Kabloona

Among the Inuit

De: Gontran de Poncins

Narrado por: Grover Gardner

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.

Wow

Despite the author’s condescension, derision, and general feeling of (early 20th century superiority), this book sheds light as much on the author and the society from which he came as on the Inuit people with whom he lived for a year. Initially, his commentary grates, but quickly the reader can (if s/he tries) translate his often obtuse and nasty observations into insights of the author himself. It takes a while, but even he came to realize the harshness of his observations. He arrived as an observer and certainly left as one, but he departed with a hard earned respect for and appreciation of people he initially thought were little more than human-like but base creatures. His experiences and self-reflection should give all of pause when we observe and judge how others live.