Author: Wendy Lamb
Rating: WORTHY!
This is a story of real-life Inuit woman Eqariusaq, aka Billy-Bah, and her husband Angulluk, who lived in Etah, in north western Greenland. Set in late 1900, the story intertwines the life of Eqariusaq with that of the polar expeditions of Robert Peary. It's told in first person which normally I detest because it's so artificial, but once in a while a writer can make it work, and Kirkpatrick seems to be able to do that: employing this technique without making it obnoxious in the process. While I do thank her for that much, I have to wonder why she chose that method instead of using the method an Inuit woman would employ to tell a story to her own people, which presumably is not first person past!
Eqariusaq had spent a year with Peary's family in the USA when she was much younger, and so could speak English well. When a ship arrives looking for Peary, Eqariusaq and her husband, and some other of her people travel with them to a land some sixty miles across the ocean where they believe Peary is. They also hope that the hunting will be better over there: a place to which they cannot travel unless the ocean is frozen. Why they chose not to stay on that side of the ocean is unexplained, and made no sense to me. Perhaps they are really attached to their place of birth?
» Eqariusaq - Ekariusak - Ehkareeusak «
On the voyage, as is the people's custom, Angulluk trades his wife for a night to Duncan, one of the sailors. Eqariusaq is lucky, because Duncan is not a bad or brutal guy, and he is genuinely interested in the "Eskimo" people; however, this encounter gives Eqariusaq some ideas of her own! She advises Duncan as to what her husband is looking for, and thus enables him to trade goods for her for the entire week-long voyage, thereby garnering for herself a comfortable passage. She's evidently a smart girl, taking charge of her own destiny even within the limited choices she has.
This is a novel over which it's readily possible to have some mixed feelings. The fascination with learning of a new people (even through fictional means) does not sit well with the frustration and even anger of being reminded of the abuses heaped upon these people by western "civilization". The Inuit and Yupik people have had to suffer very many of these.
I have to say that one thing which is a personal peeve of mine is with the spellings! What's with all the q's? The Inuit had no written language, so it didn't matter how their words were spelled - as long as the spellings were consistent and rendered the pronunciation accurate within reason, but when a word has a 'K' sound in it, why put a 'Q' there? I have no idea. Perhaps linguists have "good" reasons for this within their own little world, but linguists often give me cause for bad language. There's a much bigger picture here, and their blinkered view of it makes no sense. Simple phonetic spelling is the only rational way to go about this. Why 'Eqariusaq' and not 'Ekariusak'? You got me!
The truly bizarre depth that this reaches is highlighted by the fact that Kirkpatrick, who created these names based, where possible on real Inuit people, and from which other names were also derived then had to supply a 'cast of characters' list with pronunciations precisely because the spellings are not phonetic and the pronunciation is not self-evident! So rather than 'Eqariusaq' or 'Ekariusak', why not go straight to Ehkareeusak, which is how it's pronounced? You got me!
This makes as much sense to me as translating Asian words into English and using bizarre spellings, such as spelling some Chinese words with an 'X' in them, but then pronouncing the 'X' as 'SH' or something! Or translating a Vietnamese name as Nguyen, but then insisting that it be pronounced 'Win'! That way lies insanity. And yes, again, I know that linguists have their own bizarre "rationale" for this, but I don't care! The bottom line is that it makes no common sense because it's not the spelling that's the crucial thing, here, it's the pronunciation! That way lies understanding and the way it's being does leads only to obfuscation. We have more than enough issues dividing peoples in this world without artificially piling them on.
But enough about that. Let me say that I fell hopelessly in love with the Eqariusaq depicted by Kirkpatrick. I have no idea - no one does - how close the depiction was to the real person, but if I'd met her, I'd probably have fallen for her too. Just look at that face! She was a revelation, and she was fun and sweet and brave and interesting. And she lived her own life on her own terms. I salute her and recommend this story highly.
