Genre:
Women’s Lit/Adventure/Native American
Description:
Anne
O’Malley’s genealogical search for the story of her late
husband’s father that takes her to the far North of Canada to find
new relatives among the Inuit culture, to Europe behind the lines in
World War I, and back to the small Inuit village where she finds
romance.
Author:
“Caroline
McCullagh, award-winning author of The
Ivory Caribou, coauthor of
American Trivia & American
Trivia Quiz Book with Richard
Lederer, earned a master’s degree in anthropology from the
University of California, San Diego…For the past three years,
Caroline has written a weekly column for the San Diego Union-Tribune
with Richard Lederer. As a professional editor, she teaches creative
writing two days a week.
The
Ivory Caribou, then titled
Fire and Ice,
was a past Winner at the San Diego Book Awards as Best Unpublished
Novel.”
To learn
more visit Ms. McCullagh’s website.
Appraisal:
Anne
O’Malley’s husband passed away over a year ago and she was having
trouble moving past her grief. At her friend’s urging Anne decided
to try to complete her late husband’s genealogical research
project. There were several missing years in Robby’s biological
father’s life. Brendan O’Malley seemed to have disappeared. Anne
hoped she could use this venture to finally come to terms with
Robby’s death and hopefully put him to rest in her mind.
Piecing
together the missing years from Brendan’s life ended up taking Anne
on adventures she could never imagine. As she struggled to come to
terms with her own life, she was also introduced to a history that can’t be learned from a textbook. With the help of the Chief Research
Librarian at Ottawa’s library and a professor of anthropology at
Carleton University, Anne was able to piece together Brendan
O’Malley’s past and learn more about herself than she ever
thought possible.
The plot of The Ivory Caribou is slow and meticulous as new discoveries come to light. The insight
into Inuit customs and way of live is fascinating. I found Anne’s
insecurities a little over done at times. I also felt like Jack, the
professor of anthropology, took unfair advantage of Anne’s
insecurities by not being totally honest with her. I have to confess,
Women’s Fiction is not one of my favorite genres and I found the
diary entries tedious. While there are a few that need to be
there, I enjoyed Jack’s summaries of the translations the best.
This is an
interesting and educational journey. Ms.
McCullagh is able to provide
insight into what it could have been like living through World War I
in Europe as a soldier and a civilian. Learning about the Inuit
culture though is perhaps my favorite part of the book. I would
recommend this book to those who have interests in any of these
areas.
FYI:
The
Ivory Caribou is book one in
the Anne O'Malley Arctic
Adventures series.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating:
**** Four Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 90-95,000 words
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