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jbarr5's review against another edition
5.0
A fugitive in Walden Woods by Lock_ Norman
Really enjoyed this book about the Negro who wanders onto Walden woods and especially like the disucssions of th gardening.
Love how he helps others who in turn are famous and they help him also. Love hearing of the area, locale, nature all around as we've been there before.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Really enjoyed this book about the Negro who wanders onto Walden woods and especially like the disucssions of th gardening.
Love how he helps others who in turn are famous and they help him also. Love hearing of the area, locale, nature all around as we've been there before.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
ben_miller's review against another edition
4.0
Full review here: http://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/a-fugitive-in-walden-woods/
When asked for his motto in a 2016 interview, Norman Lock answered: “One must write as if a book really could change the world.” It’s no wonder, then, that he’s attracted to American writers of the nineteenth century—notables like Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. After all, they wrote books that really did change the world.
Lock’s new novel, A Fugitive in Walden Woods, is the fourth in a loose series grappling with those early American literati who can, in some ways, be credited with inventing the nation’s idea of itself: Twain’s sophisticated folksiness became the quintessential American voice, Poe’s gothic tales mined the dark veins of our national psyche, and Whitman’s exuberant poetry tried to give us our own Homeric epic.
In A Fugitive in Walden Woods, Lock turns his gaze to the New England trio of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who framed America’s troubled, contradictory relationship with nature and authority. Ventriloquizing historical figures is always tricky, but Lock does it with just the right mix of reverence, humanity, and skepticism. The story, unfolding across five seasons from 1845 to 1846, is rich with illuminating incidents and lovely meditative passages, bathing its subjects in a light that is more revealing than worshipful.
But the novel’s boldest (and most dangerous) choice is to present itself as a memoir by Samuel Long, an entirely fictional escaped slave who has fled to Massachusetts via the Underground Railroad. Writing nearly twenty years later in the early days of the Civil War, Samuel looks back on his time at Walden under Emerson’s patronage.
The rest of this review appears online at the Colorado Review: http://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/a-fugitive-in-walden-woods/
When asked for his motto in a 2016 interview, Norman Lock answered: “One must write as if a book really could change the world.” It’s no wonder, then, that he’s attracted to American writers of the nineteenth century—notables like Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. After all, they wrote books that really did change the world.
Lock’s new novel, A Fugitive in Walden Woods, is the fourth in a loose series grappling with those early American literati who can, in some ways, be credited with inventing the nation’s idea of itself: Twain’s sophisticated folksiness became the quintessential American voice, Poe’s gothic tales mined the dark veins of our national psyche, and Whitman’s exuberant poetry tried to give us our own Homeric epic.
In A Fugitive in Walden Woods, Lock turns his gaze to the New England trio of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who framed America’s troubled, contradictory relationship with nature and authority. Ventriloquizing historical figures is always tricky, but Lock does it with just the right mix of reverence, humanity, and skepticism. The story, unfolding across five seasons from 1845 to 1846, is rich with illuminating incidents and lovely meditative passages, bathing its subjects in a light that is more revealing than worshipful.
But the novel’s boldest (and most dangerous) choice is to present itself as a memoir by Samuel Long, an entirely fictional escaped slave who has fled to Massachusetts via the Underground Railroad. Writing nearly twenty years later in the early days of the Civil War, Samuel looks back on his time at Walden under Emerson’s patronage.
The rest of this review appears online at the Colorado Review: http://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/a-fugitive-in-walden-woods/
lauralhart's review against another edition
4.0
In Norman Lock's novel, A Fugitive in Walden Woods, Samuel Long is in danger. He has escaped from his "master" and has ridden the Underground Railroad all the way to Massachusetts, where he becomes the preferred company of men like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lock's novel attempts to wrestle with the ideas of transcendentalism, "human dignity", "racism, privilege, and what it means to be free in America." And it mostly succeeds.
Lock's narrative borrows generously from the slave narrative tradition, employing themes such as confinement with the intention of gaining freedom (see Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs). However, the story is told not with the intentions of disclosing Samuel's journey, but rather with the intentions of disclosing the nature of Henry Thoreau, a man who Samuel considers to be a good friend. This provides an interesting angle and allows for the discussion of transcendental ideas but often overshadows the gravity and severity of Samuel's suffering. I wondered a lot while reading about the intentions and sincerity of the author because of this, putting the life of a white man in focus rather than the black man's. Everything is mediated through Samuel's voice, though, so maybe my concerns aren't valid.
There were several poignant moments in the book, but I'm unsure about the meaning of their sum. The novel did not follow conventional narrative structure, seeing as there was an absence of rising action, and the climax and resolution occurred in the last five pages. I'm not sure why the end of the novel was written the way it was, with an italicized "I originally thought I'd stop here" section and a disclaimer from "Walt Whitman." Perhaps it was to set off the conclusion as significant, but, with me, it fell flat.
Overall a decent read, but not my favorite. Perhaps it's that I don't really enjoy fictional extrapolation of real life people. Regardless, I'm grateful to LibraryThing and to Bellevue Press for allowing me to take part in this review.
