How Sad Do You Like Your Books?
Spoiler Alert: Thorough spoilers from The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah are discussed herein.
So this is partly a book review and partly a study of sorts on sad books. It begins with Sunday night of this week. I laid awake that night for nearly four hours to finish listening to the audio version of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. It was one of those books that I just knew I HAD to finish because I wouldn’t think of anything else until I did. But, riveting and suspenseful as it was, as one horrific tragedy after another ensued, I sometimes found myself just wishing for the torment to be over. I was heaving ugly, guttural sobs throughout the audio equivalent of the last 50 pages or so, but at least tears of relief and gladness were mixed in by the very end. An end that finally brought some good after so much suffering.
1. I need there to be purpose to the characters’ suffering
This is probably the most important compensation for me (and I’m guessing for many of us!) when it comes to sad, difficult content in books. There are obviously many books which tackle grim subject matter, but do so because the author wants to explore it sympathetically. I knew this was the case with The Great Alone from the outset, so I was prepared for it to be challenging. The story opens on the Allbright family and their move to the wilds of Alaska, a place that they hope will be a fresh start. Thirteen-year-old Leni’s main concerns at the beginning are surviving “new girl” status at school, and of course whether this “next thing” will really help her parents. Ernt and Cora Allbright have tried many new things since Ernt returned from the Vietnam War, but Ernt still can’t hold a job, still drinks too much, and still acts out violently. As the family prepares for Alaska, none of them can predict how its terrible beauty will change them, for better and for worse.
Domestic abuse, undiagnosed mental illness, and traumatized childhoods are central themes throughout this book, and the brutality of these problems is heightened by the rough, unforgiving Alaskan setting. For some, this is already too much. Many will know right off that they can’t handle a story whose plotlines turn on domestic abuse, mental illness, sexual abuse, severe trauma, or any number of other difficult topics. If that’s you, definitely feel no guilt in staying away from such books. In my case, these subjects are certainly hard to read about, but I still appreciate honest discussion of them through a story if it’s done thoughtfully. When I started The Great Alone, I was ready for that much, and I did fine with everything until the drama of the back half really took off.
Leni’s relationship with Matthew Walker takes up more of center stage in the story’s second half, and their relentless trials saddened and wearied me. After their severely damaged childhoods, I struggled to see the point of the pain that Leni and Matthew continued enduring into adulthood. Their difficult early years developed their characters and drove the plot forward – two traumatized children found friendship and comfort from one another, and their backgrounds made them sure of what they wanted to change in their futures. As they grew older, they began to see how they could build that better future together, and it hurt to see them kept apart for so much longer than expected.
The great conflict in the second half – Ernt’s climactic violence and Cora’s explosive act of protection when he hurts Leni – was definitely a necessary tie-up, but I can’t help wishing Leni and Matthew hadn’t paid such a heavy price in the process. Their accident while hiding in the mountains and subsequent years-long separation were the most difficult parts for me. I kept asking, Why? Why must they endure this too? Haven’t they been through enough? And I’m still not sure exactly what purpose was served. They had already grown up too quickly because of their terrible childhoods, so I didn’t quite see the need to permanently injure Matthew or to draw out their ability to be together for so long. Not saying I have the perfect alternate ending in mind, but I kept thinking that Kristin Hannah could have surely thought of something!
2. I need time to process sad storylines
I've realized that this was perhaps what was most lacking in The Great Alone for me. Sadness, pain, and tragedy were so incessant for the latter part of the book that I felt like I was choking on it. Here’s a summary.
Cora suffers the most brutal beating from Ernt yet. Matthew and Leni have their terrible mountainside accident that leaves Matthew brain-damaged. Leni discovers she’s pregnant while Matthew lies in a coma. Ernt begins to beat Leni when he finds out about the pregnancy, prompting Cora’s shocking act of protection. She kills him without even flinching, and then she and Leni cover the murder and flee Alaska. From there, years of living under false identities ensue. Cora holds onto terrible guilt for everything, even as she’s dying of lung cancer, which she’s convinced is her punishment. And her last wish is for Leni to turn in her confession to the murder so that Leni can live freely again. But even as Leni contemplates returning to Alaska at the end, there’s no guarantee Matthew will know her or be independently capable.
