Author: Mette Newth Binding: hardcover Number Of Pages: 247 Release Date: 01-12-1989 Details: Product Description Based on the actual kidnapping of Inuit Eskimos by seventeenth-century traders, the story centers on Osuqo, an Inuit, and Christine, a Norwegian servant forced to guard her From Publishers Weekly In a thought-provoking note, Newth points out that this "story of a clash of cultures . . . is equally a meeting of reason and unreason. . . . Unreason always wants to use power to enforce injustice." This comment, placed sagely as an afterword, can have no better illustration than the moving narrative that precedes it. There are two intertwining stories here, both set in the 17th century. The first is of Osuqo, an Inuit girl who is abducted--with Poq, the boy she is to marry--by foreigners; they are taken from Greenland to Vagen in Norway, where they are debased, treated as animals, then as creatures of Satan, by power-hungry merchant Master Mowinkel and evil Pastor Absalon. The second narrative tells of Christine, whose father fails to return from the voyage during which Usuqo and Poq were captured. She and her mother are forced into servitude in the Mowinkel household, where Christine is made to guard the foreigners. With nothing (except her life) to lose, Christine finds freedom in her decision to help Henrik, Mowinkel's son, in his plan to help the two Inuit escape. Newth has utilized ships' logs and the centuries-old oral tradition of the Inuit in creating a chilling tale of xenophobia and its cruel cost to humanity. Yet this ably translated, thoughtful work is also inspiring: the stain of slavery blots the history of many nations, and Newth provides a fresh perspective from which to consider the "clash of cultures." Ages 12-up. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 8-12-- The brutality and prejudice of "civilized" people toward foreign cultures is shockingly conveyed in this story of kidnapping and mistreatment in the 1600s. Alternating the story of Osuqo, who, along with her betrothed, is violently abducted by Norwegian sailors from her Greenland home, with that of Christine, a servant girl who must guard the captives when the ship returns to Norway, Newth effectively conveys the clash of beliefs and traditions which leads to oppression. The irony that the people who consider themselves to be the most superior and civilized are actually the cruelest and most ignorant will not be lost on readers, who will see the contrast between European and Eskimo cultures. Newth does not hold back in describing the rape and physical abuse imposed on the captives (although Osuqo's vocabulary will seem less harsh than contemporary language), nor does she soften the relentless attempts to force Christian ideology on the them. In contrast, the prisoners' dignity and strength may at times verge on the idealistic, but that is acceptable in the context of this story. While the inhumanity of the oppressors is dominant, there is some compassion shown by Christine, her mother, and the son of the merchant who owns the captives. Although the unfolding of events is described from both Christine's and Osuqo's perspectives, the Inuit part of the story, with its poetic storytelling and reminiscences, is livelier and fuller than that of Christine's. Still, readers will follow both stories tensely, hoping that somehow Osuqo and Poq will regain their freedom. --Susan Schuller, Milwaukee Public LibraryCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. EAN: 9780374300081 Package Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches Languages: English
