2024 Book Review #48:North Woods

 

This is a new-to-me author, a Pulitzer Prize finalist whose writing is exquisite. 

STORY SUMMARY

There stands a little yellow house in a big woods.  It stands in the mountains of western Massachusetts near the New York State border and not far from Albany, NY. The house has evolved over time. It begins as a tiny shack.  In Pilgrim/Colonial days. Two young lovers leave from a Puritan colony. Little do they know that this little humble cabin in the woods will become the home of unusual and extraordinary humans and animals. 

The humans: an English solider who abandons the battlefield of the New World, and becomes a widower,  devotes himself to growing apples with his 2 little twin girls, Alice and Mary. 

Then....those spinster twins manage to make their way through war and famine, jealousy and desire.....and yet never really leave this cabin in the woods....even in death......

A crime reporter unearths a mass grave.....an ancient one...and discovers that the earth refuses to give up its secrets.

A painter, married to a woman but who loves a man..... a writer.........a sinister con man..

and the animals: a panther (aka Catamount), a beetle, butterflies and damsel flies. 

As all of these inhabitants of the little house in the woods face the  wonder and mystery of nature around them, they begin to realize that the dark, discordant and beautifully magic  past is very much alive. 

MY THOUGHTS

This book reads like a deep literary work of art. It's magical. The nature aspect appealed to me. There's drama, some humor, romance and lust, mystery, sadness, death, all within a framework of prose and poetry. There is art work interwoven before each chapter. 

It's extremely brilliant and thought provoking. It's a book about love   and hope but also of betrayal and death.  Each death in this book is not easy: there is death by an ax, heart attack, exposure to the elements, heartache, by a catamount (mountain lion) attack,  and gunshot. 

This book follows the cycles of history, language and nature. It shows how very connected we are to the environment, to history and to each other. 

In places, particularly the beetle scenes, the book slowed down for me.  What I loved about this book besides the descriptive dark cold winters of the Berkshires and the enduring apples/apple trees, was the fact that each chapter brought a different era and character into the house. Yet they're all connected in some way. I kept wanting to learn more about each character and it was fun to see who would appear next and what from the past would affect the new character. 

It poses the question of "how do we live on, even after we're gone?" 

The house's history is told through the lives of all of the characters and how they connect to one another...across the centuries....and how fate intervenes. 

I love the spiritual aspects in this book.  I found it endearing that a letter written by the kidnapped woman gets put in her Bible and makes its way to Canada and then back to the house in the Massachusetts woods. 

There were a few quotes that jumped out at me:

"History haunts him who does not honor it." (pg 39, North Woods by Daniel Mason, c. 2023)

"...the winter forest underwent a transformation.....a place of secrets and discoveries. As if the world were restored to what it was meant to be, a place much greater than herself." )pg 345)

"..and she has found that the only way to understand the world as something other than a tale of loss is to see it as a tale of change." (pg 368) 

 

This is a novel that will stick with you long after you turn the last page. It's the best book I've read all Autumn. 

It's a beautiful piece of literature. This should be on every college literature syllabus or advanced English classes in high school. We can learn alot from this book. 

If you like nature/God's creation and the historical timeline of North America, read this. It's about nature and succession and the ending leaves me melancholy. It's lingering in my mind and has left me feeling full. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older. 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.