Ada Blackjack

I came across this book a long time ago, maybe four to five years ago now. It called to me, but in serious book collector fashion, just because it calls to you doesn’t mean you sit down and read it right away. The timing had to be perfect, it had to be “just so” in order to align with the sun, moon and all the stars. Queue the clouds opening up and the rays of sun shooting thru them, hearing the choir of angels singing, the banging of the drum and all that jazz. Enter stage left 2022 and it was time to sit down and read THIS book.

Yes, it went just like that if you were truly wondering.

If you know anything about me I LOVE, and I do mean LOVE history…true history; not the crap history that we get sold only by the winners. I want all the angles, not just the made-for-tv-movie, sugar-coated stuff. I have this need to know both sides, the more perspectives, the more I can pick and tweeze out how it really, truly could have unfolded from a spectator’s point of view. There’s always grey in a black and white world. Jennifer Niven gave me this and so much more!

When I spotted this book a couple of things jumped out. 1- There is an Inuit woman proudly taking up half the cover…UNHEARD OF in most areas of history. Let’s just take a moment and let that sink in. STUNNINGLY poignant. How many people would take the time to create such a book, let alone publish it and add her to the cover as a selling point? Look around…how many pop out at you? 2- It’s written by Jennifer freakin’ Niven who is a badass author. Her book ‘All the Bright Places’ has people campaigning in IL to put it on the banned book list. *insert eye roll* I bought this book for our oldest who is 13 and she said it was great. Take THAT banned book list. (I’m half tempted to start buying up all the banned books and creating my own little banned book library.) Last, but certainly not least, it’s set in the arctic. SIGN A MAMA UP! I was SOLD! Take my money.

And then it sat…and sat…and sat some more. I wasn’t disappointed in the wait, on the contrary…I needed to be in a certain space in order to understand what the book, the story of Ada had to offer the world in the NOW. Now is the perfect time to pick up a copy and read it, digest it, feel how after all these years the struggles are still alive and well in the world at large. Not much has changed, unfortunately…and as hard as that was to write that sentiment; it doesn’t make it any less true.

This book brings to light so many unanswered questions as to why humanity keeps on accepting poor sickening behavior towards people of color, people who are indigenous, and women in general. How we treat each other in the small moments speaks volumes and how that reflects back to how we interact with the world around us. In order to do better, we need to recognize it in the first place. This book makes it glaringly obvious as painful as that is at times.

Themes of survival, yes are prominent, given the nature of the book I would assume nothing less. Yet, these themes play out not only in an arctic environment but in settled ones as well. No place is exempt from betrayal, judgment, sacrifice and love. This story shares all the nitty-gritty details of what went down and sheds all sorts of light into the darkest of corners; even the unspeakable ones.

*coughs* Looking at the Noices and Stefansson ghosts directly. Karma…thank GOD for her! May you have the next lives that you deserve.

There were several points in the book where I had to put it down and walk away. My sensitive nature could take no more. I was angry at so many of the main characters that I had to take a hot minute for myself and get centered before I returned to see how the story ended up unfolding. This book can trigger even the best of us into searching within ourselves for how we too can be better to our fellow humans. Lawd have all the damned mercies on some of these people.

I had to add this in because I about fan girl’d out of my damn chair! Never in a million years did I ever think that my small half-assed book review would be seen, let alone commented on, by a famous author. That stuff just doesn’t happen to little ‘ol me, at any time, or anywhere in the known universe. Yet, when I decided to put this up low and behold Jennifer Niven herself gave me permission for feeling all my feels. That was a great day for sure! Jennifer Niven…THANK YOU for being so amazing! I appreciate you!

Would I recommend this book – Yes! A thousand times, YES! There is a lot to be learned in its 397 pages. The sheer amount of note-taking, leg work, flights and phone calls that must have had to transpire in order to create this work of art is mind-numbing. Yes, it’s a book, a true story as well, but it IS also a work of art. I would love for it to be put on a MUST read list somewhere…banned books be damned and all that nonsense, let’s put it on MY “how to be a better human,” must-read list!

That is all.

Book summary (per Goodreads):

From the author of The Ice Master comes the remarkable true story of a young Inuit woman who survived six months alone on a desolate, uninhabited Arctic island

In September 1921, four young men and Ada Blackjack, a diminutive 25-year-old Eskimo woman, ventured deep into the Arctic in a secret attempt to colonize desolate Wrangel Island for Great Britain. Two years later, Ada Blackjack emerged as the sole survivor of this ambitious polar expedition. This young, unskilled woman–who had headed to the Arctic in search of money and a husband–conquered the seemingly unconquerable north and survived all alone after her male companions had perished.

Following her triumphant return to civilization, the international press proclaimed her the female Robinson Crusoe. But whatever stories the press turned out came from the imaginations of reporters: Ada Blackjack refused to speak to anyone about her horrific two years in the Arctic. Only on one occasion–after charges were published falsely accusing her of causing the death of one her companions–did she speak up for herself.

Jennifer Niven has created an absorbing, compelling history of this remarkable woman, taking full advantage of the wealth of first-hand resources about Ada that exist, including her never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished diaries from other primary characters, and interviews with Ada’s surviving son. Ada Blackjack is more than a rugged tale of a woman battling the elements to survive in the frozen north–it is the story of a hero. (less)