Book Review: Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman

Overall Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I was unsettled. I was not right. This is a condition that many people experience after arriving in Alaska. Nothing here is fixed, nothing is any better. Where is there left to go, except out of your mind?”

Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman is a collection of eight compelling short stories mostly featuring strong female protagonists. Newman’s stories are powerful and versatile in theme, tone and scope. While some of the stories are set in Alaska, others have characters who have once lived in Alaska but still have ties to their hometowns despite having moved on. Though a few characters appear in more than one story, the stories themselves are standalone.

The first story Howl Palace features a sixty-seven-year-old widow, Dutch, who is preparing to sell her home of “Forty-three years. Five husbands. Two floatplanes. A lifetime”, on account of financial difficulty. As in most cases of homes built in that terrain, the new owners would probably raze the existing structure to the ground- a fact she is unable to reconcile with. She is particularly sentimental about her “wolf room”, which was once to be a nursery, but now houses 387 pelts of fur on pegs. (5/5)

In High Jinks, we meet two friends, Jaime and Katrina, on a father-daughter float trip, each searching for solace from their dysfunctional family situations in the other’s family only to realize that no family is as perfect as it appears from the outside. (4/5)

In the title story, Nobody Gets Out Alive we meet Katrina once again, newly married to Carter, and Katrina’s friend Neil and his wife Janice. Carter’s impressions of life in Alaska and Katrina’s family are not quite what he had expected. Adding to that is the fact that Neil quite obviously has unresolved feelings for Katrina. (3.5/5)

My personal favorite, Alcan: An Oral History takes us back to 1975 when two fresh graduates, Maggie and Danielle, and a single mother with her two children, Janice and Kevin, cross paths on their way to Alaska, each hoping for brighter prospects. The events that follow significantly change their plans and their lives. Told from multiple perspectives, this story truly stands out. (5/5)

Slide and Glide revolves around a man’s efforts to save his marriage. However, a planned trip to a remote cabin leads to only more disappointment as he realizes there is not much he can do to salvage his relationship with his wife(3.5/5)

In Valley of the Moon, Jaime and her younger sister, Becca, now adults, meet up in a wine bar and recount events from their childhood- their parents’ marriage, separation and divorce and the toll it took on their relationship and also reflect upon complexities in their present lives. (4/5)

Our Family Fortune Teller revolves around a fifty-six-year-old unnamed fortune teller/clairvoyant who fears being evicted by her new landlord. She spends her days recalling events from her past and catering to her best (and now only) client, “CFO of a small, local corporation that peddles opiates to people with imaginary back problems through a chain of legal “pain-management” clinics”, who is having trouble with her son who is exhibiting delinquent behavior. (4/5)

An Extravaganza in Two Acts takes us back in time to a tent city in 1915, later to become Anchorage, where we meet people employed in the Ship Creek railway camp among whom is twenty-six-year-old Walter. Walter is accompanied by an affluent heiress, Genevieve whose brash and reckless behavior has landed her in trouble in the past. Her attraction for Hazel, wife of Walter’s boss leads to a complicated situation that impacts the lives of all concerned. (4/5)

My initial interest in this book was because of the Alaskan setting which piqued my curiosity. But Newman’s powerful writing, complex characters and realistic depiction of relationships drew me in. The author tackles a wide range of themes such as dysfunctional families, marriage, divorce and infidelity, abuse, mental health, substance abuse and depression. While there are moments of humor and wisdom, there are also moments of hardship, grief, isolation and despair. A running theme in these stories is that of survival- not just the challenges of life in the harsh landscape of Alaska but survival against all the odds that life throws your way. I enjoyed the stories set in different eras, which also gives us a historical perspective. Each of these stories warrants pause and reflection and is well worth the time invested.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories and look forward to more from this author in the future.