Spirit Otters and Other Things

Having previously enjoyed Garth Stein’s work The Art of Racing in the Rain back in March, I thought I would give another of his works a try. So here it is.

Title: Raven Stole the Moon
Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: Harper
Date: Originally 1998 (by Simon & Schuster), rereleased in 2010
My start date: 6/18/10
My finish date: 6/19/10

I had some mixed feelings about this novel. The most important thing I want to mention is that Garth Stein is a talented story teller. He mentions in his afterward that, “My objective in writing this book was to tell a compelling story, like those I heard when I was a kid at the campfire with my extended family.” I didn’t read this quote until the end (it was, after all, in the AFTERward), but when I got to this line it matched my mood exactly. This story feels like something you would tell camping, filled with magic and woven as only an expert storyteller can do. The novel starts off innocently and traditionally enough, but then the spirit world starts to creep in and the next thing I knew I was starting to get those excited, yet creepy chills that go along with good fireside stories. It was very well told.

Another aspect of this storytelling rests with Stein’s own personal heritage. Part Tlingit himself, he has brilliantly woven this culture into his story in a way that really enhances the mystery and the beauty of it. Although Stein indicates that he did not grow up with this part of his heritage playing an active role in his life and had to do tons of online research about the culture in order to portray it in the correct way, I think the result is the successful seamless weaving of religion, culture and fantasy.

That being said, there were a couple of hitches in the novel for me. When Stein gave us The Art of Racing in the Rain and wrote from the perspective of a dog I found it surprisingly believable. However when he attempts here to write from the perspective of a female, I didn’t buy it as much. Despite the protagonist being a female, both the character and the novel as a whole carried too much of an indefinable masculinity. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made the difference, but I just didn’t feel like Jenna, the main character, was believable from a female’s perspective. Sometimes guys just can’t think like girls. However, it should be noted as well that this was Stein’s first novel attempt, well before he later voiced a dog, and it is possible, if not likely, that he has grown tremendously as a writer since then.

My other quip is nitpicky, but what can I say? I mentioned in my write-up of The Art of Racing in the Rain that Stein’s auto-racing and car references were a little too frequent for my liking, but that it was understandable in that context as the lead character was a racecar driver. Well, it can’t be excused in that way here. Clearly Stein really loves this sport, but once again I found the excessive racing and auto references in this novel a little irritating. In this case, they were in no way related to the novel. They just felt random and in connection to what I was saying above, I didn't at all believe that Jenna would think like that. But that is just me.

Finally, the ending didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t feel like there was much resolution at all. Now, I must admit that I am the world’s worst conclusion writer. I am one of those people who, when writing academic papers gets to the end and is sorely tempted to just write “abadee, abadee, that’s all folks!” and hit print. So, no judgment here. But for such a great storyteller, and Stein really is a great storyteller, it truly felt like the ending was a situation in which he pored his heart into the first four hundred pages and then just got bored and ended it. But again, this was his first novel, so we can excuse that.

Overall, a great storyteller for us to be watching out for and a great campfire type read that will have you fascinated while simultaneously checking over your shoulder for shadows that could be kushtaka, but a few hang-ups that might be overlookable.

Keep reading!
Sarah