Fiction - 5 stars
Megan presented three books for her book club to choose the one their next going to read, and
White Fang was one of her three choices. While they did not pick that one to read, I decided to read it anyway, I got the combo of
The Call of the Wild and White Fang on my nook, and I really couldn't read one without the other.
So, I began with
The Call of the Wild, London's masterpiece about Buck, 1/2 St. Bernard, 1/2 Scotch shepherd who lives a comfortable life as a family dog in California. He's taken from his pampered surroundings and shipped to Alaska to be a sled dog. In Alaska, the landscape is as harsh as life itself during the gold rush of the 1890s. All but forgetting his earlier existence, Buck succumbs to his instincts, encountering danger and adventure as he becomes the leader of a wolf pack and undertakes a near-mythical journey, ultimately to answer the undeniable call of the wild. The details come from London's knowledge of Alaskan frontier life, and they make the writing exquisite. Once it was finished, I immediately began reading
White Fang.
Although written much later,
White Fang has often been called a companion novel to
The Call of the Wild because it takes the story and reverses it. The story begins with a glimpse into the life of a wolfpack, hunting and finding prey often among the sled dogs of the 19th Century Klondike Gold Rush. White Fang's mother is part dog, part wolf, and when she and another wolf have puppies, White Fang is the only survivor. Living in the frozen north, he learns to hunt in the wild, and then is "adopted" by Gray Beaver, an Indian living in a camp on the Mackintosh River. White fang is the alpha male, and he is well-known for his ability to strike dogs dead in an instant. When Gray Beaver enters Fort Yukon with White Fang, he is immediately noticed by Beauty Smith, a cruel man who manipulates Gray Beaver with whisky and gambling to gain White Fang as a debt payment. Beauty places White Fang in the dogfight ring where he is undefeated, until a pitbull is introduced and White Fang is nearly destroyed by the men's vicious cruelty. He is saved by Weedon Scott, and under Scotts care, White Fang is lucky enough to experience the one thing that can save him human love. He gradually comes under the spell of man's companionship, and when Scott returns to his family home in California, White Fang is is constant companion and eventually proves his worth to everyone.
I can't say enough about these books. I enjoyed them from the moment I began, and while the cruelty is hard to read, it gives a true glimpse into a period of history that many of us don't know about. People, as well as their dogs, had to be tough survivalists, doing anything to stay alive. Also, the adventurers who went to Alaska to seek fortune in the gold rush were not all peace-loving men. They were a mix of entrepreneurs and alcoholics, low-lifes and fur traders, businessmen and ex-convicts. London again had first-hand knowledge of these men, and depicts their lifestyle vividly in both books.
I love them both and recommend them to anyone who likes animals or is interested in the history of our country.
