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    Caribou Island: A Novel
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    Caribou Island: A Novel
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    Caribou Island: A Novel
    Ebook317 pages5 hours

    Caribou Island: A Novel

    By David Vann

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The prize-winning author of Legend of a Suicide delivers his highly anticipated debut novel.

    On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, a marriage is unraveling. Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, and Irene, haunted by a tragedy in her past, are trying to rebuild their life together. Following the outline of Gary's old dream, they're hauling logs to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health, to build the kind of cabin that drew them to Alaska in the first place.

    But this island is not right for Irene. They are building without plans or advice, and when winter comes early, the overwhelming isolation of the prehistoric wilderness threatens their bond to the core. Caught in the emotional maelstrom is their adult daughter, Rhoda, who is wrestling with the hopes and disappointments of her own life. Devoted to her parents, she watches helplessly as they drift further apart.

    Brilliantly drawn and fiercely honest, Caribou Island captures the drama and pathos of a husband and wife whose bitter love, failed dreams, and tragic past push them to the edge of destruction. A portrait of desolation, violence, and the darkness of the soul, it is an explosive and unforgettable novel from a writer of limitless possibility.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 18, 2011
    ISBN9780062042330
    Unavailable
    Caribou Island: A Novel
    Author

    David Vann

    Published in twenty languages, David Vann's internationally bestselling books have won fifteen prizes, including best foreign novel in France and Spain, and have appeared on seventy-five Best Books of the Year lists in a dozen countries. He's written for the New York Times, Atlantic, Esquire, Outside, Sunset, Men's Journal, McSweeney's, and many other publications, and he has been a Guggenheim, Stegner, and NEA fellow.

    Read more from David Vann

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    Reviews for Caribou Island

