Mental health is an overarching theme in The Great Alone. Abusers prefer to isolate their victims to keep them powerless against them. The title alludes to isolation created by geography as well as what it is like to be a victim of physical and emotional abuse.

Hannah reverences Service’s poetry heavily in the story. The title The Great Alone is derived from a Robert Service poem. This stark contrast affects peoples’ mental states, a point that is mentioned throughout the book. Alaska has long periods of daylight during the summer and darkness in the winter. The physical representation appears because of the geographic location. The theme of dark and light lingers throughout the story. Themes of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah Returned from the Vietnam War, where he spent years as a POW, with PTSD (widely unknown at the time). Became estranged from her parents when she ran off with Ernt as a pregnant teenager. Devoted to Ernt, with whom she is in a co-dependent relationship. Real events referenced in the story have an impact on the states of mind of the characters, including the Patty Hearst kidnapping and the Watergate scandal. In 1974, the Vietnam war was still going on and the social climate of the United States was volatile. The time period begins in 1974 when the family arrives in Kaneq and follows their lives there until the conclusion in the late 1980s and possibly early 1990s (I have since returned the book to the library so I can’t say for sure). Kaneq is accessible mainly by ferry or airplane, adding the element of isolation. The location is near the real city of Homer, Alaska. The fictional coastal town of Kaneq, Alaska is the setting of The Great Alone. It is a story of mental health issues relating to post-traumatic stress disorder, co-dependency, and domestic violence. The story follows the family from Leni’s perspective as they arrive, learn to survive in the Alaskan bush, and interact with their new community. Cora will follow Ernt anywhere and so the family uproots their meager lives in suburban Seattle and settle on inherited land in the fictional town of Kaneq, Alaska. Leni Allbright is the teenage daughter of Ernt, a Vietnam war veteran, and Cora, his young, doting wife. Summary of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah I read it on the fifth chance I got and I regret not making time for it earlier. Read The Great Alone the first chance you get. I tell you this merely to say Don’t be like me. This is of no fault of Hannah and her coming-of-age story of a girl adapting to life in Alaska in the seventies with a set of troubled parents.

A look through my library activity shows that I attempted to read or listen to The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah four times before it stuck.

The great alone review