Reviews
Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia
heyjude1965's review against another edition
4.0
Well that was a wild ride! Unbelievably crazy story of a nut that had a bunch of kids and lived off the grid. That’s not the crazy part. He isolated his family and abused them horribly. Also, his life before was vastly different from the life he forced on his wife and kids. No education, no friends, no running water etc. but he had lived a privileged life when he was young - International travel, country clubs, cars, drugs, women, college, etc. I get wanting to step away from modern life, but not teaching your kids to read? Not letting them have any social life, any friends? Not to mention the horrible physical abuse. Author was very detailed. Leaned a lot about Alaska in the course of reading this book. Listened to on audio.
princesszinza's review against another edition
4.0
This book hit on many of my strange interests: weird cults, messed up families, wilderness living, anti-government activism, true crime and even tangentially the Kennedy assassination. Tom Kizzia was the perfect person to tell this tale, as he has a cabin in the McCarty area and actually had met the Pilgrim family.
After finishing this book, I thought about how these strange cult figures are all very similar. Charisma, narcissism, drug abuse and mental illness are all traits that Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and Robert Hale all shared.
After finishing this book, I thought about how these strange cult figures are all very similar. Charisma, narcissism, drug abuse and mental illness are all traits that Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and Robert Hale all shared.
cher_n_books's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars - It was really good.
A fascinating true story that takes a significant plot twist in the middle making it almost feel like two separate books about two different subjects.
The first half deals with Hale's interesting start to life and his ties to Fort Worth and TCU (hitting close to home for this Texas girl). From there you find yourself pulling for the rugged pioneer and his large family as they try to homestead in the brutal environment of Alaska. How dare big government infringe on the little man's rights? Oh wait, maybe that's not how it was at all. Suddenly you are unsure as you start to see the wild gooseberry chase that the Pilgrim/Hale family sends the government on, in a pompous display of wastefulness, spite and disregard for others.
Now that you are starting to see another side of the Pilgrim/Hale family, the story took a twist to shed light on the family dynamics. At this point you see Hale for the delusional hypocrite that he really is, let alone abusive monster. I particularly love how he was ready to make the world burn and bring war to anyone that took a piece of garbage that belonged to him, while simultaneously teaching his kids how to steal from everyone in their reach.
It is amazing that the author was able to write such a neutral and fair representation of the events and "man", knowing how things ultimately end. Speaking of how things end,
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Favorite Quote: They still believe Jesus is coming. But there are lives to be led in the meantime.
First Sentence: In the winter of 2002, a man with the wild gray beard of a biblical prophet showed up in the remote Alaska ghost town of McCarthy with his wife and fourteen children.
A fascinating true story that takes a significant plot twist in the middle making it almost feel like two separate books about two different subjects.
The first half deals with Hale's interesting start to life and his ties to Fort Worth and TCU (hitting close to home for this Texas girl). From there you find yourself pulling for the rugged pioneer and his large family as they try to homestead in the brutal environment of Alaska. How dare big government infringe on the little man's rights? Oh wait, maybe that's not how it was at all. Suddenly you are unsure as you start to see the wild gooseberry chase that the Pilgrim/Hale family sends the government on, in a pompous display of wastefulness, spite and disregard for others.
Now that you are starting to see another side of the Pilgrim/Hale family, the story took a twist to shed light on the family dynamics. At this point you see Hale for the delusional hypocrite that he really is, let alone abusive monster. I particularly love how he was ready to make the world burn and bring war to anyone that took a piece of garbage that belonged to him, while simultaneously teaching his kids how to steal from everyone in their reach.
It is amazing that the author was able to write such a neutral and fair representation of the events and "man", knowing how things ultimately end. Speaking of how things end,
Spoiler
I cannot even describe the ways I would have desecrated that man's corpse if I was his wretched wife. After putting up with his abuse and poverty stricken lifestyle for over 30 years, he wants to be buried with his first wife that he was with for all of five minutes and almost certainly killed? Let someone else bury his sorry arse and good riddance.-------------------------------------------
Favorite Quote: They still believe Jesus is coming. But there are lives to be led in the meantime.
First Sentence: In the winter of 2002, a man with the wild gray beard of a biblical prophet showed up in the remote Alaska ghost town of McCarthy with his wife and fourteen children.
rosemaryandrue's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
3.5
The Pilgrim family seems to be a lovable, if eccentric addition to the town of McCarthy, Alaska, and soon win many supporters for their battle for landowner rights with the National Park Service. But the head of the clan is keeping some secrets, and the family's lifestyle is not as idyllic as it seems.
Having lived in bustling cities all my life, life in remote Alaska has always sounded surreal to me - and so I've often thought about how it would go if I moved up there for a season or two. Not very well, I imagine.
Anyway, this is the story of an off-the-grid fundamentalist Christian family who move into one such remote Alaskan town, which is unique for being smack dab in the middle of a national park. When the Pilgrims defiantly lay down a road in the wilderness, people in Alaska and beyond rally around them, hoping to use their case to advance the inholder rights cause.
Unfortunately, they probably should have looked further for their poster child, because it turns out that "Papa" Pilgrim is actually a horribly abusive man with a dark past who holds his family in an iron grip. I liked how this book creates a strong sense of time and place, immersing us in the world of the Pilgrims and of McCarthy, a former boom-town known for its rich copper mines. I found the reflection on how little we investigate our fifteen-second heroes very interesting, and I liked how the author placed a lot of weight on the resiliency of the Pilgrim children, lending them voices to explain the conflicted positions they were often put in.