    3.5/5

    200 ratings24 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Set in Alaska, this is a very dark story of a dysfunctional marriage that has endured with a grim determination for many years and produced two children, a son and a daughter. The son lives a hedonistic existence and the daughter struggles in a barely functional relationship with a deceptive man; however, she is the main emotional support of their severely depressed mother. The ending affirms what has been sadly apparent throughout this book. It is extremely well written with a meticulous attention to the details that make this novel so haunting.
    • 4/5
      This book was hard to read at some stages. "Gritty", a reviewer might say. There are no good relationships in this book, no people you want to be - they're all deeply, deeply flawed. At one stage I even considered stopping reading because I couldn't feel enough connection with the characters. I persisted, however, and I'm glad I did. At the end I think I came to realise that no matter how terrible these people were, I am not actually that far away from being one of them.
    • 5/5
      Couldn't put this book down. Vann tells a gripping but bleak tale set in Alaska. V good characterisation and sense of place.
    • 2/5
      Vann is chiefly known for Legend of a Suicide which has not only been acclaimed but translated into many languages. I haven't read it but can say this book is not so deserving. It isn't bad but it does not live up to its ambitions. Three couples , each doomed for different reasons, spin out of the control and the central one between Irene and Gary ends in madness and death on Caribou Island where Gary is building a cabin. Irene's madness goes on and on and needed to be shortened as it loses rather than gains power as she runs around the island with her bow. The narrator is omniscient and privy to the interior worlds of the three couples but there is a fourth set - the pot smokers - who come off, perhaps inadvertently as the healthy ones. Vann is from that North West strain of male writers and place and nature are lovingly placed in the center of reader's view, almost as a separate character. Yet Vann is not gun shy about the character's psychology as others of this school are. He fully explicates Irene and Gary and even Rhoda, Irene's daughter but is less successful with Carl and Jim the Dentist. Just for fun we also get Monique the trust fund Kali sexual destroyer of men and there is some suspense when she is working the boys over. The book is set in Alaska over the span of a few weeks as the weather gets worse and worse.
    • 4/5
      Reading Caribou Island is the literary equivalent of witnessing a really horrible car accident—you really don’t want to see the awfulness that’s about to unfold, but there’s something holding you there frozen such that you can’t look away. At its core this is the story of the gradual disintegration of the marriage of Gary and Irene, an Alaskan couple in their mid-50s. Gary’s decision to build a cabin on remote Caribou Island, against Irene’s wishes, brings to a head all the regrets and resentments of their years together and draws the marriage, and both spouses, to the breaking point. There is little that’s likeable or endearing about any of the characters. Gary and Irene’s grown children are floundering in their own lives, and there is no standout example of a happy relationship here. As a meditation on marriage the novel doesn’t offer a great deal of hope about the institution. With all of that said, I could not put this book down. Unlikeable characters (and this is usually really a sticking point for me as a reader) aside, the writing is so hypnotic that it sinks into you and doesn’t let go. Vann’s descriptions of the Alaska wilderness are vivid and bring the stark landscape to life, as a stunning backdrop for the desolation of Gary and Irene’s crumbling marriage. This isn’t the novel for those looking for a feel-good story or a happy ending. But for those who appreciate a well-crafted, albeit disturbing, story that can unflinchingly examine the fallout of relationships gone wrong, this novel will be riveting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This grim novel moves implacably toward its dark climax but is so gripping that I could not stop reading despite a cast of manipulative, crazed, doomed characters and implicit violence on every page. It was not a fun read but it was not possible for me to put the book down. My ration of sardonic pessimism about human nature for the decade.
    • 4/5
      This is a book that reflects its setting. The style is spare and the themes are dark. The cold, forbidding atmosphere of Caribou Island and the surrounding area just add to the feeling of desperation and fear. The writing is beautiful in many places, with a restrained style that allows the stark facts to show through. The book centres around a troubled marriage, with the wife depressed and the husband angry, but the problems radiate out through the more minor characters too. Everyone in the book is damaged in some way, everyone is lacking something.As I hope I've made clear, this is certainly not a cheery or uplifting read. If you want to be inspired or to escape or to meet likeable characters you can identify with, you probably won't like this book. But if you want something dark, sad, raw and true, I'd recommend Caribou Island.
    • 3/5
      two people on the road to self-destruction; a good story, actually.
    • 4/5
      Despite the author's lack of quotation marks to indicate dialogue, I really enjoyed this book. The story is set in Alaska and details Gary and Irene's relationship after 30 years of marriage. Their adult children are also involved as well as a couple of other minor characters. It is not a happy story but the struggles seem true. The end was inevitable but I felt a small let down as I think it needed one more small chapter for closure. Or a sequel.
