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erin_paige 's review for:
The New Wilderness
by Diane Cook
Midway through reading this book I went on safari and my face got dirty and I got sun after weeks of feeling COVID cooped up. I highly recommend somehow getting outdoors, around trees, while reading this incredible book or your soul might feel empty at the end.
Parts of this remind me of previous Booker nominees in good ways:
The dystopian but believable “this-is-where-we-are-heading” of Lancaster’s The Wall
The connection with land and nature in Powers’ the Overstory.
The bleak day to day of wilderness survival with male egos in Moss’ Ghost Wall
The complexity of motherhood in Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive.
There’s something new here, while I complain a lot about complicated mother daughter relationships always topping awards lists (e.g. Everything Under, My Name is Lucy Barton, Bottled Goods - though I loved some of these!). Bea and Agnes have new complexities here. An animal survival and what protection of your young might actually mean.
I loved this book in the same way that I loved Overstory. It creates a longing for something we are losing but might also never have had. And some kind of distant hope that even though we might lose these things we need we will still value them. I don’t know why that’s hopeful, perhaps Cook just makes you cling to precious little, or at least appreciate the fact that we are all just animals, humans just happen to be pretty crappy ones.
Parts of this remind me of previous Booker nominees in good ways:
The dystopian but believable “this-is-where-we-are-heading” of Lancaster’s The Wall
The connection with land and nature in Powers’ the Overstory.
The bleak day to day of wilderness survival with male egos in Moss’ Ghost Wall
The complexity of motherhood in Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive.
There’s something new here, while I complain a lot about complicated mother daughter relationships always topping awards lists (e.g. Everything Under, My Name is Lucy Barton, Bottled Goods - though I loved some of these!). Bea and Agnes have new complexities here. An animal survival and what protection of your young might actually mean.
I loved this book in the same way that I loved Overstory. It creates a longing for something we are losing but might also never have had. And some kind of distant hope that even though we might lose these things we need we will still value them. I don’t know why that’s hopeful, perhaps Cook just makes you cling to precious little, or at least appreciate the fact that we are all just animals, humans just happen to be pretty crappy ones.