Coffee-Drunk or Blind: An Alaskan HomesteadingAdventure is a poignant book by Elle
Knowles. It is a memorable account of her family’s courage to try
homesteading in the, then, newly admitted state of Alaska. It is a compilation
of letters written by the author’s mother, Helen Knowles, and some short
narratives by the author and her siblings as they recount their own memories of
that specific time in their lives so many years ago.
In June 17, 1959 at 6am, with only $1000
and a credit card, Vernon and Helen Knowles together with their four young
children Debbie, Naomi, Lindy and Chip, began their journey in their ‘two
bedroom house trailer behind a truck, with a camper built onto the bed’ from
Oakdale, Louisiana towards Alaska to take advantage of the Alaskan Homestead
Act. After 4040 miles and several motor troubles, the family finally arrived in
Alaska in July 1, 1959 at 8:50 pm.
This is a memorable, touching, inspiring,
entertaining and sometimes amusing story of a family’s courage, love, and faith
in themselves and in each other. The book is a chronological presentation of
letters written by Helen Knowles mostly to her sister-in-law Letaine. I,
personally, attribute the success of this book to these letters. They are
thoroughly detailed and vividly descriptive in their accounts of the family’s
life and situation in the wilderness.
Halfway through the book, I realized why
the author worked hard to complete this book. This is not just a simple
compilation of their memorable time in a faraway place. This is their legacy,
and reading it is a kind of time travel, a journey in time and place where
people dig their own well, where having a telephone connection, even only with
a few people, is a reason to be excited, where reading a book to the children
is the only form of amusement and where a child wakes up and sees a moose in
the front yard. Undoubtedly, the Knowles experienced hardships in Alaska
but those same hardships made them what they are now.
At the end of the book, I felt jealous and
envious of the Knowles. I envy them for their adventures, but most importantly
I envy them for their memories.
Despite a few typo errors and a couple of
dangling modifiers, I enjoyed the book a lot. Congratulations to Elle Knowles (@knowleselle) on such a great book. For
more of the author’s books, visit Finding
MyselfThrough Writing.
Thanks so much for reading and for the great review, Kimmy! I knew family members would enjoy and cherish this book, but have hoped that readers beyond my family circle would also be entertained. Yes, you are right about my mother's contribution of letters as the success to this book. Those few typo's and other errors are being corrected as they are pointed out to me. Self-publishing is an ongoing commitment it seems! Thanks again for your quick response in reading and reviewing. ~Elle
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