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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
4.0
Set in the logging towns of Northern California in the late 1970's, this first novel is one of those books where you have to slog through a good quarter of the book until that magic moment when it takes off. Logging is a brutal and complex business and we hear way too much about it, engulfing the narrative like one of those mudflows that will later roll down hillsides. But then, the story takes off, the characters come alive and we are deep into this tale.
Environmentalists (always referred to by locals as "hippies") are all over town, protesting logging of old growth redwoods. The locals don't like this at all--logging is all there is and all they know. The logging company is the one that gives them a clinic and a dentist, baby gifts, and family fish fries. These hippies are also looking at the water and whether pesticide spraying has poisoned the spring water. Colleen is a logging wife who helps deliver babies when women can't--or won't get to the clinic. She's seen too many miscarriages and serious birth defects recently, and one of the researchers is an old boyfriend from high school. She's happily married with a five year old, but has had eight miscarriages since Chub was born.
Once the story gets out of the woods, Ash Davidson describes strong, complex, believable families, a strong community threatened by what's to come, their fear, anger and frustration as their logging lands become a state park.
Stick with "Damnation Spring" through that first quarter and it will pay off. Ash Davidson is an author to watch and I look forward to her next novel.
Environmentalists (always referred to by locals as "hippies") are all over town, protesting logging of old growth redwoods. The locals don't like this at all--logging is all there is and all they know. The logging company is the one that gives them a clinic and a dentist, baby gifts, and family fish fries. These hippies are also looking at the water and whether pesticide spraying has poisoned the spring water. Colleen is a logging wife who helps deliver babies when women can't--or won't get to the clinic. She's seen too many miscarriages and serious birth defects recently, and one of the researchers is an old boyfriend from high school. She's happily married with a five year old, but has had eight miscarriages since Chub was born.
Once the story gets out of the woods, Ash Davidson describes strong, complex, believable families, a strong community threatened by what's to come, their fear, anger and frustration as their logging lands become a state park.
Stick with "Damnation Spring" through that first quarter and it will pay off. Ash Davidson is an author to watch and I look forward to her next novel.