Review: SELKIE DREAMS by Kristin Gleeson

SELKIE DREAMS

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Belfast, 1895.  Haunted by her mother’s death, Máire McNair is lured by the selkie myth to the promise of the Alaskan wilds to fulfil her dream of finding acceptance.

The censorious Mrs. Paxson, the wife of the trading post manager, constantly finds fault with Máire’s efforts to instruct the native children. She has her own plans and Máire is in the way.  Will Máire be able to forge her own way and make a success of her teaching?  And what should she do about the handsome yet moody Lieutenant Green who is aggressively courting her?

Natsilane is the Tlingit erstwhile mission protégé.  Troubled and disaffected, he finds himself battling Máire’s naive views and prejudices as he seeks to regain his own cultural identity by resuming a traditional lifestyle that draws from the Tlingit myth.  But he cannot escape his past with the mission, nor can he or Máire escape the mutual attraction they feel. In a world that permits no rule breakers, will the power of myths trump all?

I've read several books lately that have left me with mixed feelings, and SELKIE DREAMS is one of them. Overall, I thought this was a well-written story set in a unique time and place. The protagonist is Máire is a lost soul desperate to escape a bad situation in her life. She grew up in Belfast without a mother, raised instead by a cold and distant father. The family cook told her stories about her mother being a selkie, returning to the sea shortly after Máire was born. It's because of these tales that she felt a spiritual bond with seals.  After learning about the seals living along the coast of Alaska, she feels drawn to this wild, far away place.  Máire takes a job in Alaska as a teacher in the Tlingit Mission.

It's clear that the author did her homework on native Alaskans and the work of missionaries in the late 1800s. I felt like it was a realistic portrayal of both sides. Neither group was romanticized or vilified. It was interesting to read about the struggles of the Tlingit people as they tried to learn about Christianity and the ways of the white people, while trying to hold on to their traditional customs. I still can't get over the arrogance of missionaries in changing the names of Tlingit children to Christian names. Even Máire's own name was deemed inappropriate, and it was changed to something more "proper" for mission work.

I loved Máire's character.  She embraced the Tlingit people and was drawn to their way of life.  You could see her discovering her true self and finding a place to belong as the months went by.

Even though the story moved at a slow pace for most of the book, I still enjoyed it - until the last page! The ending was, I don't know.  I didn't like it.  It was abrupt and incomplete, and left me feeling confused.  I read and reread the last page six times, and I'm still shaking my head.  Now, I've read many other reviews of this book, and I think only one other person mentioned the ending, so maybe it's just me!

So, if I can eventually make sense of and peace with the conclusion, I would recommend SELKIE DREAMS to historical fiction buffs interested in Celtic myths, Native Americans and colonization in Alaska.  Thank you to Knox Robinson Publishing for providing me with a review copy of this book.