Inukshuk

by Gregory Spatz

Overview

“An elaborate tale of family and the paths people take to understanding.” —Seattle Times

“[This] mix of well-researched history and contemporary fiction makes for a fine, sad read.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Hauntingly honest and emotionally resonant.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Gregory Spatz’s prose is as clean and sparkling as a new fall of snow.” —JANET FITCH, author of White Oleander and Paint it Black

“At its heart Inukshuk is about family. But Spatz has transfigured this beautifully told, wise story with history and myth, poetry and magic into something rarer, stranger and altogether amazing. A book that points unerringly true north.” —KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Wit’s End

John Franklin has moved his fifteen-year-old son to the remote northern Canadian town of Houndstitch to make a new life together after his wife, Thomas’ mother, left them. Mourning her disappearance, John, a high school English teacher, writes poetry and escapes into an affair, while Thomas withdraws into a fantasy recreation of the infamous Victorian-era arctic expedition led by British explorer Sir John Franklin. With teenage bravado, Thomas gives himself scurvy so that he can sympathize with the characters in the film of his mind—and is almost lost himself.

While told over the course of only a few days, this gripping tale slips through time, powerfully evoking a modern family in distress and the legendary "Franklin's Lost Expedition" crew’s descent into despair, madness, and cannibalism aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror on the Arctic tundra.

Gregory Spatz is the author of the novels Inukshuk, Fiddler’s Dream, and No One But Us, and the short fiction collections Wonderful Tricks and Half as Happy. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and recipient of a Washington State Book Award, he teaches at Eastern Washington Universityin Spokane and plays the fiddle and tours with Mighty Squirrel and the internationally acclaimed bluegrass band John Reischman and The Jaybirds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934137420
Publisher:	Bellevue Literary Press
Publication date:	06/19/2012
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Gregory Spatz is the author of the novels Inukshuk, Fiddler’s Dream, and No One But Us, and the short fiction collections Wonderful Tricks and Half as Happy. He has also written for the Oxford American and Poets and Writers and his stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker. He is the recipient of a Washington State Book Award, Spokane Arts Commission Individual Artist of the Year Award, and National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he teaches in the MFA program at the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University. When he’s not writing or teaching, Spatz plays fiddle and tours with Mighty Squirrel and the internationally acclaimed bluegrass band John Reischman and The Jaybirds.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Library Journal Best Indie Novel of the Year

“An elaborate tale of family and the paths people take to understanding.” —Seattle Times

“[This] mix of well-researched history and contemporary fiction makes for a fine, sad read.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Hauntingly honest and emotionally resonant.” —Publishers Weekly

“Intimate and meditative . . . A thoughtful and sympathetic look at the sometimes troubled relationship between fathers and sons.” —Booklist

“A mesmerizing story of a father and a son.” —Largehearted Boy

“Thomas, bullied at school, confused by love (with a delightfully original girl), pining for his mother, and distrustful of his father, takes control of the only thing he can—his physical survival. . . . A frozen lullaby . . . written for teens left behind.” —Bookslut

“Inukshuk better communicates darkness and distress than any S.O.S. signal. . . . We can’t help but oscillate between feeling empathy and agony for this family as we are absorbed by Spatz’s cold, gripping tale.” —ZYZZYVA

“This enthralling, tense book should lure not only fans of extreme weather novels but also those who admire a good, traditional structure and a satisfying and meaningful resolution.” —NewPages

“Entertaining and much recommended.” —Midwest Book Review

“Inukshuk is a feat of empathy and honesty, a taut tale of fear and resentment and other threats from within, meticulously observed and fearlessly rendered in vivid, authoritative, gripping prose. It’s a virtuoso performance.” —DOUG DORST, author of Alive in Necropolis and The Surf Guru

“Gregory Spatz’s prose is as clean and sparkling as a new fall of snow.” —JANET FITCH, author of White Oleander and Paint it Black

“At its heart Inukshuk is about family. But Spatz has transfigured this beautifully told, wise story with history and myth, poetry and magic into something rarer, stranger and altogether amazing. A book that points unerringly true north.” —KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Wit’s End

“One of the most innovative and unusual fictional incarnations I’ve ever read of the persistent allure of Sir John Franklin’s final, fatal Arctic voyage. It’s a remarkable accomplishment.” —RUSSELL POTTER, author of Arctic Spectacles

Editorial Reviews

Shadowed by the Inuit word for stones resembling "a human form," a marker to reassure that "Someone was here," Spatz (No One But Us) portrays a discordant family crippled by emotional and physical distance. John Franklin's wife has abandoned him and their son Thomas for nonprofit work in the Arctic. In an attempt to start anew, John and Thomas relocate to Canada, where they struggle to connect with one another, but ultimately withdraw into themselves. John is lonely, imbalanced, and stuck in a "miserable, prolonged hanging-on." He turns to poetry and strikes up an affair, but flounders as a disciplinarian—both in his job as a high school teacher, and as a suddenly single father. Meanwhile, Thomas—a 15 year old with "a remote, demented stare, stiff-legged pirate-boy walk, perennial sniffling—" obsesses over Sir John Franklin's doomed early 19th-century bid for the Northwest Passage, going so far as to induce scurvy in himself. Thomas's fixation functions as a heartbreaking figuration of his desire to transcend his family's problems, reconnect with his mother, and secure his father's attention and care. Taking place over the course of just a few days, this tale of familial dysfunction is carefully interwoven with the historical retelling of Sir Franklin's quest, resulting in a layered journey that is hauntingly honest and emotionally resonant. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal Best Indie Novel of the Year

“An elaborate tale of family and the paths people take to understanding.” —Seattle Times

“[This] mix of well-researched history and contemporary fiction makes for a fine, sad read.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Hauntingly honest and emotionally resonant.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Intimate and meditative . . . A thoughtful and sympathetic look at the sometimes troubled relationship between fathers and sons.” —Booklist

“A mesmerizing story of a father and a son.” —Largehearted Boy

“Thomas, bullied at school, confused by love (with a delightfully original girl), pining for his mother, and distrustful of his father, takes control of the only thing he can—his physical survival. . . . A frozen lullaby . . . written for teens left behind.” —Bookslut

“Inukshuk better communicates darkness and distress than any S.O.S. signal. . . . We can’t help but oscillate between feeling empathy and agony for this family as we are absorbed by Spatz’s cold, gripping tale.” —ZYZZYVA

“This enthralling, tense book should lure not only fans of extreme weather novels but also those who admire a good, traditional structure and a satisfying and meaningful resolution.” —NewPages

“Entertaining and much recommended.” —Midwest Book Review

“Inukshuk is a feat of empathy and honesty, a taut tale of fear and resentment and other threats from within, meticulously observed and fearlessly rendered in vivid, authoritative, gripping prose. It’s a virtuoso performance.” —DOUG DORST, author of Alive in Necropolis and The Surf Guru

“Gregory Spatz’s prose is as clean and sparkling as a new fall of snow.” —JANET FITCH, author of White Oleander and Paint it Black

“At its heart Inukshuk is about family. But Spatz has transfigured this beautifully told, wise story with history and myth, poetry and magic into something rarer, stranger and altogether amazing. A book that points unerringly true north.” —KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Wit’s End

“One of the most innovative and unusual fictional incarnations I’ve ever read of the persistent allure of Sir John Franklin’s final, fatal Arctic voyage. It’s a remarkable accomplishment.” —RUSSELL POTTER, author of Arctic Spectacles

From the Publisher