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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Incredible book about the history of the forestry industry in the Canadian Maritimes and New England, along with the history of the people, including the immigrant Europeans and the First Nation people and how they were treated. I read this just after Braiding Sweetgrass, and between the two I have a much fuller appreciation for the critical role of old growth trees and forests to our environment and survival. I loved the generational stories about the two main families, but had to consult the family trees in the back pages countless times to keep everyone straight - that was a challenge.
How we destroyed the forest and the Earth and the people who originally lived in them.
there was so much potential. unfortunately I felt given all the detail in the first two thirds it would conure to the end. it's as if the author was tired off the topic. Also one the most "do not ever ever" set of a corporate archives.
For a change, a book described as epic that is, in fact, epic. At first I grew frustrated by the repetition of the idea that is at the root of the novel and comes up repeatedly: colonists arrive in a new-to-them land, believe the resources to be infinite, wreck everything. As I moved through time with the novel, though, I realized that this very repetition is vital because we (at least we Americans) have not paid attention. Even still so many believe our resources are infinite, and isn't that why we're in the environmental pickle we're now in? Proulx's writing is gorgeous, as expected, never more so than when she's describing the forests. I fell in love with each forest, only to have to bear witness to its destruction and the meager efforts to counter that destruction.
an epic story of diverse and extensive forests and First Nations Peoples greatly reduced in biological richness and cultural integrity by ignorance, greed, and willful blindness of European colonizers. I was disappointed but not surprised that the connection between the Duquet/Duke and Sel family trees died in a lawyer's office. The novel ends with the presence of human-induced climate change and the hope that trees/forests can save us if we plant/restore them. Proulx's descriptions of aerial, terrestrial and aquatic landscapes and lives are incredibly evocative.
If super dense, long, textbook rambling historical fiction is your thing, this book is perfect for you..
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’ve started and stopped this book twice. Made it about a quarter of the way through this brick but I just can’t get any further.
At a couple of hundred pages in, I was wondering why this wonderful novel hadn't apparently been shortlisted for any major prizes. By the time I'd finished it I could kind of see why though.
It's a massive 700-page epic in which the main character is the North American forest, as seen, loved, and/or exploited by humans from the 17th century to the present. Each section, ten in all, can almost be read as a separate novel, as they alternate between the Duquet and Sel families over the centuries. Charles Duquet and René Sel start out in the same boat (literally) as immigrants from France, but their lives take different paths, with the rapacious Duquet starting a family-run empire in the timber industry, while Sel is more or less forcibly married to the discarded Miqmaq mistress of his boss and starts a line of métis, most of whom find work, and often death, low down in the timber industry (the most dangerous jobs are given to expendable Indians). There are many ghastly and/or freakish deaths here.
Over and over again, the exploiters of the forest describe it as "endless" and "eternal". Of course, we now know it isn't, and Proulx repeatedly drives home the point, too heavy-handedly at times. A parallel thread is the alienation of the remnants of the native population from their land and culture, epitomised by the fate of the Sel family. The chapters running up to the mid-19th century are wonderful, with plenty of entertaining and/or frightening incidents and rich characters. But I started to get a bit bored in the part featuring Lavinia, who despite her pioneering achievements as a businesswoman is neither interesting nor likeable, and the 20th century is treated in a rush, finishing with a last couple of chapters of lecture-like exposition and barely sketched characters. A shame, because the ideas and the research that Proulx develops and the beautiful descriptive writing throughout the book are stupendous. She's getting four stars, all earned by the first half.
It's a massive 700-page epic in which the main character is the North American forest, as seen, loved, and/or exploited by humans from the 17th century to the present. Each section, ten in all, can almost be read as a separate novel, as they alternate between the Duquet and Sel families over the centuries. Charles Duquet and René Sel start out in the same boat (literally) as immigrants from France, but their lives take different paths, with the rapacious Duquet starting a family-run empire in the timber industry, while Sel is more or less forcibly married to the discarded Miqmaq mistress of his boss and starts a line of métis, most of whom find work, and often death, low down in the timber industry (the most dangerous jobs are given to expendable Indians). There are many ghastly and/or freakish deaths here.
Over and over again, the exploiters of the forest describe it as "endless" and "eternal". Of course, we now know it isn't, and Proulx repeatedly drives home the point, too heavy-handedly at times. A parallel thread is the alienation of the remnants of the native population from their land and culture, epitomised by the fate of the Sel family. The chapters running up to the mid-19th century are wonderful, with plenty of entertaining and/or frightening incidents and rich characters. But I started to get a bit bored in the part featuring Lavinia, who despite her pioneering achievements as a businesswoman is neither interesting nor likeable, and the 20th century is treated in a rush, finishing with a last couple of chapters of lecture-like exposition and barely sketched characters. A shame, because the ideas and the research that Proulx develops and the beautiful descriptive writing throughout the book are stupendous. She's getting four stars, all earned by the first half.