Brian’s Return


Gary Paulsen’s book, Brian’s Return, is a sequel to the well-known book written by the same author, Hatchet. Brian’s Return takes place around the 1980’s in New York and then to the Northern Wilderness where he again fights to endure the harshness of nature.

Brian is an adolescent boy, approximately the age of 14 who lives in the wild city of New York. His number of friends is limited, but he’s renowned with all of the hunting magazines. Brian has done what few men have ever done before, survive. He has survived the unknown wilderness of the north with nothing more than a hatchet and the bare clothes on his back.
In Brian’s Return, he returns from the teeming city of New York to what he now considers home, the immense northern wilderness. He returns in hope of finding his answer of his true path in life. All throughout the book Brian, the main character, keeps teeming on past memories of himself and his connection with the wilderness. There are few times where there are diminutive notices of hazard but compared to The Hatchet and Brian’s Winter, this book seems really monotonous.
Brian’s Return is only a book for those who are die-hard Gary Paulsen and Brian fanatics. It’s very leisurely going and mostly relates to what Brian’s feelings are towards the Canadian north and his affections to nature. I did not enjoy this book as did myriad others.