Jimmy Bluefeather

Starred review from July 1, 2015
Part quest, part rebirth, Heacox's debut novel spins a story of Alaska's Tlingit people and the land, an old man dying, and a young man learning to live. In the town of Jinkaat, off Icy Strait near Crystal Bay, Old Keb Wisting, 95, all "big ears, small bladder, bad teeth" but diamond-clear in soul, wants to bring meaning to the life of his grandson James, "prisoner of angr" a deeply felt grief. Basketball wizard James ruined his knee in a logging accident, and Old Keb decides that the two of them will carve a cedar canoe. Canoe completed-christened Ooxjaa Yadei, or Against the Wind-Keb, with James and two friends, begins a spirit journey to Crystal Bay, heartland of the Tlingit people. Heacox's characters resonate, each immersed in the Pacific Northwest's great watery woods. Old Keb, part Norwegian, part Tlingit, is the last of the Tlingit cedar carvers. There's also James' mother, Gracie, who "could bend [Keb] with a smile." Keb's "kittiwake daughter," Ruby, is a professor, all pride and passion. Little Mac, James' Chinese-Tlingit-Scots girlfriend, has a tiny body, towering intellect, and tremendous empathy. Large Marge, "a wide-hipped buxomed fisherwoman," captains the Silverbow with two deaf sons. Keb's dead uncle Austin speaks in dreams as Raven, the trickster. Add politicians, bureaucrats, media types, all circling, making demands, as Keb and the others set out for Crystal Bay, now a federal reserve and a place mired in conflict with the development interests of PacAlaska, a Native American corporation. It's Heacox's language, however, and his deep appreciation of the land, the sea, and the Tlingit, "a liquid people," that illuminate the story, one with an ending logical and unsentimental yet emotionally satisfying. Old Keb understands it "used to be hard to live and easy to die. Not anymore."

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 1, 2015

At first glance, Heacox's (Caribou Crossing) new novel appears to be a predictable coming-of-age tale in which the title character overcomes his millennial ennui through the mystical ways of his wise Tlingit grandfather. That happens, but the depth and breadth of the story become perceptible only as the reader joins Jimmy in honoring his grandfather Keb's wish to face death on his own terms. The author immediately disposes of the simple generational clash in favor of a inspiring journey through nature and memory as Keb embraces life at its end. The landscape imagery in this splendid, unique gem of a novel transports the reader to Keb's Alaska, where nature's magnitude still has the romantic power to humble those who would let it, and then know themselves more completely in return. VERDICT Fans of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild or Cheryl Strayed's Wild are bound to enjoy this book, as will readers interested in Native Americans or small-town, character-driven, family stories.--Nicole R. Steeves, Chicago P.L.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
Alaskan Heacox's (Rhythm of the Wild, 2015) first novel is richly steeped in the landscape he knows so well and populated by a stellar group of diverse and unforgettable characters. Keb Wisting, part Tlingit and part Norwegian, is nearing 100 and worried about his family. His daughters are on opposing sides of a land-use battle near their island home, and his grandson, James, has just lost his shot at an NBA career due to a logging accident. The last canoe-builder in the village of Jinkaat, Keb embarks on a community-wide boat-building exercise that turns into a chance to recreate an ancestral journey across nearby Crystal Bay. The trip draws in not only troubled James but also an eclectic group, including a determined whale biologist, a cop trying to do the right thing, a fisherwoman who has seen too much hardship, and everyone who has an angle on the land-deal conflict. Heacox does a superb job of transcending his characters' unique geography to create a heartwarming, all-American story. Jinkaat, Alaska, can stand beside Twain's Missouri and Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)