Book Journal: Far North

North Asia?! Tough survival? Imagination? So there! For the most part.

Far North by Marcel Theroux
This book isn't bad by any means. In fact, I'd call it a pretty good parable about what might happen with climate control, even if that notion wasn't quite as drilled into the story as I would have liked. Most people know I've got this weird thing about the Far North/cold tundra areas/Russia and Alaska/the northern lights so this book grasped me solely for that reason, with the climate change aspect a much-enthused bonus. It's similar to The Road by Cormac McCarthy which I have never read but am familiar with, so maybe you can draw your own opinions there?

I read it in a day and it was pretty engaging. The story features an okay narrator, a tough talking, grizzly female (a shocker) narrator named Makepeace who lives alone (due to famine and drought) in this little town, believing she's all that's left, until she spots a plane and tracks it. She gets caught up along the way and has to suffer for it, going into this Chernobyl-esque town and then meeting an old enemy, and then returns. I'd say the book falls a little short on development as a whole, which is the only thing that really kept it from being an earth-shattering, end-of-days tale. The characters aren't so developed; you stick with Makepeace because she's tough and she's tramping through Asia no matter what, but you aren't that engaged with her. The plot isn't so developed; you get the loose threads and you have a story, but there isn't enough emotional drive to what's happened in the world so make it wholly engaging. And that's because the climate change issues aren't developed enough. Could've been a real winner but falls a little short.

6.5/10