Customer Reviews

The Trap

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4 star:		(1)
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John Smelcer is one of the most underrated authors of our time. This inspirational tale of courage in the midst of difficult circumstances was difficult to put down! The story serves to captivate the imagination while educating the reader into the unfamiliar traditions of Native Alaskan culture. This book is one of those rare works that is worth every moment spent reading! This poignant, heart-wrenching tale is worth keeping forever in your personal library.

If you got caught in a trap that you had laid, and you couldn't escape, what would you do? If it was cold outside, below freezing, way, way below freezing, and wolves were threatening, could you focus on staying alive, doing what is necessary to survive another day? Or, would you panic like a wild beast, gnaw through your leg when faced with the possibility of death?

The Trap is a captivating story, the two main characters so real, the dangers so intense. I found myself telling the grandfather and his grandson what to do. I felt as if I were there, in Alaska, feeling the cold and the wind and the steel, hearing the wolves, sensing the dangers. It was simply written, jumping back and forth between the isolated grandfather who was in danger and the concerned grandson who wanted to help those he loved.

How does it end? Does the grandson arrive in time to save his grandfather? Read the story and find out...

This book is a must read. It is an excellent, original, and compelling story, written authentically, that is told in the voice of an old-fashioned story teller. I liked its simplicity, as though the book itself were a part of Alaska's landscape, its portrayal of nature's indifference. And how the book spotlights family relationships. Also, the Indian mystical stories that begin each chapter juxtaposed with reality, really bring it home. Read it, you won't be disappointed.