Water Mask

by Monica Devine

Water Mask is an adventurous memoir from Monica Devine, an itinerant therapist who travels to villages throughout Alaska and builds a life in this vast, captivating landscape. She traverses mountains, navigates sea ice with whalers, and whirls two thousand feet above tundra with a rookie bush pilot; she negotiates the death of her father, and the near-loss of her family's cabin on the Copper River. Her journey is exhilarating--but not without...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1602233721
• ISBN13: 9781602233720
• Release Date: March 2019
• Publisher: University of Alaska Press
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Water Mask by Monica Devine: an Alaskan woman's experiences and wisdom

Water Mask > by > Monica DevineReviewed by Gretchen Brinck > > In Water Mask, Alaska writer Monica Devine opens with a T.S. Eliot quote: “I do not know much about gods/but I think that the river is a strong brown god.” > This wonderful quotation is very fitting. The river in Devine’s world has a life of its own and has a meaningful role in Devine’s days and is an essential source for people in her region of Alaska. Though writing prose, Devine’s vivid but down to earth style reveals a poet’s heart combined with that of a naturalist. Her very readable scenes portray her Alaskan locale: lifestyles, memories, rugged people, forested land, the river. > In an early scene, Devine fishes from the riverbank, her baby boy in the backpack her husband made with care. Devine recalls an infant who fell from a mother’s backpack and drowned in the river’s frigid current. Sadly, local folklore among some residents in her town said the baby’s spirit will never be relieved. > Thus, when fishing on the riverbank, Devine remained fully aware of her son on her back and the cold, rapid water near her feet. This is a woman who chose Alaska because she belongs there. Fishing, she considered her kids’ futures, expecting that they, like herself, would “ski and climb mountains, hike trails and raft rivers.” She’d chosen “a place where women could build their own houses and fly their own airplanes.” You go, girl! thinks this Lower 48 female reader. > Devine also portrays deep conversations with local native Alaskan women – an excellent experience as it is not easy for an outsider from the Lower 48 to win true acceptance from locals who for generations have lived in their region. > Devine reflects upon fascinating thoughts of the area’s long-ago people and what she calls “Thin Places” where a person might sense spirits of recent and long ago dead. “If you were to dig below the tundra scrub in Point Hope, it is likely you would excavate artifacts like thousand-year-old sled runners made of whale bone, implements carved from walrus ivory, and sharp edged stone hunting tools….” These artifacts tell her, "We existed... as spirits before our birth." > Her fascinating narrative includes typical Alaskan experiences, including a bush pilot jury-rigging a repair of his small plane’s damaged tire and then transporting “exiled outlaws looking for a place to hide.”*