If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska

If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska

By: Heather Lende  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
can't wait to visit - Wonderful book. Makes me want to visit, if not live there. Humor an mom can relate to.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Wish she knew my name - Whenever I go on a trip, I like to buy a book that gives me more insight into the region and that makes me feel as if I am still there even after I return home. I went into a little book shop in Sitka, Alaska while on a cruise up the Inside Passage and asked for a book written by a local author. I was told that this book was one that sells well, so I bought it. Our cruise didn't include a stop at Haines, but after finishing the book I feel as if I have truly experienced small town Alaska...much more so than Sitka or Ketchican or Juneau, the towns that we did visit, and I now hope to get a chance to visit Haines someday. Mrs. Lende brings life and death to the reader's heart and the final chapter was so moving that I feel a special bond with her. Every small town needs an advocate for its way of life like Mrs. Lende.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
How To Write Obituaries - Well, not exactly. Heather Lende does write obits for her local newspaper as well as other topical columns. Her sketches of the lives & times of her isolated SE Alaskan small town leave readers to fill in whatever colors they like, & I like that in an author.

This book of stories is about capturing people's lives in a few well-chosen words. Of tears & topics that burn; joy for the Sun's return, & awe before marvelous vistas. It's filled with contentment wherein she finds herself & everyday social angst - political & moral; satisfaction with domestic productivity; niceness & meanness, courage & irony. It's about being gay or native, old or young, lost or found, not judging people by how they dress (or in what they live!), growing or losing friendships, tending the being born & the dying, knowing which battles to fight, & the art of living a rich & kind life. Mostly unattainable for hive (big city) dwellers!

I relished the mentions of philosophical self-examination, & the books & people who made this author think. These wisps float by like the aroma of spaghetti sauce or smoked salmon; the scent of the sea, snow & wood smoke.

Very well done!

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
A Unique Perspective... - In 2007, I visited Haines, Alaska as part of a Tauck Tour on a Cruise West small ship and fell in love with the beauty of the town and area.

The town of Haines fascinated me as my husband and I walked around (the graves in the park on the bluff overlooking the sea, were particularity fascinating being as old as they were). When we returned to Juneau and I found this book in a book store, I bought it, as the quirky title sounded irresistible.

I think, regardless of the realities of the town that one reviewer mentions, the author has an interesting perspective being the obit writer and the editor of the social column for the town. Her style of writing is very enjoyable and reading about the people's lives this author became aware of, through her two diverse job descriptions, was fascinating, especially when one remembers that Alaska is so isolated in winter and presents a complete different way of life from what we experience in the 'lower 48.'

I think others will enjoy this book, too, especially if they are very curious about places and people's lives that they have never experienced and the fact that the book is more a collection of 'stories' based on the author's feelings about the situations she became aware of, makes the book all the more enjoyable. Her heartfelt renditions were very enjoyable and no one should expect a travel log or an in-depth expose of the town's people. Rather, I came away with a sense of the difficulties the people of Haines endure and the sense of 'grit' the people need to call Haines 'home.' Alaska isn't for the faint of heart, to say the least but there is love in the author's take on the life and the people in Haines.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
an unexpected gem - My daughter and I were in Talkeetna, AK last week on a very rainy day. Our flightseeing was cancelled. We slogged around in the mud, wandering in-and-out of the shops. In one I found Lende's book, my daughter found another that interested her, and we decided to head back to Peg Vos's charming "a B & B on C" where we were staying. We curled up on a comfy couch in front of the fire Peg had lit to take the chill out of the air and began to read.
I originally thought the book would help give me insight into the people who lived in the rugged and wild land that we were visiting. Besides sightseeing, when in a new place I like to meet the people who live there, so I was especially interested in the book.
After the first few chapters, I was somewhat dismayed. Yes, I know Lende is an obituary writer but I didn't realize the book would be mostly stories about the people who died in Haines, and there are a lot of 'em, young and old. As I kept reading, however, the presence of death, which at first seemed to be a running theme, was mitigated by another theme far more powerful, that of the lives we lead in the days we are given. Through all of Lende's essays it is life itself that shines through.
Lende is a woman of faith, but one does not have to be religious to be moved by her tales of the people of Haines. She addresses the universality of human experience lived day-to-day in a remote American town.
I learned something of the people of Alaska as I read this book, it is true; but I learned far more about myself, which I did not expect when I first began this modest little book with the moose on the cover.

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