Kabloona

Among the Inuit

By: Gontran de Poncins

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Kabloona is a true story of a journey into the North. This extraordinary classic has been variously acclaimed as one of the great books of adventure, travel, anthropology, and spiritual awakening.

In the summer of 1938, the Frenchman Gontran de Poncins traveled beyond the "Barren Lands" north of the Arctic Circle to Kind William Island, an island of 10,000 square miles. The entire population of the island consisted of 25 Eskimos, their primitive lives untouched by the civilization of the white man.

For 15 months Gontran de Poncins lived among the Inuit people of the Arctic. He is 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. But as de Poncins' 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.

©1941 Gontran de Poncins (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Fascinating and worth reading

A man of his time, De Poncins still gives a fascinating account of life among early post-contact Inuit. Now I need to find native-author writings for balance.

Kabloona (Unabridged)Kabloona

This book is one of the best nonfictions I have ever read. It was funny and I was sorry when it reached it's end. The narrator was great and the story that Poncins told of his life with the people of the north was amusing and truly shoed how much we still have to learn from different cults all around the world. I liked the message that came to me while reading this book and it was that happiness and enjoyment don't always come in the form in which we expected.

Adventure at its best

I could not put this down. A fascinating tale that made me want to find out more about the author and the subject. The former has written other books thast I have now bought and read as a result of this talking book. A very well worthwhile listen!

The Kabloona is eventually humbled

The story of the Kabloona, by Gontran de Poncins, changes in tone, attitude and character as it progresses. Even though some earlier and middle parts of the narrative are harder to digest due to arrogant, pre-WW2 statements, they are a part of the story and accentuate just how much the main character is later transformed. Stick it out. It was fascinating.

Fascinating Adventure

I enjoyed every minute of this fascinating adventure. His attitude toward the Inuit is less than enlightened (which is not a surprise considering when it was written), but his descriptions of the people and their culture are unsurpassed and never dull or boring. You will want to drag out your map and track his adventure like I did.

Fascinating record of his journey

Once you look past the language of that time, you see that the writer was genuine in his desire to learn about Inuit culture. I enjoyed seeing the north through his eyes but wish there were more literature written by the Inuit recording their culture and customs before Christianity came in and ruined it.

Just get it.

Written back when words mattered. The performance is Grover Gardner so its as good as it gets. Steady pace , delightful insights , unimaginable adventure. Just get it.

Informative, thrilling, just great

I was looking for something specificly about the life of Eskimos, and I was lucky to find this title. Just what I wanted: a thorough account of a Westerner's journey into the Arctic, a detailed description of the Eskimo way of life and way of thinking, by a man who lived for 15 months as one of them, not just as a traveler. Not 1 superfluous word. Everything is informative, enriching, and very clearly written. The book is never boring. I also found it to be spiritually enlightening; an insight into a different outlook on life. The author visited the Eskimos in 1938 but I'd guess life in these regions has not changed much.

The narrator is also very good.

Great book!

Worth reading

This book is certainly very politically incorrect but this is what makes it precious. French aristocrat and anthropologist
Contran de Poncin spends a year with Inuits in 1939, sometimes living with them at the very remote locations where almost no white man ventured before.
He tells about his experience and feelings frankly and excitingly and, as it often happens when different mentalities and cultures collide, his impressions range from disgust to admiration. And a transformation that gradually happens in him is not less interesting than his descriptions of the life of Inuits.

Excellent read! Excellent narrator

What an entertaining observation of a people who are slowly disappearing. Love to hear the transition of the author as he experienced the new culture.