North Woods by Daniel Mason
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Web ID: 17299839Brilliant.
A mystery? A love story? A hunting? A haunting? A history? With its foundation framed within one singular house, North Woods is all these things and so much more. Storytelling magnificence.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
The Variety of Human Story in Just One Place
NORTH WOODS is unlike any book I've ever read. But its distinctive approach to story, exceptional use of language, and thoughtful messages are not to be missed. It's on both The Washington Post and New York Times lists of Top Ten Books of 2023. Though it's not necessarily a book that will appeal to everyone. Looking at the novel from the ten thousand foot vantage point, it's about one plot of land in western Massachusetts and the assorted people who have lived there over centuries. In many ways, the book reads like a series of short stories (and poems). But the house, with its slow expansion and eventual decay, is not nearly as important as the lives of its residents. Because the message at the heart of the book is the richness inherent in EACH person’s life story and, perhaps more importantly, how much of that richness is lost over time. And this same richness of story is true in every location, everywhere. These are stories of love, betrayal, jealousy, and revenge. There are even references to connections that live on after death. Whether it's an apple tree farmer planting an orchard, an enslaved woman on the run, twin sisters reconnecting with a childhood friend, a son struggling with mental illness, or a little known artist and his evolving relationship with a writer -- each person's life in this one spot has a way of impacting those that follow. And that together they form a never-ending cycle of human connection that is built into the passage of time. Author Daniel Mason's skill with language is extraordinary. Both his poems and prose are full of beautifully crafted phrases that evoke detailed images of nature. And throughout the novel, he continually refers to the value of the natural world to all of us. This is a book that will likely make you think about larger themes. Like isolation, relationship, connection, even reality. This is my first experience with this author. But it certainly won't be my last.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Tales of Change
My favorite rendezvous with a book this year, I was completely unprepared for the affair. 400 years' worth of life for a plot of land– the people, the animals, the plants– completely separate stories told in a myriad of ways– and linking together in one solid symphony. There are books out there with loosely connected ties, and that can be nice… but nothing like this. The characters in this western Massachusetts woodland setting include Puritan lovers, Native Americans, a British apple orchard farmer, his two spinster daughters, a mountain lion, a slave hunter, a landscape artist ostracized for his lifestyle, two beetles engaged in hot and heavy love-making, a psychic commissioned to communicate with the ghosts of some of the previously mentioned tenants, a mother and her schizophrenic son, a true crimes reporter, and a postgraduate student there to study flowers. There is so much here– and my guess would have been too much– but Daniel Mason ties everything together beautifully. The voices of these characters, so different in tone and approach, are written so well that you shift with the points of view and trust the author’s touch. The separate pieces here all contribute to the mosaic. “…she has found that the only way to understand the world as something other than a tale of loss is to see it as a tale of change.” This is the tale of nature’s change, of America’s change. There are ghosts, reminders of their effect on the environment they inhabited. I have to enthusiastically swear by this odyssey. I followed it up by listening to the audio version on Spotify– very highly recommended, as well. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Great Novel
I loved this book about a house in the woods and all the various and interesting people who lived in the house. The story begins with runaway lovers from the early 1700’s to present day. Each family had a story. There’s ghosts, seances, mental health problems and a murder. The author even brought in a runaway slave. Fascinating. The book might not be for everyone but I loved it.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Lost
Totally lost in this book except for a few interesting pages, actually not sure what I'm reading about and can't waste anymore time trying to finish it. This is one I should have borrowed from the library.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
One of this year's great novels
North Woods is an epic novel that defies definition. It is a book of connected stories about a plot of land in North Massachusetts and all those who inhabit it, both big and small. This is a book about building up and tearing down: man builds, and nature destroys; nature builds, and man destroys. It is a book about people from generation to generation, some who leave this land, some who never do. And it is about the ghosts that remain. Mason characterizes the minute virus that kills the chestnut trees with the same depth of understanding that he details the characters in his book. And those characters all have strong personalities, some more menacing than others. Environmentalists will love this book, with its vivid descriptions of the flora and fauna. The author quite successfully uses different voices to tell these stories. He utilizes letters, diary entries, songs, true crime reporting (a la Raymond Chandler), and regular narratives effectively. As the novel progresses, the voices become more contemporary. I repeat, this book defies definition. It is one of the best I’ve read this year.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Good stuff
What an interesting book!! Rather than a person, this book tells the many tales of a house and the people who came and went (actually, stayed is the better word). Each chapter is written in another person’s voice, and you get to know their character mostly by how they narrate. I particularly enjoyed that detail. From the natives to the twins to the English Lit professor to the thirty-something, you roll through all the iterations of this humble (and then not so humble and back again) house. It’s just very well done. A very interesting and creative idea and the writing style was quite readable.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
The stories of many lives, connected by place
The stories of many lives, connected by a small cabin in the woods. At the beginning of North Woods, the reader meets two young people who are in love and have run away from the Puritan colony where they lived. They make a life in a small, isolated cabin in the woods of Western Massachusetts. Years pass, and others (not all of them human) stumble upon the cabin and use it as perhaps as a refuge, or a place to start a new life. With language appropriate to the times in each which character lives, and the connection to the natural world in all its beauty as well as the ties to those who have come before, this is a well-crafted tale with fully developed characters, with joy and tragedy, beauty and ugliness. I found that I enjoyed it best by reading bits at a time, sipping rather than gulping, but others may prefer to fully immerse themselves in the saga. I enjoyed the beautiful use of language, and meeting such a mixed bag of quirky, not always likeable but assuredly interesting characters. The pace is not swift, and in many ways it is like a series of short stories with a central point of intersect. Readers of authors like Elizabeth Strout and William Trevor might want to give this book a try, Many thanks to NetGalley and Random. House Publishing Group for allowing me access to this novel full of passion and life.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com