This reminded me somewhat of Dan Morrison's "The Black Nile: One Man's Amazing Journey Through Peace and War on the World's Longest River. Both hinted at adventure through places most people will never visit, and both, to me, fell short. This book is a description of the author's one year time with the Inuit in the arctic. By most people's definitions, that region is considered bleak and desolate. And the author can only describe it that way. But how many ways can one use to describe an area like that? Not many. So the author really tries to provide some insights into the life of the Inuit. That's interesting enough, but the book would have made an interesting magazine article, but extended to book length dragged on, and I looked forward to the end of the book even more than the author looked forward to his return to civilization. ( )

I learned a lot from this book. There are several points where I grimaced at the blatant racism and/or sexism, but note that it's written in the 30's and it's actually well balanced given that era. ( )

Seldom have I encountered as extraordinary a book as Kabloona. It is a true example of sui generis writing and it is unlikely that anything quite like it will be written again. The author, Gontran de Poncins, spent a year traveling among the Eskimos in the Arctic. This book is the result, distilled from his diaries by Lewis Galantiere. Poncins took the perspective of the Eskimos, and as a result he, Kabloona (the White Man), took seriously what they did. The book is thus a unique combination of travelogue, memoir, and cultural study. It provides the reader with a unique picture into a society that in many ways had changed little since the stone age. It is a society that neither cultivates crops nor domesticates animals; living by the fruit of the sea for food and clothing. The natural beauty and its essential nature are also explored by Poncins who observed:
"Strangest of all was the absence of color in this landscape. The world of the North, when it was not brown was grey. Snow, I discovered, is not white!" (p 56)

While the Eskimos called Poncins Kabloona, sometimes in derision, they proudly called themselves Inuit ("men, preeminently").
"I was to green to have any notion of Eskimo values. Every instinct in me prompted resistance, impelled me to throw these men out [of my igloo], --to do things which would have been stupid since they would have astonished my Eskimos fully as much as they might have angered them." (p 64)
Poncins eventually embraced their culture and thereby through sharing their lives and learning their culture he began to understand them. This is demonstrated over and over in the book as Poncins tells of his experiences with the Inuit against the background of the harsh nature of the Arctic.
"Everything about the Eskimo astonishes the white man, and everything about the white man is a subject of bewilderment for the Eskimo. Our least gesture seems to him pure madness, and our most casual and insignificant act may have incalculable results for him."

I was most impressed by the description of nature and the land as in this moment from Chapter Four:

"It goes without saying that this tundra is barren of vegetation. No tree flourishes her, no bush is to be seen, the land is without pasture, without oases; neither the camel nor the wild ass could survive here where man is able to live. The Eskimo, preeminently a nomad and sea-hunter, is driven by the need to feed his family from point to point round an irregular circle, and it is the revolution of the seasons that directs his march." (p 77)

Much of what Poncins saw has disappeared over the decades since he visited the Eskimos. Their life, while still relatively unspoiled compared to most other societies is no longer one of a true Stone Age people. They live in shacks and seal oil is giving way to kerosene; even outboard motors may be seen. This remarkable book chronicles an earlier age a a people whose culture was an amazing anomaly in the twentieth century. The result is an exciting cultural and travel adventure told through a very personal narrative voice. ( )

I read this book years ago and would never have found it except it was part of a terrific series of books republished by Time/Life. I got a whole bunch of excellent works that way, which I probably would not have discovered elsewhere. Originally written in 1941, it describes an Inuit village and family as authentically and as sympathetically as possible. Highly recommended to everyone. ( )

This book is extraordinary because it was written at a time when some Inuit were still relatively untouched by western civilization. De Poncins is honest about his initial negative reactions to arctic natives. He takes the reader through to the point where he more fully understands and is more comfortable with Inuits than the white people from "outside". It takes him 3/4 of the book to reach this point. I wish he had reached it sooner because there are some amazing and delightful descriptions of both the skills people needed to survive and the totally different outlook they had on life and relationships.
Much of the book, though, is deprecative and while some of it is an honest assessment of native people who were living close to the trading posts (as opposed to others he meets who are more isolated), he's seeing things through the lens of 1930s time and culture. ( )