By Melissa Martinez
News Editor
“Naknek; or, Life in the Cannery,” is a travel novel of 2012 CSUSM graduate Kyle M. Johnson’s experience working in a cannery in Alaska.
The former features editor for The Cougar Chronicle documents his adventure working exhausting hours, serving stressed fishermen and trying to find the beauty in the solitude of his travels.
Paralleling Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” Johnson seems to find the beauty in the scenery of Alaska and the people that inhabit it. Only referring to characters by their occupation or physical observations, Johnson uses anonymity to allow the readers to appreciate them for what they meant to his experience, rather than their name.
Throughout his time at the cannery, Johnson reveals his thoughts, emotions and need for a few of life’s simplicities, giving the reader insight of not only his day-to-day activities, but a peek at who he is as a person. Meeting people he becomes quite fond of like his “coworker with the glasses” and “the girl with the tattoo,” Johnson keeps the reader enticed, wondering what discoveries each new day will bring and what people he will meet.
Reading “Naknek; or, Life in the Cannery” is more than a story. It is an experience. The Cougar Chronicle interviewed Johnson to catch up on his life since he graduated and his newly published novel.
Question: When you started writing your book, was your intention to write a travel novel of your time in Alaska or did you know you wanted to write a book?
Answer: I kept a journal while I was there and I knew I wanted to do something with it, so I kept it. A few months before, I read “Travels with Charlie” by John Steinbeck and after reading it I thought, this is the kind of book I want to write.
Q: In your book, you wouldn’t disclose the names of characters and referred to them by their characteristics. Why?
A: In the journal that I kept while I was there, I never referred to anyone by their name besides my little brother. There’s one point in the journal where I wrote ‘anonymity is exciting’ and I wrote that in the disclaimer that that’s my reason for doing so. It wasn’t so much about their name but more so about the impact they had on me.
Q: I liked your references to Walden throughout the novel. Do you feel that had you not read Walden, would your experience be different?
A: Yeah, I really do. I’ve always loved to read and for some reason, I felt like it was really perfect the way that book was placed in my life at that moment. I took four or five books with me and the fact that I read two the couple of days leading up to it to go to Alaska and started it right when I got there; it was flawless timing that so many things lined up to it. I mean, I still would’ve had a great experience but I feel like that was something magical about the whole thing.
Q: I noticed in the beginning of chapters, your introductions usually foreshadowed the experiences that the chapter told. For example, the chapter about your grandmother suggesting you might meet someone foreshadowed the day you met “the girl with the tattoo.” Is there a specific reason for that?
A: Um, no not really. I kept a journal and so a lot of the placing was that because, like the conversation I had with my grandma, I was thinking about that on that day and within a couple of days I met “the girl with the tattoo.” It was structured in the way of how it happened.
Q: What theme would you say is carried throughout your novel?
A: There are so many things people can take from it. I think it would be that even the most mundane and exciting details of life can provide you with the necessary insight into living. There are so many good treasures of good wisdom and growth that you can find anywhere, and if you just expose yourself, you’ll find it.