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Kabloona: Among the Inuit Audiobook
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(4.03) - 221 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
This extraordinary classic has been variously acclaimed as one of the great books of adventure, travel, anthropology, and spiritual awakening.
In 1938 and 1939, a French nobleman spent fifteen months living among the Inuit people of the Arctic. He was at first appalled by their way of life: eating rotten raw fish, sleeping with each others' wives, ignoring schedules, and helping themselves to his possessions. Indeed, most Europeans would be overwhelmed merely by the smells Poncins encountered in the igloos. But as de Poncins's odyssey continues, he is transformed from Kabloona, the White Man, an uncomprehending outsider, to someone who finds himself living, for a few short months, as Inuk: a man, preeminently. He opens his eyes to the world around him, a harsh but beautiful world unlike any other, and allows himself to be fully immersed in its culture.
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"Okay, I mentioned my top five books on the North when I wrote about Nunaga. Kabloona is one of those top five books. I even have the audio cd's of this book (which I will also try to recommend). If you want to know the details of a westerner (an outsider or "kabloona") living among the indigenous people, this is a wonderful place to start. Amazing. Remarkable. Extraordinary."
— George (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“No other book about the Far North is written with so much sympathy, vividness, and dramatic imagination.”
— New Yorker -
“Kabloona is much more than a beautifully illuminating description of Eskimo life. It is a highly significant essay, skeptical, humorous, and often profound.”
— Times Literary Supplement (London) -
“A scientific as well as literary masterpiece.”
— Saturday Review -
“Fascinating…Grover Gardener changes his delivery to match the varied terrain Poncins covers. Sounding at home in Inuit, Gardener also sounds worldly, disgusted, freezing, and fascinated in smooth and easy succession.”
— AudioFile
Kabloona Listener Reviews
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" A haunting book, offering an unsual and authentic look into the private world of the Inuit as seen by an early French explorer. I appreciate the insights and honesty in which the author writes, and was captivated by how (and why) his appreciation for the Inuit culture was radically transformed over the course of time. "
— Jen, 1/13/2014 -
" 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. "
— Ray, 11/29/2013 -
" See my review of this book. This is the audio version. Read impeccably. "
— George, 11/4/2013 -
" revisiting another old favorite. This book is quite un-PC (simian and bovine oh boy!) but it's real and about a world that doesn't exist anymore. transporting... "
— Carolyn, 10/21/2013 -
" Author spent 15 months in the antarctic and wrote this with in collaboration with Lewis Galantiere. Wonderful illustration bythe author.1940 "
— John, 9/20/2013 -
" This is a great adventure book for when your stuck indoors and need an escape. "
— Mark, 2/3/2013 -
" Memoir....1939-1940 King William Land....French Count lives among primitive Eskimos. Perspective within and without. Photos and drawings. Great read during winter. "
— Kim, 11/15/2012 -
" 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. "
— Sarah, 7/11/2012 -
" Love this novel. Provided some interesting insight into the daily lives of the Inuit people and a way of life that dates back centuries. "
— Daniel, 6/1/2012 -
" This is an older book, but such a worthwhile read. Beautifully philosophic in unintentional ways. "
— Maryfrances, 12/9/2011 -
" My parents had been trying to get me to read this book for 20 years. I finally gave in and read it...and it was just as good as they told me it would be. A humorous, insightful, and entertaining look at a primitive culture through the eyes of modern day man. "
— Thomas, 1/29/2011 -
" "And as for myself, I tell you, I have had too much luck these last years. Do you believe that a man's luck can run forever? I know that it can't. For myself, I must somehow erect a bulwark against the ill fortune that is certain." "
— Goele, 1/15/2011 -
" The Eskimo is truly a marvelous creature "
— Kobe, 9/26/2010 -
" Memoir....1939-1940 King William Land....French Count lives among primitive Eskimos. Perspective within and without. Photos and drawings. Great read during winter. "
— Kim, 12/20/2009 -
" See my review of this book. This is the audio version. Read impeccably. "
— George, 3/30/2009 -
" This is an older book, but such a worthwhile read. Beautifully philosophic in unintentional ways. "
— Maryfrances, 1/25/2009 -
" revisiting another old favorite. This book is quite un-PC (simian and bovine oh boy!) but it's real and about a world that doesn't exist anymore. transporting... "
— Carolyn, 1/29/2008
About Gontran de Poncins
Gontran de Poncins was a restless French aristocrat who gave up careers as an artist and a businessman to become a freelance journalist. After traveling the world, he returned to wartime France in 1940 and died in 1962. He is the author of Kabloona, The Ghost Voyage Out of Eskimo Land, and From a Chinese City: In the Heart of Peacetime Vietnam.
About Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.