However, I did feel like the narrative wandered at times - we learn a lot about McCarthy's history and some of its colorful former residents, but while it was interesting enough I did feel it detracted too much from the main story in some places. Some of the more technical details surrounding the laws about the rights of the inholders were downright boring. The timeline also got confusing at times, as we weave back and forth between decades and I did not always know where we were situated.
Having lived in bustling cities all my life, life in remote Alaska has always sounded surreal to me - and so I've often thought about how it would go if I moved up there for a season or two. Not very well, I imagine.
Anyway, this is the story of an off-the-grid fundamentalist Christian family who move into one such remote Alaskan town, which is unique for being smack dab in the middle of a national park. When the Pilgrims defiantly lay down a road in the wilderness, people in Alaska and beyond rally around them, hoping to use their case to advance the inholder rights cause.
Unfortunately, they probably should have looked further for their poster child, because it turns out that "Papa" Pilgrim is actually a horribly abusive man with a dark past who holds his family in an iron grip. I liked how this book creates a strong sense of time and place, immersing us in the world of the Pilgrims and of McCarthy, a former boom-town known for its rich copper mines. I found the reflection on how little we investigate our fifteen-second heroes very interesting, and I liked how the author placed a lot of weight on the resiliency of the Pilgrim children, lending them voices to explain the conflicted positions they were often put in.
However, I did feel like the narrative wandered at times - we learn a lot about McCarthy's history and some of its colorful former residents, but while it was interesting enough I did feel it detracted too much from the main story in some places. Some of the more technical details surrounding the laws about the rights of the inholders were downright boring. The timeline also got confusing at times, as we weave back and forth between decades and I did not always know where we were situated.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Incest, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
proffy's review against another edition
5.0
Here's the description from Amazon: In Pilgrim’s Wilderness, veteran Alaska journalist Tom Kizzia unfolds the remarkable, at times harrowing, story of a charismatic spinner of American myths who was not what he seemed, the townspeople caught in his thrall, and the family he brought to the brink of ruin. As Kizzia discovered, Papa Pilgrim was in fact the son of a rich Texas family with ties to Hoover’s FBI and strange, oblique connections to the Kennedy assassination and the movie stars of Easy Rider. And as his fight with the government in Alaska grew more intense, the turmoil in his brood made it increasingly difficult to tell whether his children were messianic followers or hostages in desperate need of rescue. In this powerful piece of Americana, written with uncommon grace and high drama, Kizzia uses his unparalleled access to capture an era-defining clash between environmentalists and pioneers ignited by a mesmerizing sociopath who held a town and a family captive.
The amount of hoopla in this book is both adrenaline inducing and heart wrenching, and it is always, always amazing. Focused primarily on the landowner's battle the Pilgrims faced in McCarthy, the story also recounts the strange journey the family took to arrive in this "can't get more out the way" place and their exodus from it. Family dynamics, political intrigue, religious fervor, neighborly love, so much is touched on.
At first, I was confused by the happenings and the people - there's a lot doing here and a lot of people doing it. But once I got into the story, I let the minutiae fall away, immersed myself in the tale, and just went with it. Even at the end, there were a few names where I had a hard time recalling their earlier importance. But Kizzia kept me involved enough that it didn't necessarily matter. I knew who the big dogs were and that was enough.
This is truly a fascinating tale, and I have Sandy from You've Gotta Read This to thank for it. She mentioned this book in passing, saying the book is "a non-fiction-they-can't-make-this-stuff-up kind of book that makes you feel like your head is going to explode. In a nutshell, it is about a incestuous, narcissistic, bible-thumping madman who homesteads in Alaska with his brainwashed wife and 15 kids, and ends up taking on the National Park Service and the law for his sins. Amazing, maddening stuff." Her description made me "nook it". [To nook it: to immediately download a book from Barnes and Noble with minimal thought].
The amount of hoopla in this book is both adrenaline inducing and heart wrenching, and it is always, always amazing. Focused primarily on the landowner's battle the Pilgrims faced in McCarthy, the story also recounts the strange journey the family took to arrive in this "can't get more out the way" place and their exodus from it. Family dynamics, political intrigue, religious fervor, neighborly love, so much is touched on.
At first, I was confused by the happenings and the people - there's a lot doing here and a lot of people doing it. But once I got into the story, I let the minutiae fall away, immersed myself in the tale, and just went with it. Even at the end, there were a few names where I had a hard time recalling their earlier importance. But Kizzia kept me involved enough that it didn't necessarily matter. I knew who the big dogs were and that was enough.
This is truly a fascinating tale, and I have Sandy from You've Gotta Read This to thank for it. She mentioned this book in passing, saying the book is "a non-fiction-they-can't-make-this-stuff-up kind of book that makes you feel like your head is going to explode. In a nutshell, it is about a incestuous, narcissistic, bible-thumping madman who homesteads in Alaska with his brainwashed wife and 15 kids, and ends up taking on the National Park Service and the law for his sins. Amazing, maddening stuff." Her description made me "nook it". [To nook it: to immediately download a book from Barnes and Noble with minimal thought].