Dancing at the Odinochka (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Dancing at the Odinochka Hope Morrison Hill, Kirkpatrick Dancing at the Odinochka. McElderry, 2005257p ISBN 0-689-87388-3$15.95 R Gr. 5-7 Set in the 1860s in Russian America (now Alaska), Hill's novel chronicles the life and times of the ten residents of an odinochka(trading post) on the Yukon River. Told from the perspective of real-life resident Erinia Pavaloff, youngest child of a Russian father and an Athabascan mother, the novel is split into three parts. In the first, eight-year-old Erinia details the insular world of the odinochka, marking the passage of time by work, celebrations, and seasonal visitors. In the second part, set two years later, Russian America is purchased by the United States and a group of American soldiers are assigned to Erinia's remote region to install a telegraph wire. The final section details the brutal murder of Old Man Kozevikoff, head of the post, and the other residents' subsequent escape to safety. While the first section recalls the simple narrative thrust of the Little House books, youthfully capturing the details of everyday activities and objects, the second focuses on the variance in attitudes toward the rapid changes that occur as traditional ways are challenged, new ways introduced, and a range of unfamiliar people welcomed into the odinochka. These two sections work very well together, as the firmly established context described in the first is slowly deconstructed in the second. The third section, while most closely aligned with Pavaloff's real-life memoir, largely abandons the narrative course of the novel, but it's dramatically detailed in its own right. This is a compelling read about a wild and unfamiliar place; the characters are engaging, the natural settings are lyrically described, and the challenges of progress in a world that expected never to change are effectively illustrated. A map and author's note are included. Copyright © 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois