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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
For the better part of a week I was convinced I was never going to be able to finish traipsing through the 201 pages of this book, and even when I realized I was too stubborn not to finish, I remained convinced I was never going to enjoy the story. Touché, Jean Craighead George. Touché. While George ended up hooking me, she didn't successfully do it until page 120, and until then I was sure I'd been wandering the Arctic tundra for three lifetimes waiting for the real story to unfold.
While I can understand why George saw fit to tell the story in three separate (mostly) non-chronological parts, the absence of chapters made the story feel run-on in places. More importantly (to me), it's quite difficult to care about a character until some amount of backstory is shared. (Part III is definitely my favorite, save for it also being the most depressing.)
The back of the book shares that George herself "traveled extensively to report on the behavior of animals in the wild", and the shining moments within this story definitely lie in the details of the wolves, caribou, the Arctic fox, and the golden plovers. Miyax/Julie is both endearing and wholly unbelievable as a narrator and lone survivalist, but where Julie lacks credibility and depth, the Arctic tundra and all its wild inhabitants are authentic and vibrant, engaging and ever-changing.
To end this review before I write a five paragraph essay on how the story SHOULD have ended, a favorite quote/Miyax mantra:
"When fear seizes," she whispered, "change what you are doing. You are doing something wrong."
[Three stars for a wild and captivating world, and beautiful wolves.]
While I can understand why George saw fit to tell the story in three separate (mostly) non-chronological parts, the absence of chapters made the story feel run-on in places. More importantly (to me), it's quite difficult to care about a character until some amount of backstory is shared. (Part III is definitely my favorite, save for it also being the most depressing.)
The back of the book shares that George herself "traveled extensively to report on the behavior of animals in the wild", and the shining moments within this story definitely lie in the details of the wolves, caribou, the Arctic fox, and the golden plovers. Miyax/Julie is both endearing and wholly unbelievable as a narrator and lone survivalist, but where Julie lacks credibility and depth, the Arctic tundra and all its wild inhabitants are authentic and vibrant, engaging and ever-changing.
To end this review before I write a five paragraph essay on how the story SHOULD have ended, a favorite quote/Miyax mantra:
"When fear seizes," she whispered, "change what you are doing. You are doing something wrong."
[Three stars for a wild and captivating world, and beautiful wolves.]
How I read this: free trial of Scribd
I was absolutely in love with Julie of the Wolves – I finished this story in an evening, and I was so sorry it ended so fast. This story is not only a celebration of the Inuit (Eskimo) culture, it’s also a lovesong to other, non-human cultures – I mean animals. The story focuses on wolves and how they adopt a girl who has got lost in the tundra because she was running away from a dangerous situation at home. The love for nature, for the natural (even if harsh) way of life really resonated with me – I’ll always love stories about how people take up the old ways of life instead of our polished, highly artificial lives of the 21st century.
The descriptions of the social lives of wolves are simply stunning! I could have never imagined these animals to have such a rich culture. We really don’t see animals in the light we should – that they’re just like us, but in their own way. It’s magical to look into their world and see both how similar and how different they are from us.
Julie of the Wolves also reveals the magic of nonverbal speech. We humans are so used to expressing ourselves pretty much only verbally that we even think only though speaking – at least surely most of us do. But in Julie of the Wolves, the main character is forced to learn another kind of language – one comprised pretty much only of movements, glances, snarls or positions of ears, or simply how things make you feel when you see them. It’s alien territory for a person of the 21st century, which is why it was a treat to read. It’s always so interesting to learn about other ways of life.
But reader, I must warn you – I cried. Triggers includeanimal death which I absolutely can’t handle. And yet, the story was still worth it. It left my heart full of feelings and sadness for the ways of life the Western culture has erased.
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I was absolutely in love with Julie of the Wolves – I finished this story in an evening, and I was so sorry it ended so fast. This story is not only a celebration of the Inuit (Eskimo) culture, it’s also a lovesong to other, non-human cultures – I mean animals. The story focuses on wolves and how they adopt a girl who has got lost in the tundra because she was running away from a dangerous situation at home. The love for nature, for the natural (even if harsh) way of life really resonated with me – I’ll always love stories about how people take up the old ways of life instead of our polished, highly artificial lives of the 21st century.
The descriptions of the social lives of wolves are simply stunning! I could have never imagined these animals to have such a rich culture. We really don’t see animals in the light we should – that they’re just like us, but in their own way. It’s magical to look into their world and see both how similar and how different they are from us.
Julie of the Wolves also reveals the magic of nonverbal speech. We humans are so used to expressing ourselves pretty much only verbally that we even think only though speaking – at least surely most of us do. But in Julie of the Wolves, the main character is forced to learn another kind of language – one comprised pretty much only of movements, glances, snarls or positions of ears, or simply how things make you feel when you see them. It’s alien territory for a person of the 21st century, which is why it was a treat to read. It’s always so interesting to learn about other ways of life.
But reader, I must warn you – I cried. Triggers include
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A beautiful story I first read back in middle school, and have re-read twice since then. One of my favourites for sure, and I recommend it to anyone who's interested in a novel about survival, resilience and understanding nature.
This is an incredible book. The surface narrative is great, because it's about a tough and smart girl doing it for herself on the tundra, man-v-nature style. Deeper than that, it's about just how difficult it is to get your identity, your occupation, and your sense of home to be in some balanced state that makes you happy. This, to me, is the huge struggle in adulthood and it is so heartwrenching in this book.