I thought this book was better than many of the one- and two-star reviews note. It is about a man's struggle to find himself, really, and to find his own heart. All of the other things that were used to market this book--the touches of native culture and lifeways, the environmental issues, and even the death of the woman--all feed back into this primary concern.
I feel this utilization of these various threads to enhance and expand the character and to both position him for a change and to push him to accept the change are the mark of a good writer. The prose in this book is slightly more than servicable...it doesn't exactly sing but it does have its own voice, and that voice is enjoyable enough. I read this quickly and enjoyed it. ( )

this was an enormous disappointment for me. the story idea is a good one, i like reading about social/political justice, i'm interested in the alaska setting, etc. unfortunately very little in this book worked for me. the characters are completely unrelatable, their dialogue rings almost completely false, too much of the story is flat, and the writing falls short.

(there is potential in the writing, it is just unrealized. i would read more by her, though, because the potential is so obviously there. this potential, and the ideas she has, are probably what save this book from getting only 1/2 a star from me.)

where the writing really does a disservice is in her characters. they are so...unreachable, but you couldn't care less as a reader because she hasn't written them well enough to feel real or to make you care. i'm bummed that this won the bellwether prize, that she/they didn't give this more time to develop, that she died before she wrote more than a couple more books - because i expect that her talent, when in bloom, would have been great. i'd check out her later books to see if she tapped in on that talent or was still just getting there.

the best thing about this book is the title, which i really do love. ( )

The backstory: Correcting the Landscape won the Bellwether Prize in 2004.

The basics: In Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus runs a newspaper struggling financially, both for the familiar reasons and because of the local advertisers, who increasingly take issue with the paper's political views and are pulling their financial support.

My thoughts: I majored in journalism in college, and I have a fascination with stories about journalists. I'm also fascinated by life in Alaska, so when I discovered this novel on my quest to read all of the Bellwether Prize winners, I was looking forward to it. Correcting the Landscape is a realistic, and depressing, look at the small town newspaper industry, but it's emphasis is really on telling the story of Gus, whose personal turmoil drifts into work, just as his professional turmoil is deeply personal. As a character, I admit I never felt connected to Gus, but Kowalski Cole's writing was so beautiful, I didn't care.

The themes of social justice in this novel are haunting. While it's a story of one man in one Alaska town, there is a universality in its arguments about the importance of news in our society:
"These three kids of his, their arrival over the years had kept pace with an increasing conservatism on his and Mary’s part. World too painful to present to his children, so you just pretend it’s different? Pretend these painful, ugly things don’t exist?"
Through the writing, grim events, and Alaska setting (the author was Alaskan), there's a chill to this novel, but there's also a lingering hope, for both Gus as an individual and for the newspaper itself.

Favorite passage: "A sense of community made me look up from my pages in anticipation of future struggles."

The verdict: Correcting the Landscape is a fascinating glimpse into Alaska and the newspaper industry. I enjoyed the larger themes more than the internal struggles of Gus, but the strength of this novel is in Kowalski Cole's prose. ( )

Gift from Mary Matthews, Christmas 2009.