Surviving the Island of Grace

To deem this solely a memoir of her life spent as the wife of a salmon fisherman on a remote Alaskan island would be missing the boat, so to speak, for Fields' powerful, poetic essays deal with themes as large as the great outdoors in which she struggles to make her way and find her place. Barely out of her teens, Fields marries Duncan, determined to share the life he loves, every backbreaking hour of it; sailing the open ocean in a tiny skiff, harvesting salmon the way it has always been done: dragging them in by nets, picking them out by hand. Just as Thoreau went to the woods to live deliberately, so, too, do the Fields live on this ocean, without electricity or telephones, with bears and eagles as their constant companions, choosing it as much for what it offers as for what it omits. Paying homage to man's flexibility and gratitude for God's grace, Fields' memoir is haunting in its imagery, uplifting in its message.

Pub Date: 2008
ISBN: 9780980082593
Author: Leslie Leyland Fields
Binding: PB
Pages: 330
Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2"