Reviews

"I am whale diving. The light shrinks to a shining hole above. My blood-pumps slows, lungs close, body shuts down. Colour slips away. I'm lost in a deep mist. I hear the ocean floor, twisting, flowing. Water sizzles, hums with life, shrimps snap. I probe the dark for voices, call out, try to summon the greys."

This extraordinary memoir documents the journey of a mother and son as they follow the migration of the grey whales from Baja to the Arctic.

"I told myself I would relearn from the whales how to mother, how to endure, how to live."

Part memoir, travelogue and nature writing, Doreen Cunningham presents this artful and completely unapologetic tale that is powerful and captivating as she recollects the challenges she has faced in becoming a single mother while finding friends in unlikely places and experiencing adventures of a lifetime.

Cunningham's narration is deeply moving and raw, you get a sense that she is baring her soul to the reader in her reflection.

"You are unique and spectacular beings, sentinels of the sea, ecosystem engineers, harbingers of the climate change that will affect us all."

Her writing is almost poetic as she describes the landscapes and I was particularly enthralled by the tales of the Utqigvik community and their unique lifestyle.

The ever-present concern of climate change is present and very real within this book and Cunningham explores it with grace, weaving its importance throughout her personal story in an impactful style. An incredibly important book.

"This is what the ocean should be like everywhere, what it once was. Populated, a home to wild and teeming communities, to the most incredible lives, journeys and ecologies."

I would like to thank @doreenwriting for offering me a copy of her incredible book and to @viragopress for so kindly providing the copy.

rhywia's review

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3.75

Kind of a slow start, but the ending hits you, and the prose and writing is pretty good! On the back cover one of the reviews compared it to H Is For Hawk which was one of the things that drew me to the book. I do not agree. I think H Is For Hawk is a lot better.

melindagallagher's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved the travels and learning about the Indigenous peoples of Alaska and the whales. I didn't love the details of Cunningham's personal and sexual life.

anniefwrites's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

This is definitely a memoir unlike anyone I’ve read before, with both its style and content. I was hopeful that I’d love it because memoir is one of my favorite genres and whales my favorite animals, but the writing style felt a bit too opaque for me, as did the motivation for the trip. I found myself feeling disconnected from the story, which really is more about incompatibility with the writing than anything else. I don’t think this one was for me, but I am intrigued to see how other authors incorporate animals and biology into their personal stories.

corvusantipodean's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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