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In David Vann's Caribou Island, a retired couple sets off to chase the ultimate homesteader's dream: a cabin, on an island, in Alaska. But the project will have consequences more far-reaching than anyone originally intended. Gary and Irene's quest to build a cabin from scratch offsets the thirty-year balance they've somehow managed to maintain in their marriage. And their story involves equal parts drama, tragedy, and intrigue.

David Vann (Aquarium, 2015) exploded on the literary scene as a writer of fiction with his international bestseller, the prizewinning collection Legend of a Suicide, which includes several short stories and the novella Sukkwan Island. He has also published books of nonfiction, including A Mile Down and Last Day On Earth, but Caribou Island is Vann's first full-length novel.

In the first few pages of Caribou Island, Gary and Irene begin shuttling building supplies by boat to an island near their home on Skilak Lake. It's late in the Alaskan summer, and Gary had hoped to start the project much earlier in the season. Even though they could have chosen to cobble together a nice weekend getaway, Gary holds fast to his thirty-year dream of building - and living in-his own remote log cabin in Alaska. His vision for the venture is clear. He aims to build the cabin "from scratch. No foundation, even. And no plans, no experience, no permits, no advice welcome."

Gary's wife Irene, a recently retired teacher, isn't exactly invested in the idea.

She goes along with the plan, helping Gary unload supplies in the freezing rain and assisting while he builds haphazardly to get a roof on the structure before it snows. Gary and Irene begin camping out on the island for extended overnight stays to make the most of the shortening work days, but Irene soon becomes plagued by strange headaches and other physical ailments that even doctors can't explain.

In the book's opening scene, Irene reveals the details of a childhood tragedy to her daughter, Rhoda, and confesses her belief that Gary is building the cabin to escape her. Even though Rhoda dismisses this claim, it becomes apparent as the plot unfolds that the stress of building the cabin is pushing Irene to her physical and psychological limits. At the same time, the cabin is what intensifies the rift already apparent in Gary and Irene's relationship.

Rhoda and her boyfriend Jim, along with her brother Mark and a couple of seasonal visitors, add drama and an exciting subplot to the primary storyline. When the lives of these characters become too closely intertwined, readers see the full extent of the deception that threatens their relationships in a way that they, themselves, cannot. In this way, Vann captures an honest, if not painful, portrayal of how his characters deceive themselves - and others - so that they can stay together, for better or worse.

Vann offers expert natural descriptions, and he creates places that mirror the psychological terrain his characters tread. Caribou Island, itself - an isolated body of land surrounded by water turning to ice - acts a physical embodiment of all that Gary and Irene's marriage has become.

And Vann's sometimes-staccato style of describing natural features works beautifully in conjunction with his characters' development. In one instance, Vann writes: "The water no longer turquoise. A dark, dark blue today, with blackness in it, a clarity, no glacial silt suspended." The next sentence nicely links this physical description to a development in Irene's mental state. She watches the lake, not knowing how "…it could change so completely in even a day. A different lake now. Another metaphor for self, each new version refuting all previous."

A few moments in this narrative feel overly contrived, and one of the characters - Monique, a trust-funded Alaskan tourist - is so loathsome she's nearly unbelievable. But overall, Vann writes drama well without inserting clichéd cliffhanger moments to keep the momentum going.

Throughout Caribou Island, Vann ratchets the tension just tight enough that you'll know something is about to happen the entire time, and yet when it does, you'll still be surprised.



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