Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth

This book. Beth heard of it somehow and ordered it. She is attracted to things Alaskan, having lived there for years. The plight—must use that word—of native people there is also an interest and concern. While Beth studies for the real estate appraisal license, I have free access to the Floating Coast.

I have only read a couple of chapters but can assure that the book seethes with power. It describes the hunting and killing of whales by the native population and by the crazed American commercial fleet. I use the word ‘crazed’ because of the thorough, monomaniacal dedication to suck every last penny from the enterprise. Crazed too for the dangers faced for economic glory. Place that fat fact next to today’s ghastly balance between keeping people alive, or the economy.

Demuth brings in capitalism and socialism, shamanism, and conflicting world views, while delineating the usage of dead whales as energy sources. I remember the heroic wonder when learning about whaling as a child. The hunt of those whalers, emanating largely from Massachusetts, never suggested the native necessity nor the wholesale commercial slaughter of these creatures. The shanties were pretty good, tho.