    • 4/5
      A novel about the misplaced hope in new beginnings. Insightful about the tensions of family life. Tails off at the end. The desolation and Arctic weather of Alaska reflected in the isolation and frostiness of the relationships.
    • 4/5
      Isolating, desolating, Alaska is the perfect backdrop for this dark novel that examines a long-time marriage coming apart at the seams. When the husband decides to retreat further into Alaska’s wilderness by building a cabin, he alienates his long-suffering wife while at the same time putting her through emotional and physical hardship. Through the event the author asks his audience to consider the cost and consequence of self-sacrifice inherent in a committed relationship. The outcome leaves no doubt that love misplaced can be tragic. Deeply depressing yet exquisitely written, this is a cautionary tale worth reading.
    • 2/5
      I have to agree with a previous review that said this novel was bleak and cold. If you take one look at the cover it doesn't lie. I should have believed it. The story weaved back and forth between several characters in the setting of a remote fishing village in Alaska. Upon reading this book, I never want to visit Alaska. The writer conveyed the parallel mood of the setting with the characters very well. I sure hope that not everyone who lives in Alaska are desperate, unfulfilled, depressed, resigned, or detached potheads. I'm not sure why I brought this book home or why I finished it. The writing style was good. Although, I did have some trouble following the dialogue. The ending was very unsatisfying. Could be that I just didn't "get" it. The references to some old european languages and stories??? In the end, I kept reading it, but I sure would not recommend it to any of my friends.
    • 3/5
      This book is .. there is no single word to describe it. Some words that come close are:BleakColdAchingVoidI was unprepared for the heavy, depressive feel of the story and, thinking back on it, I should have been prepared. The cover is dark, the setting is not known for it's warmth (thus inspiring feelings of joy), and, although I felt my mood descending with each page read, I couldn't tear my eyes or my thoughts away from the train-wreck of a story the people in Caribou Island were living.I found the way the book to be written, the transitions between characters to be mildly confusing at first, but then the rhythm of the book began to flow and the imagery was so powerful it added even more to the story. I felt cold, depressed, an aching hunger and even began to experience daggers of pain in my head in sympathy to the pains that Irene felt. While this is a powerful book and a powerful story, it wasn't the book for me. I prefer books with an element of redemption to give me a sense of satisfaction in finishing - but I found none of that here. I found no closure, just heartbreak and, in thinking back on having read it, I'm amazed that I devoted so much time and invested so much energy in pushing through the story. I have a difficult time rating books for the above reasons. I found the writing to be masterful, the images created to be brilliant but the story just wasn't for me. So this time, I am going to rate the book on how it made me feel and hope that this review provides enough of a warning so that others who might also be looking for something a bit more hopeful can pick up this story prepared.
    • 3/5
      I found this a very difficult book to read. I stuck with it because I held on to hope that something redeeming would occur. I could not relate to the characters and for the most part, did not even like them. It is very dark and left me with a heavy sense of resignation. Too many wonderful books out there to subject myself to this. The only positive I came away with was excellent descriptions of Alaska, which is what drew me to the book in the first place.
    • 3/5
      Irene and Gary are in a failing relationship. Though things seems civil on the surface, Irene is convinced that this is the last winter that the couple will spend together, sure that Gary will leave her. When Gary decides to build a cabin on Caribou Island, he enlists Irene’s help, but all the couple seem to do is snipe at each other more and more aggressively. Meanwhile, Gary and Irene’s adult daughter Rhoda is hoping to receive a marriage proposal from Jim, her long term boyfriend. But Jim isn’t all that thrilled about settling down with Rhoda and thinks perhaps he can do better. Irene and Gary also have a grown son named Mark, who is basically a shiftless pothead who wants very little to do with the rest of his family and whose prospects have gradually dwindled. When a new couple of Mark’s acquaintance starts hanging around, the woman of the couple, Monique, a manipulative twenty-something, begins to dangerously tempt Rhoda’s boyfriend Jim, a situation that Rhoda is oblivious to. After a particularly grueling day spent building the cabin, Irene seems to have developed a chronic and severe headache that she just can’t shake. After several medical tests reveal nothing, her family is left doubting whether there is anything wrong with her at all or if this is just an attempt to get attention from her fumbling husband. As the misshapen cabin grows, things begin to take a sinister turn in the couple’s marriage, leading to an act of bizarre and frightening violence from which the family will never recover. Bleak and caustic, Caribou Island presents a slice of the life of one family whose dysfunction and apathy will reverberate through all the lives they touch.While this book had a lot of wonderful and