The Way Winter Comes: Alaska Stories (Hardcover)

by Sherry Simpson (Author) "AT THE GOLDSTREAM GENERAL STORE just down the road from my house, three creamy wolf pelts dangle from the log beam above the dog food..." (more)
Key Phrases: killing wolves, way winter, Lincoln Island, Admiralty Island, Southeast Alaska (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Simpson's debut collection of essays about Alaska, winner of the 1997 Chinook Literary Prize, combines a refreshing voice and vision in a work that is part adventure, part meditation and part natural history lesson. With her distinctive brand of descriptive journalism, she's informative and captivating, lyrical without ever being maudlin, and philosophic without being preachy. Readers will trust the voice immediately because she speaks the language of the Alaskan landscape. Simpson blurs the line between spectator and participant by living the experiences she writes about, and brings readers with her as she tracks the myths and realities of ravens, moose, bears, wolves and winter itself: "Summer carries you away, but winter inhabits you." She goes beyond symbolism to probe the mystery of Alaska while acknowledging that it's a mystery that can never be solved. She doesn't gloss over vulnerabilities and contradictions of the landscape and animal natureAhumanity and her own included. Ultimately, she wants readers to know that the landscape, although frozen, is alive with activity. "Everything is going somewhere," she writes. In irresistible language, she bewitches the reader just as the Alaskan landscape has bewitched her.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
As she explains, "end-of-the-roader" is a term for those in Alaska who have decided to abandon society and venture into the wilderness seeking peace or oblivion or sometimes even violence. The term might also well describe where Simpson takes her readers in this collection of stories. Once "the road" is left behind, we set off on an unforgettable journey into a hostile yet compelling world where peace may be just over the next mountain and violence can be lurking behind the next bush -- The Monterey Country Post, Dec. 17, 1998

Once in a great while, even this foreigner gets an inkling that she is reading something truly Western, truly indigenous. These are the books that could be read anywhere, because their roots go so deep into Western soil that they join the other strong, place-inspired literatures at the molten canon at the Earth's core. Read these stories in New York and you can still be stung by the wind off the tundra -- Los Angeles Times Book Review, Oct. 25, 1998

Readers will trust the voice immediately because she speaks the language of the Alaskan landscape. Simpson blurs the line between spectator and participant by living the experiences she writes about....Ultimately, she wants readers to know that the landscape, although frozen, is alive with activity. "Everything is going somewhere," she writes. In irresistible language, she bewitches the reader just as the Alaskan landscape has bewitched her (Publisher's Weekly, Sept. 14, 1998). REVIEW: ...a journalist's objectivity combined with a poet's love of words... -- Juneau Empire, Sept. 24, 1998

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570611467
• ISBN-13: 978-1570611469
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #974,404 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing that transcends the labels, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

Calling this book nature writing, or Alaska writing, or wilderness writing is to box it into a space that is too small. This is just damn GOOD writing by someone who knows how to take the reader places without heavy-handedness. In many ways, I find Simpson's essay to be better than the oft-mentioned names like McPhee, Muir, Gutkind, etc.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fair, insightful, lushly written book, January 27, 1999

By	Mary Noble [e-mail] (Juneau, ALASKA) - See all my reviews

Simpson takes the reader on a literary tour of Alaska. From her upbringing here in Juneau to her excursions in the deep Arctic, we are given an open window to peer into some of the mysteries of the many faces of Alaska. Her journalistic past affords her some true objectivity in dealing with controversial topics like wolf trapping.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simpson has done something very well, perfectly well., January 24, 1999

By	L. Schooler ([e-mail]) (Juneau, Alaska) - See all my reviews

The Way Winter Comes is one of the best pieces of Alaskan -- or any -- writing I have read in decades. Readers who do not experience this small, precious book may have wasted some portion of their lives. Get it. Get it now.