The Great Alone + English Muffins

A book about survival and family in Alaska, and perfect, craggy sourdough muffins

Part 1: Good Book—The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (2018)

Setting the tone

Alaska by Maggie Rogers, here

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In a nutshell 

The Great Alone follows teenage Leni as her family moves to a remote cabin in Alaska. When we meet Leni, it’s 1974 and she’s living in the lower 48 with her parents, Ernt and Cora. Ernt, a former Vietnam War POW, returned to his family after the war completely transformed. Once a caring and kind father and husband, he is volatile, violent, and holds increasingly extreme views. He learns his old army friend has left him a derelict cabin in a boat-access-only community in Alaska. Ernt instantly piles his wife and daughter in a van for the drive north, where they arrive completely unprepared for homesteading life.

The small, eccentric community of Kaneq embraces them, including some trouble-making characters who are particularly drawn to Leni’s father. The story traces Leni’s teenage years living off-the-grid with her parents, whose chaotic relationship always seems to get in the way of her living a normal, calm life. It’s a story about survival in the middle of nowhere, where Leni and her mother are often more at risk from Ernt than the wilderness.

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Why I was drawn to this book

I had never read anything by Kristin Hannah. I heard someone say on a podcast that they had read this 550-page book in two sittings, which was a good enough endorsement for me.

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Three things I liked about The Great Alone:

1. How welcoming the community in Kaneq is

   I spent so much of the book stressed about what was going to happen to Leni and her mother, Cora, trapped in the woods with Ernt. The community of Kaneq is full of characters who time and time again show up for Leni and Cora. As soon as the family arrives at their homestead, members of the community come over to give advice, help them build a greenhouse, and share resources.

2. Glimpses of how Leni’s dad used to be

   The most heartbreaking part of The Great Alone for me is that Leni’s dad isn’t always a tyrant. There are occasional glimpses of who he used to be before Vietnam. In the rare moments he treats Leni with patience or praise, she forgives him for his terrible behaviour. By showing these brief periods of respite from his mistreatment, we can see how complicated it becomes for Leni and her mother to leave him.

3. Details on how homesteaders prepare for winter

   Arriving in Kaneq in the spring, Leni quickly learns that preparing for winter is all consuming.

   “Winter was a Big Deal. Leni had learned that. The coming cold was a constant subtext up here. Even if you were out fishing on a beautiful summer day, you were catching fish for winter. It might be fun, but it was serious business. Survival, it seemed, could hinge on the smallest thing.”

   I loved the chapters on summer, and all the details about hunting, fishing, preserving meat and fish, berry picking, canning, gardening, and all of the other endless tasks Leni’s family undertakes. I also felt low-level anxiety for her family that all of these preparations had to be completed in just a few short months, and if there wasn’t enough food for winter, there could be serious consequences.

Notable passage: 

“Everyone up here had two stories : the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you. No one cared if you had an old car on your deck, let alone a rusted fridge. Any life that could be imagined could be lived up here.”

Part 2: Good Bread—Sourdough English Muffins

Why this bread for this book? 

Sourdough has long been associated with the north, so much so that “Sourdough” is an Alaskan slang term that refers to someone who has lived in Alaska for several winters. I thought some kind of sourdough bread would be appropriate for The Great Alone, and these English muffins also seemed like a great fit because they are cooked on the stove-top. Since the rudimentary cabin Leni and her parents moved into didn’t have a proper oven, they would have been able to cook these in their cast-iron pan on top of the wood stove.

Recipe

I used King Arthur’s recipe, here. The recipe called for about seven cups of white flour and I only had four; for the remainder, I used some locally milled winter wheat I grabbed at the farmer’s market recently. I also don’t have a ring to shape the english muffins, so I just free-formed it—but those oblong shapes were just as delicious as perfectly round ones would have been!

Works well with: 

• fried egg, cheese, and red onion

• apricot jam and butter

• underneath a big vegetable scramble

Looking forward…

Book I’m looking forward to reading: Fight Night by Miriam Toews

Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Fennel and za’atar sandwich loaf

New album I’m looking forward to listening to while doing both of the above: Gloria by Sam Smith

Have other books, bread, or music you’d recommend I check out? Reply to this email or leave a comment. And, if you liked this issue, feel free to hit the heart button (it helps other people find my newsletter!)