evocative imagery and real ambiance of life in Alaska, I found it to be a very tough pill to swallow. The story was not only dark, but it had all the hallmarks of an irredeemable tragedy that I found very upsetting. The relationship between Irene and Gary was just painful to read about, and though the book mainly dealt with this from Irene’s perspective, It seemed like she was right on the money in predicting just what Gary was thinking in regards to his plans to leave her. I didn’t really like Irene or Gary at all. They were both self-involved, and at least in Irene’s case, there was enough self-pity shooting through her thoughts and actions to slay a horse. Both halves of this couple seemed miserable with each other, and one of the questions I asked myself is how they had managed to stay together for thirty-odd years without realizing that they were just not good for each other. This book started off in the throes of a desperate time for Irene and Gary, and as such, there was no opportunity for me to see what kept this couple together or to witness any of the good times that they ostensibly had. It was like walking into a room at the tail end of a fight, and it felt awkward and uncomfortable, to say the least.I also had a hard time with the relationship between Rhoda and Jim. While Rhoda is basically driving herself crazy over her mother and father’s doomed relationship and the strange turn in her mother’s health, Jim is off acting like a sleazeball. I wanted Rhoda to be able to see him for what he was, but this never happened. Though she did begin to suspect that Jim was changing right before her eyes, she never really caught on to what he was going through or the resolutions he had made, and those resolutions were a doozy, let me tell you! I began to see that Rhoda’s relationship would eventually mirror her mother’s, and towards the end of the book, Irene even states this obvious fact to her daughter, but nothing could make Rhoda see the deception that Jim was engaged in. Rhoda also had some aspects of co-dependency to her personality, and whether or not she enabled her mother to act in such a bizarre fashion was something that remains cloudy in my mind. Though I really disliked the subplot between Rhoda and Jim, I was eager to see it to the end because I wanted some type of resolution that would make sense to me, but this resolution was only dealt with obliquely.Much can be said about the repercussions of living in a relationship that is obviously past its prime, a situation that was minutely detailed in this book, but what stuck me the hardest was the way these individuals dealt with each other like enemies. They stored up grudges and dragged them out when they were at their most painful point, and it was really very ugly to witness. I didn’t feel sorry for either of them because they were both obviously so insensitive and cruel to each other. There were points that I felt embarrassed for them and wished that they would just go their separate ways in order to salvage some of the self-respect they had lost, but like boxers, they just kept getting up and pummeling each other over and over again until the final haunting conclusion. It was a sad state of affairs and I can’t say I was entertained by it. I felt a lot of discomfort reading about the perpetual battles and recriminations they put each other through, and by the end of the novel, I was fed up with all the hatred they both took part in. The solution to this problem was inelegant and shocking, and the final thoughts of Irene impacted me as severely selfish and short-sighted.Though I really didn’t enjoy the story this book told, and often it made me frustrated and angry, I did like the scene setting and atmosphere. It was filled with lush and vivid descriptions and gave me a peek into what it might be like to live in the wilds of Alaska. I can’t say it was a pleasant reading experience though, as most of the time I was very put off by the characters’ behavior and thought patterns, but as a novel that deals with a dysfunctional family, I would have to say that it excels in its ambitions. Not a read for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
    • 5/5
      this book gave me goosebumps at the end. amazing how the atmosphere is creating. you can feel the cold and the desperation of the characters. constantly you are on the edge wonder what is next. a true page turner.
    • 5/5
      This is an author I deeply admire for his ability of writing truly horrible stories in a way that draws you in, holds you firm until you finished the book, breathless, shocked, amazed and absolutely enthralled in Vann’s world of darkness and human horror. Since 30 years Gary is trying to find the *real* Alaska. In a last attempt he starts building a log cabin on Caribou Island. Irene, the wife, helps in all weathers to fulfil his dream, knowing deep inside that he is walking towards yet another failure. On the mainland their daughter Rhoda is trying to coax a proposal out of her boyfriend who has other things in mind for his life.While Gary and Irene’s marriage is slowly falling apart Rhoda is getting more and more worried about her mother who seems to slide into painful madness.It is a brutally honest book, stark and dark, with no room for the reader to turn away. Fantastic!
    • 5/5