Lock's narrative borrows generously from the slave narrative tradition, employing themes such as confinement with the intention of gaining freedom (see Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs). However, the story is told not with the intentions of disclosing Samuel's journey, but rather with the intentions of disclosing the nature of Henry Thoreau, a man who Samuel considers to be a good friend. This provides an interesting angle and allows for the discussion of transcendental ideas but often overshadows the gravity and severity of Samuel's suffering. I wondered a lot while reading about the intentions and sincerity of the author because of this, putting the life of a white man in focus rather than the black man's. Everything is mediated through Samuel's voice, though, so maybe my concerns aren't valid.
There were several poignant moments in the book, but I'm unsure about the meaning of their sum. The novel did not follow conventional narrative structure, seeing as there was an absence of rising action, and the climax and resolution occurred in the last five pages. I'm not sure why the end of the novel was written the way it was, with an italicized "I originally thought I'd stop here" section and a disclaimer from "Walt Whitman." Perhaps it was to set off the conclusion as significant, but, with me, it fell flat.
Overall a decent read, but not my favorite. Perhaps it's that I don't really enjoy fictional extrapolation of real life people. Regardless, I'm grateful to LibraryThing and to Bellevue Press for allowing me to take part in this review.
samhouston's review
3.0
Norman Lock is no stranger to historical fiction and A Fugitive in Walden Woods is, in fact, his fourth in what the author calls his “The American Novels” series. The first three books in the series are: The Boy in His Winter (based upon Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn); American Meteor (an “homage” to Walt Whitman and William Henry Jackson); and The Port-Wine Stain (the author’s tribute to Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mütter). Lock uses each of the books in the series to remind the reader that the greats of the past he writes about were human beings just like the rest of us, people who struggled with their own weaknesses and circumstances just as mightily as we all do in this more modern world. Doing so reminds readers just how special were the accomplishments of Lock’s central characters, and will likely lead to a renewed and even greater appreciation of their work and lives.
A Fugitive in Walden Woods features a handful of American transcendentalists in the mid-1840s, men like Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William Lloyd Garrison. Among these greats of their time, the author inserts a runaway slave from the South, one Samuel Long, a man so desperate for freedom that he is willing to chop off his own hand rather than to remain shackled to the fence post to which he is bound. Lucky enough to stumble into the hands of the Underground Railroad, Long eventually lands in Massachusetts where he is placed into the care and protection of Emerson.
With Emerson’s help, Samuel Long is installed in a shack in Walden Woods, a relatively remote location that Emerson and his friends hope will keep Long safe from the “man-hunters” who have made a brutal art of returning runaways to their owners in the slave states. As luck would have it, Long’s nearest neighbor is none other than Henry David Thoreau who is living alone in Walden Woods as he prepares the journal that will soon enough become Walden, Thoreau’s much-studied classic account of that experience.
A Fugitive in Walden Woods primarily focuses on the relationship between Long and Thoreau. Understandably, Long is slow to trust the motives and hidden thoughts of white men, but almost despite himself, the slave develops an admiration for the almost innocent honesty with which Thoreau expresses himself and presents himself to those he encounters along the way. Thoreau, on his part, admires the strength and courage he sees in Samuel Long and treats the man as his equal, nothing more and nothing less. As the relationship between the two men develops over the months, Thoreau’s time in Walden Woods comes to life for the reader just as Samuel Long himself comes-of-age in his own new world.
The real beauty of books like A Fugitive in Walden Woods can be best expressed in a quote Samuel Long recalls in conversation with Emerson or Hawthorne – he is not entirely sure which it actually was: “Reading is our recompense for having only one life to live.” Norman Lock has given his readers the chance to live a different life than the one they know best.
A Fugitive in Walden Woods features a handful of American transcendentalists in the mid-1840s, men like Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William Lloyd Garrison. Among these greats of their time, the author inserts a runaway slave from the South, one Samuel Long, a man so desperate for freedom that he is willing to chop off his own hand rather than to remain shackled to the fence post to which he is bound. Lucky enough to stumble into the hands of the Underground Railroad, Long eventually lands in Massachusetts where he is placed into the care and protection of Emerson.
With Emerson’s help, Samuel Long is installed in a shack in Walden Woods, a relatively remote location that Emerson and his friends hope will keep Long safe from the “man-hunters” who have made a brutal art of returning runaways to their owners in the slave states. As luck would have it, Long’s nearest neighbor is none other than Henry David Thoreau who is living alone in Walden Woods as he prepares the journal that will soon enough become Walden, Thoreau’s much-studied classic account of that experience.
A Fugitive in Walden Woods primarily focuses on the relationship between Long and Thoreau. Understandably, Long is slow to trust the motives and hidden thoughts of white men, but almost despite himself, the slave develops an admiration for the almost innocent honesty with which Thoreau expresses himself and presents himself to those he encounters along the way. Thoreau, on his part, admires the strength and courage he sees in Samuel Long and treats the man as his equal, nothing more and nothing less. As the relationship between the two men develops over the months, Thoreau’s time in Walden Woods comes to life for the reader just as Samuel Long himself comes-of-age in his own new world.
The real beauty of books like A Fugitive in Walden Woods can be best expressed in a quote Samuel Long recalls in conversation with Emerson or Hawthorne – he is not entirely sure which it actually was: “Reading is our recompense for having only one life to live.” Norman Lock has given his readers the chance to live a different life than the one they know best.
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