderness of the far North.

With the eye of an outdoorsman and the heart of a poet, Jans weaves together these 23 essays with strands of native American narrative, making vivid a place where wolves and grizzlies still roam free, hunters follow the caribou, and old women cast their nets in the dust as they have for countless generations. But looming on the horizon is the world of roads and modern technology; the future has already arrived in the form of stop signs, computers, and satellite dishes. Jans creates unforgettable images of a proud people facing an uncertain future, and of his own journey through this haunting timeless landscape.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fresh wonderful new voice, all the more alive against the grave and ancient background of Inupiat tradition, wildlife, and the waiting landscape.  I much admire The Last Light Breaking.”

        --- Peter Matthiessen, author of  The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord

From the Publisher

With the eye of an outdoorsman and the heart of a poet, Jans weaves together the twenty-three essays of THE LAST LIGHT BREAKING with strands of Inupiat Eskimo narrative, making vivid the remote and wild arctic. Jans creates unforgettable images of a proud people facing an uncertain future, and of his own journey through this haunting, timeless landscape.

Hailed as one of the best new books about Alaska when it was first released in 1993, THE LAST LIGHT BREAKING is now one of the classics of Alaska literature.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books (August 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 088240458X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0882404585
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Facets of Rural Alaska, February 2, 2001
This collection of essays are the author's descriptions and reflections on aspects of life in rural Alaska. It's not a story of pioneering or stone age lifestyles, as the title "living among the eskimos" might suggest. Rather, Jans gives a vivid picture of how the lives of rural Alaskans are like a collision of the old and new worlds. It is a world of snowmachines, TV, and basketball, and caribou hunting. Nick Jans lived in the villages of northwest Alaska for decades. The reader benefits from his sense of the most striking or moving experiences he has collected and his perfect, crystal clear prose. I came away with the sense that Jans loves Alaska and when you read the book you can feel it yourself. I also highly..HIGHLY recommend his more recent book that incorporates stunning photography with essays.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not a traditional Ethnography, but still amazing, April 23, 2004
By 
Jonathon Lever (Green River, WY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos (Paperback)
When I first ordered this book, I was looking for an ethnography of the Inupiat. I didn't look that closely at the description of the book, but since it had a five star rating, I still bought it. The day it arrived, I started reading it and found at that what I received was not what I was expecting...however I still couldn't put it down. Jans' stories of life with the Inupiat, are amazing.

While it isn't a traditional ethnography, Jans still gives some amazing insight into the lives of the Inupiat. His descriptions are colorful and entertaining while still giving a sense of the seriousness of the intrusion of mining and modern culture on the traditional subsistence of the Inupiat. There is a degree of fear as to what will happen to them as society marches onward into the remote regions of Alaska and provides a sense of urgency of protection for these people.

If you are remotely interested in what life is like above the arctic circle, get this book. Don't think about it, just get it.

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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than you might expect, July 25, 2001
By 
Keith Snyder (Rego Park, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos (Paperback)
This February, I was sitting in the library at the Selawik school -- just above the Arctic Circle, population 700; I was there as part of a program that sent authors to the Alaskan bush -- and I asked the librarian for a book recommendation. She went straight to THE LAST LIGHT BREAKING. I leafed through it and then bought it when I got home.

My favorite piece in this collection is "Beat the Qaaviks," Jans' account of an Arctic basketball game, but they're all excellent. I'm hoping to return to Selawik, and to take a friend with me. I gave him THE LAST LIGHT BREAKING to whet his appetite.

If you're reading this, you're already thinking about buying the book. Just buy it. It's great.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Alaska?" says the gray-haired woman. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
northwest arctic, calving grounds, haul road, sport hunters
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Dog, Brooks Range, Kobuk River, The Feds, Ambler Trading, Anaktuvuk Pass, Black River, Clarence Wood, Edna Hunnicutt, National Park Service, Ambler River, The Eskimo Storyteller, Jade Mountains, North Slope, Arctic Heroes, Mark Cleveland, Nelson Greist, Onion Portage, Chukchi Sea, Ivishak Pass, Kobuk Eskimos, Northwest Arctic Borough School District, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Beatrice Mouse, Douglas Creek
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