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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Two families, French Canada and Boston re: timber cutting, settlement, etc.
This is an astounding work of historical fiction spanning 300 years. Proulx is a master storyteller. I would have never thought a 720 page epic about Forestry would pique my interest, but Proulx's epic journey covers so much history that encompasses the settling of the New World, the ruin of and continued role of Indigenous peoples, the development of Industry, and so much more. All of it is told through captivating characters in two expansive family trees. The environment may be the most enduring character of all in Barkskins, and beautifully rendered by Proulx. It's an incredible book.
Beautiful. Devistating. You could call this a biography of the New World through the lens of forest and loggers.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I can't....go.....on....anymore.......
About 8 hours into the audiobook, and I am so over this. I do not care ONE BIT about ANY of the characters, and with a 25 hour long audiobook, I would like to be attached to ONE characheter, but alas.
I am not saying that Proulx isn't a great writer. SHE IS. That goes without saying. However, I truly believe that editors don't even EDIT "Great Writers" anymore. They just say, "Oh, Annie! You're writing another book and making us a ton of cash? Excellent. Just send us your galley; we'll print it as is."
The amount of research that had to go into this book is astounding, and truly amazing, but the problem is that it reads like an account of the history she found rather than a story. There is no plot, other than people come to the Americas. The End.
About 8 hours into the audiobook, and I am so over this. I do not care ONE BIT about ANY of the characters, and with a 25 hour long audiobook, I would like to be attached to ONE characheter, but alas.
I am not saying that Proulx isn't a great writer. SHE IS. That goes without saying. However, I truly believe that editors don't even EDIT "Great Writers" anymore. They just say, "Oh, Annie! You're writing another book and making us a ton of cash? Excellent. Just send us your galley; we'll print it as is."
The amount of research that had to go into this book is astounding, and truly amazing, but the problem is that it reads like an account of the history she found rather than a story. There is no plot, other than people come to the Americas. The End.
This book is as hard and moving as Overstory but longer and harder to endure. It’s about the timber industry and really about deforestation and Native disenfranchisement in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Maine, Boston, and eventually Michigan, and New Zealand, and the Pacific Northwest. As Proulx builds up the genealogical story over centuries, there are bleak chapters that read like Deuteronomy— A begat B begat C and terrible tree-related tragedies befell them all. In the midst of that, there’s an arc that’s largely depressing and educational about how we’ve absolutely consumed the natural resources around us since white folks laid hands on North America, and it’s incredible and disgusting and sad. And some folks persevered to try and conserve, and some just relentlessly kept making money. The American way. Don’t know if I’d really recommend it unless you’re ready to grieve forests for 700 pages.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
I wanted to like this book. No, I wanted to love this book. I’m a tree-hugging dirt-worshipping hippie with a strong love of both history and ecology. This sprawling tale of two families and their connection with the deforestation of North America should have been literary catnip for me. Yet it turned out to be a real slog. I think the main problem was that there were far too many characters, many of whom were introduced and discarded within the span of only four or five pages. At times, it felt like a genealogy chart in search of a plot. I mostly chose this one for a reading challenge (a book that you are prompted to read because of something you read in 2019), as one of the reviewers of Richard Powers’s Pulitzer-winning ecological tale of trees, [b:The Overstory|40180098|The Overstory|Richard Powers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562786502l/40180098._SY75_.jpg|57662223], said that [b:Barkskins|25111119|Barkskins|Annie Proulx|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1465732253l/25111119._SY75_.jpg|44804811] was the better book. I greatly preferred [b:The Overstory|40180098|The Overstory|Richard Powers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562786502l/40180098._SY75_.jpg|57662223], though the character of Neelay annoys the hell out of me.
I've decided I just don't want to spend my life reading this tome. I just don't care enough to continue. This and Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things.