Dead in the Water by Dana Stabenow

I'm slacking here - I finished this last night, but I had homework to do - so there. By the way, I have hit my stride in that course. I have decided to make my goal creating posts on the discussion boards that no one will respond to - and so far I am winning in the current chapter - in fact, fewer than half of the members of the class have even read my posts for this chapter.

This book was interesting on a couple of fronts and on several levels. Stabenow really gets into the history and social issues regarding the native Alaskans. Kate is an Aleut. The entire tribe was relocated during the war from their homes on islands in the Aleutian chain to make way for a military defense of the area. Not as crazy as it sounds when you consider that if the Japanese had established a base in the area, they would have been within easy bombing range of Seattle, home of Boeing, maker of the B-17. The other side of it is that the Aleuts who were captured by the Japanese were quite well treated - far better than those who were relocated by the US military. When the military was through with their islands and tried to send them home, their homes had been destroyed - both the structures and the wildlife which had provided their living. So the surviving Aleuts moved into the park or took up residence on the fringes of white society.

We also get to see more near mysticism involving a couple of minor but quite interesting characters as Kate is back in the home territory of her family. I was wondering if that thread would continue and I am pleased that it has.

Another totally fascinating thing about this book is that the primary setting is a crab fishing boat. One of the secondary settings is Dutch Harbor, Alaska. If you don't know what I am talking about, you obviously have neglected to watch "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. In her introductory comments to the e-release of this book, which is actually one of her earliest, Stabenow reports that one of the responses to any of her books that has given her the most pleasure was the letters from crab fishermen telling her that she got it right. It seems pretty true to what I have seen in the television series.