Ordinary Wolves
by Seth Kantner
2004 · literary fiction · adult
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"Ordinary Wolves is told by Cutuk Hawcly, a boy growing up in remote Alaska. He lives with his father, Abe ("our best friend, no dad at all"), and siblings in a sod igloo, with the pastel arctic sky overhead and animals - wolves, moose, foxes, ravens - all around. The Inupiaq village a day's sled drive away is their link to the outside world, one Cutuk knows only through what the mail plane brings and his brother's memories of Chicago: "Cities and cars and lawns, red apples on trees - if that stuff was true."" "Cutuk idolizes the Inupiaq hunter Enuk Wolfglove and is in love with Enuk's granddaughter, Dawna. In the village, he sees the effect of government money on the Inupiaq and knows that he is different, not only because he is white, but also because his father lives in a way few Eskimo would anymore. As he grows older and his brother and sister abandon the tundra for the city, Cutuk - shy, observant, self-mocking - wonders if he must too." "With the voice of Abe in his head, Enuk's carved ivory in his pocket, and Dawna in his heart, Cutuk finds his way, navigating between sled dogs and "snowgos," between the ancient ways of the wolf pack and the ever-approaching drone of the world beyond."--BOOK JACKET.
Set in
- ★Kobuk River · United States★ primarysod igloo childhood