Poetry Book Review - Verse Novel

Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse

In this short novel of unrhymed verse, Karen Hesse tells the story of the Aleutian people who were relocated from their island homes when the Japanese navy invaded the area during World War II. The poems are the voice of Vera, a young Unangax girl on the verge of womanhood.

Well-adapted to life on the treeless, windswept islands of the south Bering Sea, Vera’s people struggle to survive in the unfamiliar conditions of southeast Alaska to which they have been evacuated. They are given little help by the governments of Alaska or the United States and are resented by the local residents of Ketchikan.

Vera speaks of her mother, her friend Pari, her beau Alfred, her preference for the traditional lifestyle of her people, and of her people’s struggles to adapt. Accustomed to the open sea and far vistas of her islands, Vera feels smothered by the heavily forested area surrounding the relocation camp:

Under a Canopy of Trees

Around our crowded camp, everywhere we turn, green life
rubs its moss skin against us.
The air steams green, and always the sound of dripping,
Always the smell of rot. Always green curtains smothering us.
On the Aleutians there are no trees.

Through her poems, we learn details of the Aleutian way of life and of the blended cultural heritage of the Unangax, a mix of Aleutian, Russian, and American traditions. The story of Vera and her people is one of sorrow and endurance. Especially moving are the small attempts they make to ease their homesickness and despair by singing songs, playing games, and celebrating holidays.

Though beset by physical hardships, illness, prejudice, and the death of loved ones, the remaining Unangax people survive years of exile to be returned to their native islands, though life there will never be the same:

Sea Change

After three years of promises we are back
Where the sun emerges from the galloping clouds,
Where one moment the rain ices our hair and the next a
rainbow arches over the volcano,
Where early grass ripples in the wind and violets lead an
advance of wildflowers across the treeless hills.

It all comes back so quickly, the particular quality of the air
where the Bering Sea meets the Pacific.
The Aleutian sparrow repeats over and over its welcome of
fluid notes.
Our resentment folds down into a small package and is
locked away under the floor of our hearts.
What other chance do we have to survive if we cannot forget?

The poems proceed chronologically, beginning just before the evacuation in May 1942 and ending with the return of the survivors to their ruined villages in April 1945. The section headings of the novel are illustrated by linocuts created by Evon Zerbetz, a relief printmaker living in Ketchikan who specializes in colorful animal portraits (http://www.evonzerbetz.com/). The endpapers are decorated with maps of the islands and pencil drawings of Aleutian wildlife.

While the poems are short and the reading level of the text is not challenging, Hesse’s precise choice of descriptive language conveys the shifting emotions of the Aleutians, their complex relationship between past traditions and contemporary survival, their quiet determination, and their lasting resilience.

In an author’s note, Karen Hesse says she was inspired to write of this little-known incident in American history by a school trip to the Alaskan city of Ketchikan. The note provides readers with historical background information and a short glossary of Aleut words is also included.

The sadness and injustice of this novel will resonate with readers and is probably best used with an older student audience. As an extension, students could explore the theme of “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” by writing a paragraph describing a place they feel is beautiful, then trading papers and writing a second paragraph describing ways they might find their classmates’ “beautiful” places unpleasant or oppressive.

Hesse, Karen. 2003. Aleutian Sparrow. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster.