La Ley De La Vida, Jack London

Up From Here - Petal

(Tr. Sp-Eng from a review by Miguel Montero in Xombit)

 It is a majestic narrative for which London was inspired by the custom of certain tribes of native Americans in the region of Yukon (located between Alaska and Canada) consistent in leaving elders with a stack of firewood next to a bonfire in order not to jeopardize the tribe in their movements when they move the camp. With an extremely raw and realistic style, London chronicles the agony of Koskoosh, Chief of the tribe abandoned by his family as tradition dictates.

 The elder remembers premonitory images of his childhood: a pack of wolves attacking an old elk left behind his herd. He knows that this is also his destiny, and that wolves will end with him as soon as the fire goes out. There is some degree of resignation and indolence in the form of thinking and acting of the old boss that keeps the reader uneasy, making him consider issues such as survival, death, or the cruelty of fate that we all share. The end of story, though sensed or guessed, never ceases to be imbued with wonderful poetry, a kind of final gift of the author able to make us remember this story for a long time.

 Jack London was one of the most successful American writers at the beginning of the 20th century. His more than fifty books reveal a writer with a stunning realism in his style. It is convenient to know that the vast majority of his stories are not product of his creative imagination, but the own Jack London's experiences during a youth full of travel and adventure. It is not autobiographical narrative, but authentic stories or novels where the author's fantasy and creativity transform into words unusual events and characters, surprising and unique, based on his own life experience, on events he lived or he knew from others and characters he met or whom he ever heard of.