A Place Beyond: Finding Home in Arctic Alaska - Hardcover

Jans, Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0882404776 ISBN 13: 9780882404776

Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books, 1996

Synopsis

Twenty-eight essays about living in arctic Alaska center around daily life in the Eskimo village of Ambler

About this title

Review:

What has always impressed me about Jans' writing is his modesty and ability to describe scenes aptly without exaggeration...Jans can write about wolves and caribou and ice mostly engagingly, but he is at his best telling of himself and his friends. --- Bill Hunt, "We Alaskans"

Nick Jans has a lot going for him. I will mention only two. He lived in Northwestern Alaska and understands that part of the country and its people, and he can write. A single word description of his writing is 'succinct.' --- Robert DeArmond, "Daily Sitka Sentinel"

Jans grasps the awesomeness of the land and the smallness of man's presence there, just as he intends to do. His language is as simple as moss while being as profound as the arctic horizon. Indeed, we are very lucky to have Nick Jans, an Alaskan writer who has learned to express awe and remembers the elders who taught him. Nancy Brown, "Peninsula Clarion"

"If there is meaning beyond words well Nick Jans is a literary guide I urge you to read as he details the stories of his life among the Inupiat people of Ambler, Alaska. Jans has a way of writing that affords the reader the privilege to envision, imagine, see, smell, hear, taste, feel to journey intimately to those places where for far too many authors their ability fails to open these mysterious dimensions for our souls to wander, to live, to explore. Jans writing creates a yearning in the reader to return to his work to immerse oneself into the marvelous milieu that Jans is uniquely gifted to create. A Jans writes, It s not the death of the elders I mourn. It s what s dying with them and what s taking their place. There is an intimacy to Jans writing that allows you to feel what he is writing about how he actually feels about the subtleties of his many years of living in Ambler reveal. He possesses an uncanny ability to observe and relay for the reader the human dimension of feeling that many writers simply are unable to accomplish. This book is a song. It s music for the soul. Listen to Jans sing: 'And beneath it all is music a delicate, liquid shattering, a song of returning, of breathing again after long silence. I should join the others in their celebration, but just now, I want to sit alone, to watch and listen as the winter breaks apart.' Nick Jans is an artist whose literary gifts allow the reader to enjoy dimensions of meaning and sensory stimulation amidst a literary topography that has been characterized as 'meaning beyond words, ' a place beyond. Enjoy A Place Beyond Finding Home in Arctic Alaska by Nick Jans. Trust me you ll fall in love with this book. I did." BillDahl.com"

About the Author:

Nick Jans is one of Alaska's most recognized and prolific writers. A contributing editor to "Alaska" magazine with his long-running column, "On the Edge," and a member of the USA Today's board of editorial contributors, he's written name books and hundreds of magazine articles. Jans has also been the recipient of numerous writing awards, most recently two Ben Franklin medals (2007 and 2008). He currently lives in Juneau with his wife, Sherrie, and travels widely in Alaska. He returns each year to Ambler, the arctic Inupiaq village he still calls "home."

About this edition

• Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0882404776
• ISBN 13: 9780882404776
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 189