Still A Dreamer

There are times when I’ve finished a book, that I don’t quite know where to put it. In my head, that is. The book is so different from anything I’ve read, that it seems to be searching for a place to settle in my mental bookshelf, and meanwhile, it seems to hover in space.

Dogsong by Gary Paulsen is one of those books. It might be best defined  as a coming-of-age story where a 14 year old Inuit boy, Russell, restless in his own life, searches to find himself. In so doing he moves in with an elder where he is taught how to hunt, run the dogs and survive. And then he lives it, gradually becoming one with his dogs. This is an oversimplification and doesn’t do justice to the nuances in the story, so let me just say it was a very compelling read.

Perhaps why it hasn’t settled in yet is that it is a vignette of a life so totally different from my own or even what I could imagine an Eskimo tribe’s life in Alaska might be, that there is not a real frame of reference for it in my head. And yet, I could not help but be in the trance with Russell, in the dream, to merge with the spirits of the dogs, as he trekked blindly in the snow for days, never seeing a single soul or a source of food.

I read up on Gary Paulsen the author of Dogsong plus a good bunch of other MG and YA novels he has written. I suspect these have the greatest appeal to boys, but maybe not. Paulsen ran away from home at 14, and his life – he is now around 70 – has been a series of amazing adventures in all kinds of situations and locations. Among his experiences has been living in Alaska where he has run the Iditarod twice. And while I am no fan of the Iditarod because of the suffering of too many of the dogs, Paulsen has truly lived that life in Alaska so as to have written this book from a deeply authentic perspective. I have to truly admire Paulsen for how he has lived his life; he’s humble, adventurous beyond what I could imagine, and just … well … very real.

Reading about him explained a lot about the book in a way; my personal connection with dogs/animals deepened the meaning; my willingness to try “living” in such a different culture helped. Soon Dogsong will find a place and settle in.

Perusing my bookshelves once again led me to one of my many finds at the annual county library sale and to as different a book from Dogsong as I could get – one by Candace Bushnell of  Sex and the City fame. I loved the series, never read the book, but figured how far wrong could I go? We’ll see …