A review by foggy_rosamund
Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales by Doreen Cunningham

2.0

I've read a number of books about whales, as well as books about the Arctic, and that may have done this book a disservice: I had too much with which to compare it. Soundings weaves two threads of time together: it opens with an older Doreen and her young son Max, who are travelling the coast of the United States and Canada, following the great migration of the grey whales, the longest migration of any mammal. The book also meets a younger, childless Doreen who is Utqiagvik in Alaska, learning about bowhead whales, and joining Inupiaq people on their traditional whale hunt. Both of these stories are full of potential: there is space for the reader to learn about two fascinating species of whale, about migratory journeys, and about Inupiaq people and their relationship with whales. And Cunningham does touch on these subjects -- she writes in an interesting and persuasive way about how the Inupiaq, as subsistence hunters, understand the bowhead whales better than anyone else, and how their insight into, and respect for, the whale, is one of our more important examples of living alongside whales without destroying their habitats. However, everything in the book is filtered from Cunningham's perspective: we never learn about the whales without discovering what the whales mean to her, or learn a fact about climate change without it being filtered through a memory of Cunningham's own childhood. I was also frustrated by the emotional weight Cunningham places on the whales: she seems to expect their presence to heal her from a traumatic relationship and a difficult childhood, and looks to them for compassion and tenderness. It's important to resist the urge to anthropomorphize animals, and while studies have shown whales' complex language, societies and abilities, I do not believe they form special bonds with humans, or have a particular connection to us. Also, in most cases, the best thing we can do is leave the whales alone, and not try to pet them in their birthing lagoons or follow them in boots. If we truly loved them, we wouldn't follow them: Cunningham doesn't seem to understand that. I compared this to Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey by Brenda Peterson and Linda Hogan, which taught me much more about grey whales; to Fathoms by Rebecca Giggs, which is a careful, thoughtful study of whales and their history, and This Cold Heaven by Gretel Ehrlich, the most considered and thorough study of the arctic I've read, and found that Soundings was wanting every time. Too much of Cunningham's life is in this book, and she loses sight of the whales and of the Arctic culture she's writing about. It was nice to learn more about the bowhead though.