Are you tired yet? I know I was. Thank goodness for MJ, Leni and Matthew’s little boy. He was definitely a bright spot that helped me to the end! As this tirade of tragedies progressed, I realized that I either needed more time between them or fewer of them. The mountain of pain I was trying to process for the characters was overwhelming and was growing faster than I could keep up with. Even when things calmed towards the end, I couldn’t stop thinking about how scarred Leni and Matthew would be for the rest of their lives. Leni had grown up under an abusive father and Matthew had endured his parents’ divorce and watched his mother fall through a treacherous frozen lake and die – why add brain damage, witnessing one parent kill the other, and years of isolation so soon after?!
Granted, Ernt had definitely evolved into a full-out villain by the time Cora shot him, and the necessary irony of Cora and Leni becoming survivors of him was clear. But as I’ve mentioned, Leni and Matthew’s accident on the mountain and their years of separation were the most difficult things for me. When Leni first fell off the trail, I sighed thinking, Here we go again, I guess. Frustration only increased when Leni and Cora left Alaska before Matthew had healed much, and I stubbornly maintained that the accident and its consequences weren’t entirely necessary to the story. I think it would have been an improvement even if these storylines had just been toned down a bit – maybe something with an easier recovery than a brain injury for Matthew? A way for Leni and Cora to stay in Alaska or for Leni and Matthew to reunite earlier? Again, I’m no bestselling author, but surely there was a way!
3. I need redemption that comes out of the sadness
The Great Alone accomplished this well overall. Despite the ugly crying, I was also taking deep breaths of relief by the last twenty minutes. Leni returns to her beloved Alaska with her son. The truth about Ernt’s death becomes public and Leni can live as herself again with no more weighty secrets. She and Matthew are reunited. Matthew is permanently weakened and disfigured, but still loves her, loves their son immediately upon meeting him, and can walk and talk again. Their community pays touching tribute to Cora. And by the last page, we know Matthew and Leni have married and had two more children, they’ve made a life for themselves in Alaska, and Leni’s photography is reaching new heights.
Glory be. I was ready for that happy ending, I assure you. But I persist in my wish that it hadn’t taken so long to get there. I also maintain uncertainty of how necessary Matthew’s lifelong physical impairments were. I was thankful he had regained mobility and independent thought and emotion, but he and Leni would have had plenty to work through already without those added burdens of physical limitations and the years apart.
The other story arc that didn’t feel totally redeemed to me was that of Cora. She positively broke my heart. She’s an honest portrayal of a woman who can’t find the will to leave an abusive husband, which I understood. But it was gut-wrenching to see her inability to forgive herself at the end. She blamed herself for everything Leni had endured and staunchly believed that her lung cancer was divine payback. I cried so much and wanted to hug her and tell her how loved she was. The brightest note at her end was the hope she had for Leni’s future, but I just wish she had made peace with herself before her death.
27 comments
I'm about two thirds of the way through the book. I got to the point where I said "Enough!" And Googled the plot synopsis. It's like none of the characters from her books can escape unscathed. I remembered the way that she killed a main character off just as she got home from a concentration camp. And I just couldn't anymore. TOO. MUCH. SUFFERING.
ReplyDeleteI just did that now, and came across this page. And I 100% agree with you.
DeleteIt was definitely a lot! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who felt that way!
DeleteMe too. I couldn't bear any more.
DeleteYes! I agree w the above, you've done a great service. I got to the point where Ernt is about to catch Matthew and Leni in the cabin and I'm like - I can't bear to listen to more unless I know it gets happier from here. UGH. Thank you for your post, I am glad I know what happens but I need to move on to something that's slightly more of an upper...
DeleteThank you for your post! I'm at the point where Matthew is in a coma and Lennie is driving her parents mad because she stopped talking to Ernt. I had to know if it gets better. Thanks for the head's up! I definitely needed to be prepared for the rest of the novel.
