Reviews: Caribou Island (13)

The jacket blurb compares this book to the writing of Cormac McCarthy, which is way short of the mark. Thematically, maybe, but stylistically, whilst there may be a nod or two, it's in no way comparable.

For all that though, it's a neat little book about obsession, life's expectations of the human condition and the spanners that get thrown in the works along the way.

Parts of it are beautifully descriptive and the characters are all well drawn and believable, although their individual lives only meet at tangents.

I liked this book - it has moments of black humour that lighten the heavy subject matter and although the denouement has a well trailed sense of inevitability about it, it's handled adeptly.

I had no idea what to expect from this book, but unfortunately I was not really pleasantly surprised.
This book is really really depressing. A couple in a crumbling marriage, their daughter stuck in a momentumless relationship with someone who doesn't really care about her, their son, a loser and waster, and a random couple on holiday that keep popping into the story now and then. None of them really very likeable characters either.
The book does do a good job of getting to the root of some very different types of human relationships - unfortunately you don't really care enough about the characters to be that interested. The Alaskan backdrop is definitely described really well. You can almost see yourself there and the harsh environment does really fit with the depressing subject matter.
The story develops slowly (a story element about a headache gets very tedious) and there aren't many exciting episodes or important moments. Only towards the end does the momentum build and the last chapter or so is pretty exciting and shocking.
Although I didn't hate the book - I unfortunately can't say I would recommend it...

I have not read David Vann's first novel, Legend of a Suicide, so I came to Caribou Island with fresh eyes, you might say, and had no idea what to expect.

Caribou Island is set in the wilderness of Alaska and follows Gary and Irene and the breakdown of their marriage. The setting is unrelentingly bleak and harsh and the story is along the same lines.

Gary and Irene are two people who seem to have wandered into a life which neither of them wanted. Neither has the life they dreamed about, in fact, nobody in the novel has the life they believed they were entitled to. Life, for these characters, is deeply disappointing.

Gary had, and still has, dreams of being a pioneer forging a minimalist life in the backwoods. To that end he and Irene are hauling logs out to Caribou Island in all weathers to build a log cabin. Irene, who is haunted by the death of her mother, has developed a blinding pain in her head and it's never clear why she is so desperate to stay with Gary or why she participates in the folly of the log cabin but what is clear is that Gary and Irene are heading for disaster and when it comes it is profoundly shocking.

The novel also follows Rhoda, Gary and Irene's well meaning grown-up daughter, who lives with her rather unpleasant dentist boyfriend, Jim. Rhoda and Jim are another two people who seem to have sleepwalked into their situation Rhoda because she wants to get married and Jim because Rhoda was available. Rhoda is, perhaps, the most sympathetic character in the novel and you can't help hoping that she will wake up to what Jim really is and move on with her own life. There are other characters who make appearances through the novel like Gary and Irene's drug-addicted son Mark and they are all similarly dissatisfied with life.

I won't deny that Caribou Island is bleak and gloomy, in fact it's inexorably bleak, but it is beautifully written and the disappointment felt, especially by Gary and Irene, is palpable and deeply moving. It is a stunning novel about disenchantment with life.

The synopsis of this book made me eager to start reading, but the book itself left me completely underwhelmed. The story focuses on the marriage of Gary, a husband dissatisfied with his life, and his wife Irene, haunted by her early childhood and what she believes is a failing marriage. Other characters are introduced such as their daughter Rhoda who seems to be in one sided relationship the dentist Jim, and Mark their layabout son. David Vann’s descriptions of Alaska have to be applauded, but it seems he lacked that effort with the rest of the novel. I did not particularly warm to any of the characters who all seemed to ignore the problems with their lives and carry on. This novel could have been so much better if only Vann had focused on character development. The ending was surprising but by that time I just didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. This novel focuses on the misery and suffering of a marriage, and is a depressing read. It just could have been so much better.

Caribou Island is the latest novel by David Vann. This is the first of his books I've read.
The marriage of Gary and Irene is falling apart, they both know it but neither one wants to admit it to the other. In an attempt to fix this relationship, Garry and Irene are transporting logs out to Caribou Island to build a log cabin, which is to be their new home.
Their grown daughter, Rhonda, lives on the mainland. She worries about her parents marriage & her mothers ill health.
Rhonda lives with her future husband, Jim. Jim cares very little for Rhonda & gets involved with an affair with another women.
Vann does a good job where describing Alaska is concerned. He does this in great detail, resulting in a beautiful and imaginative picture.
The lack of punctuation is also worth noting. Vann does not use any speech marks where his characters speak. This is not the first novel I've read where punctuation is lacking. Unfortunatly, the plot was not strong enough to distract me.
This wasn't a bad novel but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was good either.

