Love of Life and Other Stories by Jack London (1907)

Posted on 2024-03-15 by thelittleman

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
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Perhaps long-time readers have noticed that I’ve made a few changes to the site recently. One has been to add a series of pages dedicated to my favorite short-story authors and their full short-story bibliographies. Just perusing those 21 Jack London titles got me in the mood for reading him again.

I recently finished The Human Drift (1917)—actually a set of articles and essays rather than stories, though I really enjoyed them—and was excited to get back into some of his north-country tales again. Even though I’ve read a few of these before, his collection did not disappoint. As per my usual, I’ll give a brief overview of each story with some comments interspersed.

1. “Love of Life”

I’d read this story before, and it’s one that’s stuck with me far past my reading of it. In fact, not that long ago someone asked me what Jack London’s stories are like and why I like them so much. It was this image that passed through my mind, the image of a man limping and crawling his way through cold and starvation with a mangy wolf on his trail. The Yukon was a bitter place for a man to seek his fortune, but betrayal from the rascals he met while there was doubly so. This was a story of utter desperation, and along with his other masterpiece, “To Build a Fire,” it stands as a supreme example of the Jack London’s gritty, engaging style. [Read the story here]

2. “A Day’s Lodging”

I loved this line from this one, yet another gold-hunting tale set in the Yukon: “If it isn’t 80 below, that’s because it’s 79.” It’s wonderful to read how London’s stories take turns you didn’t quite anticipate. In this tale about a gold rush in the dead of winter, John Messner chances upon an empty cabin that serves as shelter for the evening. As he’s taking his meal over the fire, two strangers enter the cabin to share his space. There’s a connection between Messner and this unexpected couple from their years in California, and the chance meeting arouses a fierce tension that feels almost like it might end in murder. The end scene takes us back to the opening lines, forcing us to wonder just when in history “SHORTY” shared his narrative. [Read the story here]

3. “The White Man’s Way”

In this humorous tale, a white trapper stops over for the night in an Eskimo village up in the Yukon. He houses with two starving old Eskimos, and while sharing food with them, they discuss their different ways and cultures. The Eskimos offer a constant, proverbial refrain against the white man’s way: “It is foolishness, a great foolishness,” reminiscent of King Solomon’s Ecclesiastes passage: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and striving after the wind.” The Eskimos misunderstand, for example, the white man’s jail. As I paraphrased elsewhere, the old folks wonder: “Why is it that you white people reward an Eskimo for killing a white man? If he had killed another Eskimo, we Eskimos would kill him in response. But if he kills a white man, you take him to a city, put him up in a warm room with a roof over his head and three meals a day for several years. Then, when he comes out, he’s happier and fatter than he’s ever been in his life! It makes no sense!” I sometimes wonder the same. The Eskimos’ confusion about tobacco was also poignant—why do white people spit out the juices (the best part!) instead of swallowing it like the Eskimos do? It reminded me of the Chinese eating the bones, cartilage, and heads off chickens and wondering why I prefer the “tasteless” meaty breasts. This was a glimpse into the Eskimos’ native culture and way of thinking—and it was a good, early example of when cultures don’t mix. [Read the story here]

4. “The Story of Keesh”

Many of Jack London’s stories appear to be merely the retelling of legends he heard during his travels. Not a bad way to write, because such tales would otherwise be lost to history, had not some scribe like London preserved them for us. Keesh is just a young, fatherless boy who must hunt like a man in order to preserve his family. His fellow villagers see him leave for days on end yet always returning with polar bears larger than any other hunter can find. His hunting abilities soon appear almost magical to his fellow villagers, though no one’s aware of his secret. London does reveal his secret in the end, and we learn that his cruel, yet effective method helps preserve the lives of widows and orphans. His efforts ultimately earn Keesh his position as village leader due to his courage and care of others—so it’s a rare London tale indeed that teaches value in the goodness of others! [Read the story here]

5. “The Unexpected”

The title of this story is such an understatement, that I think London deserves a prize. The plot begins simple enough, until “the unexpected” occurs. How the couple in this story and cabin decide to wait this one out is as unexpected as the story itself, and it made me grapple with my own sense of vigilante justice. I’d have not been half as patient as this couple was, and I don’t think that says much good about me as a person. I’m curious how many other readers felt the same. [Read the story here]

6. “Brown Wolf”

In this story, London mixes two worlds. A young couple in California finds a brown wolf-like dog and, through time (and a great deal of expense), gradually earn his trust and love, adopting him and calling him “Wolf.” When a neighbor’s brother returns from the Klondike, however, and recognizes the dog whom he calls “Brown,” a small argument ensues. Who’s dog is he? The man says that he didn’t accept an offer of $1200 for this lead-dog when up in the Klondike, and it about broke him to pieces when he discovered the dog had been stolen. The couple says they’ve earned his love. The three decide to leave it to the dog to decide the true owner, neither side cajoling him when the man walks away. The dog is left in confusion and, by the end, makes a decision. There’s elements of what we see in The Call of the Wild, though obviously much simpler—the inborn pull like a magnet to the North. It’s one of London’s great themes, and I feel like Gary Paulsen mirrors it as well in books like Dogsong and Brian’s Hunt. [Read the story here]

7. “The Sun-Dog Trail”

In this artistic piece, London’s character relates an experience from the past, an image in his mind, “A painting without beginning or end” (p.44). It’s a story that doesn’t quite make sense, because we know neither the source nor the motivations of the characters involved, and we also don’t know what happened afterwards. It’s like that curious painting in the corner of the museum which fascinates a few, causing them to stand and stare at it for hours on end, while the rest of the crowd shuffles past with a half a glance, thinking, “What a dumb piece.” This sudden blip on the screen makes for a great short story too! Included in this tale was this nugget from London on life’s pursuits:

“That day a large wisdom came to me. There was a great light, and I saw clear, and I knew that it was not for money that a man must live, but for a happiness that no man can give, or buy, or sell, and that is beyond all value of money in the world.” (p.62).

[Read the story here]

8. “Negore, the Coward”

In this final tale, we meet an Eskimo named Negore who enters the scene completely misunderstood by his people and even by his wife. They think him a coward because he allowed himself to be publicly beaten like a dog by Ivan the Terrible, before abandoning his people as they fled from the Russian invasion. Negore has his reasons, though, and he commits to proving himself courageous against those Russians and earning his woman’s respect once more. This certainly isn’t the only Jack London story to end in such a fashion as this—not by a long shot (a phrase I wrote before promptly adding it to my collection of LEGO idioms, by the way, on The Proverbial_LEGO — something worth checking out and following :-). [Read the story here]

Conclusion

I greatly enjoyed these tales and feel like I’m still in the mood for more Jack London. Of course, now I’ve got a whole handful of other short-story authors to read again—Isaac Asimov, Geoffrey Household, Roald Dahl, etc. I only read these things during my margin time and when I’m not focused on my ministry responsibilities, so I’ll never get to them all, but it’s a fun goal to pursue!

©2024 E.T.

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