DeleteGlad I came across this post, now I can finish the book knowing the ending is ok-ish...otherwise it is just too too much pain and suffering
DeleteOh my gosh. 100% in agreement about this book and the last. I mean, COME ON! I just couldn’t take it anymore. :(
DeleteThanks for posting this! Kind of relieved it’s not just me who gave up and googled what’s happens!!🤣
DeleteAgree!! So glad to know I wasn't the only googling how the story ends! I've been struggling with whether to finish this book for weeks and now I can put it down with ease. I am NOT going to put up with this painful story anymore...
DeleteTHANK YOU! I came across this review for exactly the same reason as the rest of you, and quite frankly, despite my genuine enjoyment of her descriptions of life in Alaska (we have family friends who moved there in 1980, so that part feels oddly personal), it's not worth it for me to continue right now knowing that the needless suffering continues for years, even after Ernt is dead. Maybe later, but I need a break. The anxiety is relentless! Plus the story line of Ernt's death forcing Cora and Leni to run and live under false identities just doesn't track with the rest of the book... I mean WHY would they feel compelled to flee, when years earlier Large Marge and Tom Walker indicated without flinching that killing Ernt was a viable solution to ending to his relentless abuse? I apologize if this is logically explained in the book as I haven't gotten there yet, but in a land where people disappear all the time, and where his abuse and their grave danger was well known, why wouldn't their obviously supportive neighbors just acknowledge and accept the need for this act of self preservation, and if deemed necessary, blame his death on Alaska, like so many others? Seems like the author needed an editor to step up and say, what is the point of this or that plot arc? Or what is the character learning from this, etc? She went too far and took a difficult but compelling story and made it downright excruciating.
DeleteStumbled across this as I was trying to refresh my memory before i lead a book club about it tonight. These takes were so spot on.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed your comment before now, Karen! But I'm so glad this post was of service to you and that you sympathized with my thoughts. I've still thought about The Great Alone often since I wrote this post and I still can't entirely get on board with how much suffering there was. I enjoyed it overall, but a little less tragedy would have served it well!
DeleteThis the fourth book I’ve read by Hannah. 3/4 used a coma as a key plot device. That reeks as a cheap soap opera plot device.
ReplyDeleteTo your overall point, I couldn’t agree with you more. Not because I dislike tragedy or unhappiness, but because all of the various plot twists distract from the more rewarding parts of the book. To me the first half was outstanding, a tale that takes place in Alaska but is really about the effects of Vietnam. It was like America trying to run from itself and keep its demons at bay, only to make them worse, compounding tragedies and traumas. But then the soap opera started and the story got cheap.
Thank you for your comment, Robert! I'm glad it wasn't just me that felt this way -- I liked the ending, but I just felt it took way too long and was far too difficult of a road to get there. I think you're right when you say that it distracted from the better aspects of the book!
DeleteI agree with everyone. Thank you for the detailed summary. I just joined a book club and didn't have time to read the whole book in advance. Although I really like Kristin Hannah, this may not be the one to stay up all night reading! Too sad for me.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of service, Virginia! It definitely might be a better idea to save this one for the daylight hours at the least!
DeleteI just finished this book and was left feeling emotionally drained, and couldn't quite pin what felt off about the book to me. That lead me to googling "Leni and Matthew" to see others feeling about this book. I really enjoyed it from beginning to end, but it felt like so much of the first half of this book was a big lead up of largely repetitive events all to have Matthew get injured, Ernt killed, hiding a body, running away, reunions with parents, pregnancy and birth then cora dying all within the last few chapters! I was a crying mess and stayed up way too late reading it last night. I was happy Matthew and Leni at least ended up together, but holy cow! Did we need to endure all of that in the last small portion of the book?! I loved it, but that last part could have been a whole book!
ReplyDeleteAgreed! The last quarter of the book was practically another book in itself! I was overall okay with the ending, but I agree that it was too much to endure within too few pages.
DeleteTrauma porn. So much unnecessary suffering. Worth it though for the beautiful imagery, themes of resilience and the mother's redemption arc (though also full of suffering).
ReplyDeleteI love sad books (that sounds much stranger to type than I thought it would hahaha). I agree largely with your thoughts on needing purpose & redemption to come from the suffering, but I think that books like this with the overwhelming and consistent suffering - that you found so difficult and exhausting, which it is - is part of the point of the book. Though difficult to get through, it forces you to feel the pain in the way the author intended.
