Reviews

 

“A novel which explodes into a tremendously disturbing conclusion about our existence, Spirit Made Smaller, is a riveting story about a father’s quest to determine what killed his son and how he faced his bitter discovery.”

“Set against the dramatic backdrop of Alaska, Douglas’ sensitive portrayal of a father desperately seeking the cause for his young son’s illness and eventual death, and his attempt to understand the reasons his wife, Maren, abandoned him and their child, stands in stark contrast to the landscape. From fraudulent science, emotional aloofness and narcissism, climate change, and polygamy, Douglas’ range of topics is as broad and varied as the land his characters inhabit. He takes the reader to a fly-in camp in the Seven Sisters, to a Potlach in an Athabascan village on the Chitina River, and back to the Alaska Pacific University campus in Anchorage. All the while, the reader seeks with Gharrett Graywood the clues to his son’s mysterious illness; is privy to the outrageous proclamations of the brilliantly eccentric Cashel Goodlette, and revels in the philosophy and wisdom of Monroe Bearhead, both men connected with the university’s faculty. Douglas relies on his own medical background and practice to explore the possible causes of Bobby’s illness and death, treating the reader to both standard and cutting edge concepts in medicine, presented clearly, which require no previous medical background to be easily understood. Graywood’s fear, as he watches his son deteriorate, his ever-present grief at the loss of his son, his growing bewilderment and anger at Maren’s seeming indifference, even as her child lies in his coffin, tie this unlikely cast of characters with their talents and eccentricities into a well-honed work, one worth reading.”

“Spirit Made Smaller is a powerful novel about an Alaskan doctor-pilot whose only child is stricken by a mysterious illness and dies.  A wide cast of characters bring to life Alaskan native culture and spiritual life, modern Alaskan academic and professional lives in the medical community, and the international workings of governments and regulators of pharmaceuticals. From the intimacies of trying to find family relationships, to the big, impersonal functioning of foreign bureaucracies, the characters are well defined and work well to move a fascinating story forward.  What could have been overwhelming detail of science and medicine is told simply in ways that fit the story and are easily understood. This is a deep and insightful story, very well told.  It was a pleasure to read, and I was left with lots to think about.”