Devastated by the unspeakable loss of her only son, Marian is pulled into a quagmire of grief, barely able to move at all. In that darkness she sleeps, unwilling to let go. As her first summer of loss wanes, Marian’s husband convinces her to take off alone on an ill-advised road trip to Alaska. So she begins an 8,000 mile trek from the East Coast of the US through Canada aiming for the Native village of Toksook Bay – with winter in the wings and her beloved son’s dog by her side.
Bruised and broken with unresolved grief, she is at first blind to the fact that her husband wants her out of the picture. As the fog lifts and her vision clears his tactics are revealed, and she learns that her suspicions were right on. This betrayal keeps her heading north into the icy chill of early winter. Could she stay married to a man who would blame her, gaslight her and then reel her back in?
As she works her way through the loss of every passed connection and out of the dark, new questions loom, what might Alaska offer? The struggles of the road, the unexpected encounters along the way bring to mind Wild, by Cheryl Strayed and Nomadland by Jessica Bruder: one woman alone heading into the unknown, striving to save her life on her own hero’s journey. Readers will love the turns taken in this long road trip to a new life.
Reviews
Kudos to Marian Elliott for — at long last — putting her powerful story on the pages and for publishing a stellar book at age 85. Her writing is poetic and her memoir has all the components of a wonderful tale: tragedy, loss, redemption, and salvation. From her gut-wrenching grief and through her floundering phase, I rooted for her. And I cheered when “Ben” arrived and wouldn’t let her go. It’s a beautifully written memoir that belongs on the printed page. She makes all her readers want to move to Alaska.
A Fan, Leah Weiss
Bestselling author of If the Creek Don’t Rise and All The Little Hopes
Marian Eliott’s memoir Out of the Dark is both absorbingly rich and quiet, trembling with feeling but unafraid of looking at and into life and death in all their power and beauty and heartbreak and harrowing effect. It is a deeply personal book that invites the reader to enter it and as far as is possible to join the author in her search for acceptance: first the horror of her grown son killed in a car crash, and attempting to make sense of the meanings of being a mother, lover, friend, and human being.
She brings us through a great large country - first the expanse of northeastern America from New York all the way west to Alaska. Before long her closest companion is her deceased son Joey’s dog Gulliver with whom she travels the country and rescues from sudden illnesses and discovers just how powerful their closeness becomes. You travel with them freely for the best reasons. You fall in love with them.
I haven’t begun to do this book the wonderful justice it deserves. You’ll have to give yourself the full power and love Marian Eliott has given this book: you’ll never regret making it your companion. Read it with your soul.
—Guy Kettlehack, New York City author of over 25 books and a huge collection of poetry. Two of his poems —Alter Ego and Weather Report — won awards in IBPC competitions.
A beautifully rendered hero’s journey and classic road trip story, Out of the Dark is one woman’s passage from the known to the unknown as she drives not so much as away from, but into the embrace of, a painful reality that nothing could change. Told in prose as beautiful as sunlight in a dark Alaskan January that finally finds its way above the shadowy hills, Marian Elliott’s third person memoir is a testament to the magnitude of love, the kindness of strangers, and the healing power of nature.
—Sarah Birdsall, author of The Red Mitten, The Moonflower Route, and Wild Rivers, Wild Rose
Wow, what a wonderful book. Of the variety of books I've been asked to review, this is by far the most touching and beautifully crafted. I wept in several places. The book might need a disclaimer somewhere that a box of Kleenex is required to read this novel. I say this with great admiration for the craftsmanship in evoking emotions through your writing. Out of the Dark explores how the dark night of the soul can find passage through pain to a place of radiance and hope. A deeply moving portrait of courage in a touching and beautifully rendered story.
—Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan, author of A Tender Distance and Our Perfect Wild
Marian Elliott’s third person memoir, Out of the Dark, touchingly, and deftly, addresses the query: How did we get to this place and time in our lives? For the heroine, Jeanne, the road is sometimes pitted with obstacles but more often blessed with kindness; marred by delays yet propelled by good fortune, tormented by loss but buoyed by love. Encompassing the entire narrative, from east to west to north, is the persuasive power of nature to restore and humble. Elliott's story is a beautifully written journey from sorrow to new beginnings.
—Eric Wade, author of Squirrelland: Imagination and the Alaska Red Squirrel
Marian Elliott’s book, Out of the Dark, is a guide. It is a calm clear voice to accompany a survivor – for anyone who has been close to the stupefying loss of a child. The story is mostly a memoir but also a travelogue. There is wreckage. There is confrontation with meaninglessness. There is no promise of redemption. But finally, life among the living must be navigated in some way. Elliott journeys from New York through Canada and finally to Alaska. It is a narrative about living and a suggestion for the path to acceptance.
—Lanning Russell, editor of Event Horizon and author of the blog Bumper Sticker Wisdom
About the Author
Marian Elliott was born in New York City and grew up in Brooklyn, NY and the Long Island suburbs before moving to Alaska when she was 42. When she retired from 35 years of teaching young children, she turned her time and energy to creative writing. Her short story, “In Its Place,” won first place for fiction in the Open to the Public category of the creative writing contest sponsored by the University of Alaska, Anchorage and the Anchorage Daily News. It was published in the May 2017 issue of We Alaskans and the November/December issue of Event Horizon literary magazine. She and her husband Dan divide their time between their home at their apple orchard in Wasilla, Alaska and their cabin in the foothills of the Talkeetna Mountains.