I hate watching movies with people who nit-pick all the details, especially in historical flicks ("You know, that version of the flag wasn't adopted until the fall of 1792. It couldn't have been flying over the fort in June"). But sometimes people are so off-base it's just silly.
Take Gregg Hurwitz. This L.A.-based author has a new book on our shelves, a couple of pages of which take place in Alaska. It is obvious that not only hasn't Mr. Hurwitz ever been to the state, he hasn't even looked at a map. He has his protagonist get off a plane in Anchorage and take a bus to Ketchikan - "the end of the line". Wow, that's one halacious, wet bus ride to Ketchikan, what with us being on an island and all.
And while the hero spends his days working in a salmon cannery (with "all those felons in Alaska, everyone on the run from something. Deadbeat dads and bail skippers."), he spends his off-time hanging out on the tundra, or watching his co-worker (one of our town's many felons, I guess) shoot up the Moose Crossing sign across from the bar.
My favorite part? While his co-worker is busy firing off rounds in middle of town, the local police force has "wisely parked at a good distance and sat smoking on the curb, waiting for him to pass out.....The cops waved as we passed". Thank God I apparently live in a town where anyone can get blotto and blaze away at downtown traffic signs with impunity. That's why I live in Alaska. That, and my need to avoid the long arm of the law.
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Ha! This post was forwarded on to me this morning from a reader. My sense of geography leaves much to be desired (I get lost driving around the block) so a map wouldn't get us anywhere. But I do tend heavy on research and this was a doozy of an oversight. The error was caught, however, by an Alaskan (prepub) reader before publication, but not before the hardcovers rolled off the lines, so it will be corrected for the paperback edition.
Well, if you ever happen to take a cruise up to our little island (we're the first stop on the Alaska cruise ship route), we would love to give you a tour of our library. Sorry I can't promise you any moose, but we've got whales, eagles and bears...
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