Book set in Kodiak, Alaska – Woman at Sea by Catherine Poulain
An adventure to the ends of the earth
The author is also the lead character in this book. This is a work of (translated) fiction, but also stands as a memoir sort of travelogue. A mix of a few genres, but that’s what makes it so interesting. Woman at Sea by Catherine Poulain is a short but fast flowing reading experience.
The author ups sticks suddenly as she wants to travel to the ends of the earth. The book skims over her arrival from France (New York via Las Vegas on a Greyhound Bus, then up to Seattle and Anchorage) as it’s when she arrives in Kodiak that her real adventure begins..
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Setting: The small Alaskan town of Kodiak. Where fishing is a way of life.
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Book set in Kodiak, Alaska – Woman at Sea by Catherine Poulain
What I like about this novel is that the adventure starts from the off. Lili wants to go to the ends of the earth. So, she does. There’s a brief mention of her leaving France, going to New York, then her journey in a Greyhound bus via Las Vegas. She meets some fishermen in Seattle and then flies to Anchorage. Kiodiak is her destination and where her story starts for real.
She is off “to the ends of the earth, the limitless oceans, to the glassy calm and raging peril”.
It’s not really important why she’s now in Alaska but some readers might ask what the real reason is. It was enough for me to be there with her, feel her enthusiasm and her zest for life. This is a fiction novel but it’s more than that. The author has written about her experiences and thoughts and so this makes it very authentic and raw.
The novel is written in the present tense so you feel as if you are there with her. You’ve just joined her on this adventure and like in real life, you wouldn’t know anything about your travel buddy’s past. There are moments when she thinks of something from her past but it’s like a daydream as we are then directed back to real life. The here and now.
It’s a raw and unwelcoming environment for an outsider – the boats, the ice, the open seas. A life not many of us will experience. Give Lilli her due; she gets involved from day one and doesn’t let people put her off. I only remember one time when a man told her it wasn’t a place for a woman.
This is a unique adventure and a unique perspective on it. The writing (the translation) is lyrical and flowing like the sea. There were moments that reminded me of We Were the Salt of the Sea. There’s a way that French people write about the sea that really works in both of these novels. Books which come across well in the translation.
Lilli introduced me to a fascinating way of life. At first, I did wonder if a book about fishing and the fishing industry would be interesting. IT is both lyrical and fascinating. Haunting and captivating in equal measure. Kudos to translator Adriana Hunter.
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