I found this hard to get into initially, but persevered and was rewarded!

It’s not a pleasant read at all as you are drawn into the setting by great atmospheric and simply prose. The place is isolated, cold and the characters are likewise, with occasional warmth that seems to have little effect on anything or anyone.

At some points during the book I found the events a little out of character and setting, but in general all characters were consistent and in some cases immovably morbid.
After I’d read this I bought it on an audio book, but I felt reading it was much better and invoked a much bleaker setting.

Although most events took place in a small area, this did not limit what went on: Characters we taken out or brought in with enough of the outside to remind the reader that it did still exist.

The island itself did become a place of great pain and distress and this was described well, so well in fact whenever a trip was meant to go there one knew it wouldn’t be a good one. But, this is not to suggest that is was predictable as it was far from it.

I think I would read this again in a few years as I felt there was much more subtext that I had not got hold of.

I enjoyed reading this book, I found it had an underlying sense of menace throughout, and the characters and setting were interesting, if not all likeable. I liked how the characters had odd traits and how they affected the story. The main drawback for me was the writing style. I am a punctuation pedant, and was irritated by the lack of speech quotation marks which would have made it more apparent when a character was speaking aloud, engaging in some internal monologue, or at some points just indicating when the narrative has begun again. This did make me re read some paragraphs.

I found this book extremely depressing and very hard going. I could not identify with any of the characters and found the story heavy going and slow.
Although the story is very bleak it left me completely untouched, a very rare thing for me.
The only thing I can say for it is that the cover synopsis does prepare you for the book.

A book that really brings you into the environment that it is set. You almost feel the coldness as you read through the descriptions that match the characters turmoil and pain as you see their lives unravel before them. The dark and honest portrayal of dreams and love lost is written so well that you care.

This is not a book for those who don't want to feel what the characters do because you are complete immersed into their world and you want to read but don't want for them to fall any deeper into despair so even though your reading on, knowing in the back of your mind that there is going to be more darkness and misery your brought in and you need to read more.

This isn't the book for a happy read but it is a book for an interesting read. This book is truly brutal in it's honest approach to the dark situation of love, loss, surviving suicide and hurting those we love.

You will not read this book and smile, you will read this book and reassess your life, it is written so beautifully compared with the theme. The language drags you in and you have to read on.

If your going to read this book then make sure your prepared to rethink where your going in life and why.

David Vann is never going to write a funny book because it just isn't in him from the style of his writing so far but he is always going to write beautifully and descriptively bringing you into his dark mind.

Caribou Island is the latest novel by David Vann, author of the acclaimed Legend of a Suicide. Poorly plotted with weak characterisation, Caribou Island was a laboured and uninspiring read. I can only assume that David Vann, like the main protagonists Gary and Irene, was suffering from a bad case of cabin fever, such was his rush to bring this kitchen sink drama (sans kitchen sink) to its inevitable and unsatisfying conclusion.

A failing marriage, a life-long dream, set in the wild, cold world of Alaska, amongst rivers full of salmon, and bears always hovering on the horizon. Gary persuades his wife Irene to help him build a home on an isolated island, out of bare materials, but he is not exactly an expert home builder. They both know that their marriage is all but over, but neither wants to be the first to admit it, so the delusion of a future in their log cabin continues, while Irene suffers horrendous, unidentified, physical pain.
Back home, their children’s lives are falling apart, too, and their daughter Rhoda worries constantly about her parent’s safety. But her lover, Jim is carrying on an affair with someone else. Their son is trying to make his way in the world, and failing. There was a point in the book where the two siblings lives almost came together, with dramatic effect, but this story line drifted off.
This book had all the trappings of a gripping novel, but to me, it failed, as there were absolutely no tied ends. As we followed the main characters through the plot, one felt that something had to happen to at least one of them, but then the book finished! I know that happy endings are not fashionable in the world of literature at present, but any ending would have been good.

David Vann's Caribou Island follows the dreams and destructive lives of an Alaskan family and their close friends and partners. It is a novel about isolation, within relationships, in an apt setting. The author continues the themes from his earlier justifiably acclaimed collection, Legend of a Suicide, in it's consideration of the impact of suicide on those left behind. In fact readers of that book will find characters that cross over into this, Vann's first full novel. However no prior reading of David Vann's work is necessary.

Caribou Island, despite its sometimes dark subject matter, is an enthralling read. Characters are beautifully drawn and the narrative of the intertwined lives always captivating for the reader.

Gender relationships in the novel, and their often insurmountable differences, echo the works of Hemingway while the lost dreams of the characters bring to mind John Updike at his finest.

Caribou Island goes some way to confirming Vann as the new star of American Literature. I look forward to his next novel with some eagerness.