      Like several other reviewers, I am drawn to stories of ordinary characters being driven to darkly extraordinary lengths. After devouring David Vann's Caribou Island yesterday, I was reminded of A.M. Homes' Music for Torching - another chilling account of a marriage imploding beneath the weight of disappointment. Here against the vast expanse of Alaska, Vann exposes the claustrophobic aloneness of lives filled with regret or false hope. After thirty-plus years of marriage, Irene grows painfully aware that she's been tethered to Gary as a mere accessory in his life, and her 30-year old daughter Rhoda is on the verge of recreating such a life with her narcisstic fiancé Jim. Irene suffers unrelenting and unbearable headaches, her realization of a wasted life as palpable as the hard, cold rain assaulting her on the island where Gary insists on building his misbegotten log cabin. Vann sustains a propelling air of suspense to the end, as Irene's illness and Gary's cabin - dueling metaphors for their roles in the long seige of their marriage - drive them to their inevitable resolution.
    • 4/5
      While trying to find the love that has slipped away, a couple sets out to build a cabin on Caribou Island. Irene and Gary have drifted apart over the years, both blaming the other for their unfulfilled lives. In an attempt to recapture the ideal that drew them to Alaska in the first place, Gary and Irene begin construction on an isolated, rustic cabin on Caribou Island. For Gary, this is a chance to finally live his life the way he always intended to live it. Irene sees the cabin as Gary’s way of leaving her behind, knowing full well that secluded cabin life is Gary’s dream and not hers. The cabin becomes a representation of their marriage; built without proper planning, materials, or foundation, and morphing into something uglier than either had ever envisioned. Like a psychological game of chicken, Gary and Irene forge ahead with construction, neither one wanting to be the first to give up on it or their marriage. Caught in the middle is their adult daughter Rhoda. Watching her parents’ marriage fall apart before her eyes, Rhoda tries unsuccessfully to play peacemaker without much support from her brother or boyfriend. Rhoda’s own life seems stagnant and she must decide what kind of life she wants for herself. Imagery abounds in this powerful novel of a husband and wife fighting the elements and each other as they speed toward ruin.
    • 5/5
      Such a different novel from Sukkwan Island, yet imbibed with the same sense of people living on the edges of what is bearable in life. The reader watches them take on the challenge of treading along that edge, knowing that they are walking somewhere the reader dares not walk, wondering, along with Rhoda, why in hell they have chosen to live there.?He hadn?t yet seen his life wasted, hadn?t yet understood the pure longing for what was really a kind of annihilation. A desire to see what the world can do, to see what you can endure, to see, finally, what you?re made of when you?re torn apart.??An ocean with a heartbeat, slow waves of pressure, water compacting but no edge to it.??Fishing seemed to him a great act of faith, or desperation.??A despair as immovable as a mountain.??Her memory now was only of figures in landscape. She had lost their movement and words, their purpose.??...but that was only habit, not a thing you could trust.??The Lake Man, they?d call him, and he?d find everything that had ever been forgotten. A childhood alongside an old shoe, a rusted-out engine full of someone?s thoughts from a summer afternoon.?Deep water, layers and currents, and when one layer moved over another, something must hear that, some tearing of water against water.??Knowledge came too late, and by then, there was no use for it. The choices had already been made.??Origins. That was the problem. If we didn?t know where we had started, we couldn?t know where we should end, or how. Lost all along the way.??Something tempting about wilderness, something inviting and easy, and yet the truth was that the spaces became much larger once you entered them. Hard and cold and unforgiving.?
    • 5/5
      I am predicting this will be my favorite books of 2011. I consumed this book in two days. Thank goodness for the blizzard that kept me at home.Caribou Island is a well written book, but a very depressing one, that delves into dark emotions. The characters are completely unlikeable, those people who feel suffocated by their circumstances and sorry about their lives. Gary and Irene have married for 30 plus years, and Gary wants to leave his wife--or so he thinks. But instead of leaving her outright, he decides to drive her away through circumstance by building, and ultimately living in, an ill conceived cabin on a remote Alaska Island in the middle of an especially harsh winter. Irene knows what Gary is trying to do and although she hates every single moment of this cabin project, she participates in it, thwarting his great escape-the-marriage plan, but also driving herself insane.Other characters include their equally miserable daughter, Rhoda (who may be destined to repeat this couple's failures) and their drug addicted, unmotivated son, Mark. He is easily my favorite character, as he accepts life for being just life, no regrets. The setting is stunning, capturing Alaska in all its brutal mystery. The actual demise of the characters, while violent, is honest. Although there are no good feelings to be had at the end of the book, it does make sense and is a satisfyingly good read.
    • 5/5