ReplyDeleteSad books speak life into the human experience with a true and refreshing honesty that we don't always see in real life. I think sadness is one of the reasons I love good literature (coming from a die-hard fan of Russian lit - CLASSIC) because we don't speak colloquially about grief or hardship in the same beautiful way that we speak of joy, so for me, it is deeply refreshing and encouraging to hear from others (and not just the depths of my own heart & brain) about suffering. It makes it more human for me, and encourages me to share with others.
Late to the punch on this post - but I love you and I love your blog. you make me smile always. Miss you, friend!
I don't know if I have cried more for any other book. I could give lots of criticisms about little things, but I can't believe how much this book evoked so much emotion and silent tears as I listened to the audiobook. I recommend it for someone looking for a tragic but fulfilling romance.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I'm not sure I could have finished this book without stumbling onto this article. I got to the point where Leni and Matt were just starting to be together and I was so worried that her dad was going to kill Tom Walker or Matt or even her that I googled the ending. I was able to get through knowing they ended up together. I do feel like the last accident with the lasting brain damage/ horrible scarring and permanent mobility issues was a little too much. I don't think it had to be that way to demonstrate the power of their love which is what I think she was trying to emphasize. I also didn't understand why they had to flee Alaska after the killing, especially seeing as another commenter pointed out that Marge and Tom were ready to kill him the first winter. They discussed it as a viable solution making him dissapear, I don't understand what changed. Some of Toms first advice to Cora was go home and kill him when they stumbled into town after the wolf attack. I also had a small problem with what happened after he came home from losing his job. It seemed like Marge and Tom stepped in and said this isn't happening your going to work the pipe line and we're keeping your family safe. But then he lost that job came home and neither of them even said anything about it, like oh well we tried and that's it. I just think that it didn't really go along with how strongly they felt about stopping it in the begging. And when Matt ran off to check on Leni after Mad Earls funeral why was he the only one, Marge and Tom were clearly worried about what was happening, Tom knew how he felt about him and his son why didn't they follow Matt to the homestead. They just stayed back and waited it didn't make sense to me. The same way it didn't make sense when Leni broke down in town and yelled help us only Matt responded. It had just said Tom was right there pretty much arguing with Ernst. A couple of those inconsistencies bothered me. Especially because if Tom had of followed Matt to the homestead that last time, he could have helped Cora and Leni. Matt and Leni wouldn't have had to go up the Mountain to hide and then the whole accident never would have happened. The second half of the book just felt like being kicked in the stomach over and over for her with no break between blows. It was hard to get through.
ReplyDeleteI also struggled with the inconsistency. Why didn’t Matt take Leni to his dad’s place where they could craft a plan for 10 minutes that didn’t involve them being in a dangerous backpacking trip in the snow? Why the hell did Leni confess to the police ??? Leni won’t say anything about even knowing her grandparents, who hid them, but then mentions her grandfather is a lawyer multiple times which confused me. And wouldnt everyone be suspicious that the grandparents met and became best friends with a young woman and her daughter just weeks after Cora and leni went missing? And finally, why couldn’t they just say that Ernt left them? First of all, no one would ask. secondly if they did just say he was abusive and eventually left. Even if he resurfaced in the summer, shot and in animal traps, it would be nearly impossible to trace it back to them.
DeleteI am struggling with some sort of addiction to Kristen Hannah and I need to break it. Her books leave me gutted. I love the stories but they break my heart. The Four Winds was an incredible story but I cried through the whole book. Now I am reading Home Front. There is so much pain and suffering in this world. I read to find joy. When I finish her books I feel as though I have personally experienced every tragedy. I have to finish Home Front but it's my last Kristen Hannah book.
ReplyDeleteI tried to read ‘Lessons in
ReplyDeleteChemistry’ which is supposed to be light, breezy, and amusing. I only read one-third of it because it was just so miserable! There was child abuse, accidental death, violent rape…I am not even going to try again! Also, the author’s attitude to religion annoyed me.
I totally agree on all of this! Her writing is so good, but too much suffering. Theres no let ups for emotions to get a break. Firefly Lane was way less heavy I thought. Id love to know which if her books that arent so heavy.
ReplyDelete