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A review by gicb38
When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu
4.0
TW: animal cruelty and sexual assault
Its hard to give something like this a star rating, but alas it is the world we live in. With that in mind I don’t want anyone to rate my enjoyment of it through those little starts. Because my experience with this book was much more complex than that. So, I’m writing a review (finally, I know I’ve been slacking ok)
This book by Yuri Rytkheu is about the origin stories of his people the Chukchi, who come from the tundra area at the edge of Siberia across Alaska in modern day Russia. Through telling the story of his people Rytkheu uses multiple generations and narrators. Starting with the “Forever Living” mother of all men, Nau. She was the human, and eventually she falls in love with a whale after for many years admiring their majesty. The great love, which is a source of all beauty and good in the world eventually turns this whale into a man, who becomes Nau’s husband and the father of all mankind. But first Nau gives birth to two whale babies, who are her first children, only later to give birth to humans.
Her descendants all become the shore people and in this book we see all of their generations as they relate to their identity, ancestry and relationship with the environment.
This is beautifully written and translated. I read this for a translation class, and in reading the Translator’s note at the end was surprised by how seamless the transition between languages was, while at the same time retaining a lot of her own writing in it. She had a long relationship with the writer and this was truly what made this so magical. I think ultimately this translation did what the author asked of it: for it “to also sing in English”. This lyricism is what truly submerges you in the narrative making the images vivid and every emotion felt.
At many points I found myself actively emotionally involved, wanting to stop the characters actions or even talk to them. Everything from the beautiful and almost fantastic landscape to the humanity of each character was so entirely fleshed out that felt almost close enough to touch.
In summary I highly recommend this, and definitely if you read this don’t skip the translator’s note at the end
Its hard to give something like this a star rating, but alas it is the world we live in. With that in mind I don’t want anyone to rate my enjoyment of it through those little starts. Because my experience with this book was much more complex than that. So, I’m writing a review (finally, I know I’ve been slacking ok)
This book by Yuri Rytkheu is about the origin stories of his people the Chukchi, who come from the tundra area at the edge of Siberia across Alaska in modern day Russia. Through telling the story of his people Rytkheu uses multiple generations and narrators. Starting with the “Forever Living” mother of all men, Nau. She was the human, and eventually she falls in love with a whale after for many years admiring their majesty. The great love, which is a source of all beauty and good in the world eventually turns this whale into a man, who becomes Nau’s husband and the father of all mankind. But first Nau gives birth to two whale babies, who are her first children, only later to give birth to humans.
Her descendants all become the shore people and in this book we see all of their generations as they relate to their identity, ancestry and relationship with the environment.
This is beautifully written and translated. I read this for a translation class, and in reading the Translator’s note at the end was surprised by how seamless the transition between languages was, while at the same time retaining a lot of her own writing in it. She had a long relationship with the writer and this was truly what made this so magical. I think ultimately this translation did what the author asked of it: for it “to also sing in English”. This lyricism is what truly submerges you in the narrative making the images vivid and every emotion felt.
At many points I found myself actively emotionally involved, wanting to stop the characters actions or even talk to them. Everything from the beautiful and almost fantastic landscape to the humanity of each character was so entirely fleshed out that felt almost close enough to touch.
In summary I highly recommend this, and definitely if you read this don’t skip the translator’s note at the end