      Gary and Irene have been married a long time, living most of their lives in the desolate wilderness of Alaska. Their two children are now grown up – Rhoda looking forward to marrying her dentist boyfriend Jim, and Mark living with his girlfriend while he makes a living fishing the waters of unpredictable waters of the bay. No one is happy in this novel of failing relationships, disloyalty, escapism from reality, and regrets. Caribou Island tells the story of a marriage sliding into violence and uses the backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness as a symbol of the isolation of the characters.David Vann’s writing has been compared with that of Cormac McCarthy – and for good reason. The starkness of the prose, the realistic and razor sharp dialogue (absent quotation marks), and the hard-hitting plot that moves relentlessly forward toward disaster reads very much like a McCarthy novel. But, Vann has his own style, a way of getting inside his characters’ heads which is uniquely his own. Gary is a brilliant character – a man who could have been a success in anything he chose, but instead he escapes to the wilds of Alaska where he fails at everything.He had lived almost his entire adult life in exile, in Alaska, a self-exile as good as any sea, and he wanted now to experience the very worst this storm could throw at him. - from Caribou Island, page 190 -Irene has followed Gary into his self-imposed exile out of her unquestioning love for him. But, as the seams of their marriage begin to unravel, desperation begins to drive her toward a brutal understanding of how much she has lost.Caribou Island moves forward like a train gathering momentum and heading toward certain disaster. There can be no good end, and yet the reader cannot stop reading. And this is what is most compelling about Vann’s writing: tragedy is just around the corner, but we cannot look away. As the conflict between Irene and Gary grows, so too does the inevitability of the plot.This is a dark and psychologically terrifying novel about the dissolution of a marriage. It haunted me. David Vann writes with honesty and sharp-edged realism that is hard to ignore. Not every reader will want to travel through this story with Vann, but for those who do, it will be a ride they will not soon forget.Readers who enjoy noir and literary fiction, who have respected the writing of authors like Cormac McCarthy, and who like psychological thrillers will undoubtedly be impressed with Caribou Island.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Irene's husband Gary decides to build a log cabin on a secluded Alaskan island for them to live . . . Irene agrees because she is afraid he will leave her if she doesn't. After hauling logs in a bad storm, Irene is afflicted with painful headaches but doctors can find no cause. Meanwhile, her daughter Rhoda (pretty much the only likeable character in the book) is living with a guy who doesn't really love her and her son Mark is in his own world of fishing and getting high. A pretty miserable bunch for sure. So what was it that made this disturbing and depressing book so compelling for me? The writing for one. Vann is a great writer and really brought these characters to life -- not to mention how he pulls Alaska in there as almost another character. Every once in a while a book surprises me and this was one of those books. I'd never read David Vann before but you can bet I'll be reading more of him in the future.
    • 4/5
      “Caribou Island” is a book that magnified my impression of the very short amount of time I spent in Alaska. I found it to be an amazing place, one of breathtaking beauty and awe inspiring spectacles of nature…but from the second I got off the plane…I felt that this was a place that humans were not meant to be. There’s something about the sky – about the very air that felt like a pregnant pause. That nature was just waiting, patiently for now, for people to leave so she could reclaim what was hers.This book takes place in Alaska, and several of the characters, after living most or all of their lives there, seem to be coming to that conclusion as well. This book chronicles a tipping point in a family’s lives that is desperate and dark and seemingly inevitable.“At the moment, though, Alaska felt like the end of the world, a place of exile. Those who couldn’t fit anywhere else came here, and if they couldn’t cling to anything here, they just fell off the edge. These tiny towns in a great expanse, enclaves of despair.”Gary and Irene are the main characters, spouses whose marriage has evolved to a point where they are leaving their home to build a primitive cabin on an island just in time for winter. Neither seems to find any joy in the project (or in their lives as a whole) but Gary relentlessly pushes on and Irene, nearly incapacitated by headaches, feels compelled to keep pace with him in this endeavor.“We have to get this load out to the island, he yelled back, and then he pulled another log, so Irene followed, though she knew she was being punished. Gary could never do this directly. He relied on the rain, the wind, the apparent necessity of the project. It would be a day of punishment. He would follow it, extend it for hours, drive them on, a grim determination, like fate. A form of pleasure to him. Irene followed him because once she had endured she could punish. Her turn would come. And this is what they had done to each other for decades now, irresistibly.”Their daughter, Rhoda, seems a bit oblivious to the bleakness of her parent’s marriage…yet not completely as she seems to be making some choices that might lead her life to the same hopeless place.“Rhoda could see how marriage might feel lonely. A new feeling she couldn’t quite describe or even reach. Something at the edges, something she didn’t like. She could imagine long periods of time in which they wouldn’t say much to each other, just moving individually around the house.”It seems hard to believe that any of these people ever experienced real love or any fulfilling kind of human connection. Their interactions with one another seem barely normal on the surface and filled with rage and pain underneath. Although I was interested in their stories and wanted to find out the details of the ending, I kept wondering how on earth they’d remained even this stable this long.They grit out their lives, living – just because. Until nature, or their natures, overtake them, take back what is hers and their humanity is banished.