juliana_aldous's review against another edition
5.0
My father's family worked in the logging industry so this North American story of immigrants, natives and logging feels close. I absolutely loved this book. I'll never look at the American landscape and the environment we're creating the same way again.
stitchykitch's review against another edition
4.0
If I could, I would give this book two separate ratings: 5 stars for a masterful piece of writing, and 4 stars for my reading experience.
There is no disputing the fact that Annie Proulx is a brilliant author. Barkskins is woven together in a beautiful, seamless way. The novel follows two families through the age of colonization up through present-day. Proulx manages to switch from story-line to story-line without jarring the reader. While the families are important to the story, the forest really plays the leading role.
My experience reading this book earned 4 stars. I took this book home back in June when it first came out, and savored every word of the first two stories. I didn’t finish at that point, and was excited when my book group chose to read it for December and January. This time, I committed to 100 pages a night to make sure that I would be able to finish. I reread the beginning stories so I could experience the novel as a whole, and once again, loved the descriptive prose. For the fast half of the book, I actually scribbled major events into a notebook, and then loosened up a little for the latter half.
Overall, it made me think a lot about early colonists and their desire to conquer the forest. It was reading Barkskins that led me to really think about how colonists justified taking land from the Native American people. There were many times reading that I was in shock at the colonists violence toward the Mi’qmak people. I am really glad that I will get a chance to discuss this book with other readers, because I think there are a lot of conversations that are waiting to happen.
There is no disputing the fact that Annie Proulx is a brilliant author. Barkskins is woven together in a beautiful, seamless way. The novel follows two families through the age of colonization up through present-day. Proulx manages to switch from story-line to story-line without jarring the reader. While the families are important to the story, the forest really plays the leading role.
My experience reading this book earned 4 stars. I took this book home back in June when it first came out, and savored every word of the first two stories. I didn’t finish at that point, and was excited when my book group chose to read it for December and January. This time, I committed to 100 pages a night to make sure that I would be able to finish. I reread the beginning stories so I could experience the novel as a whole, and once again, loved the descriptive prose. For the fast half of the book, I actually scribbled major events into a notebook, and then loosened up a little for the latter half.
Overall, it made me think a lot about early colonists and their desire to conquer the forest. It was reading Barkskins that led me to really think about how colonists justified taking land from the Native American people. There were many times reading that I was in shock at the colonists violence toward the Mi’qmak people. I am really glad that I will get a chance to discuss this book with other readers, because I think there are a lot of conversations that are waiting to happen.
bookishwendy's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this one up on audio, on a whim--apparently I hadn't yet had my fill of "dudes stumbling around in the North American woods" after finishing [b:Mason & Dixon|413|Mason & Dixon|Thomas Pynchon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386925333l/413._SY75_.jpg|1935] (I know, I know)--but after Pynchon, this equally hefty book-monster read like a breeze. I also happened to read Barkskins concurrently with [b:Homegoing|27071490|Homegoing|Yaa Gyasi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448108591l/27071490._SY75_.jpg|47113792], a book which coincidentally also follows two different yet intertwined families over multiple centuries. What made Barkskins stand out to me were the rich layers of historical detail and sensory descriptions, and also the moments of unexpected humor. A certain infamous wig, which literally *pops up* again for a reprise when least expected, felt like Pynchon had gotten his hands briefly on Proulx's keyboard. Reader, I laughed.
Not that this book isn't rife with horrific and highly dramatic deaths of all kinds, to include the long and painful demise of the North American forest. While loggers were surveying ancient untouched pine forests, and causing deforestation mudslides, and crushing their own limbs, and setting deadly fires, I kept thinking back to the poetic opening chapter with the indentured French logger René Sel experiencing the virgin Canadian forest for the first time...and I'm struck with profound sadness over all of nature that has been lost to us forever.
There were plenty of memorable characters especially in the first 3/4 of the book, as the viewpoint switched back and forth between the descendents of two French loggers, one who founds a logging company, and the other who marries a local Miꞌkmaw woman, and whose children return to her people. However, I found the generations featured in the last bit set after the 1950s somewhat less memorable. Also, this is the point where the book gets up on its soapbox. Having suffered through 300 years of "showing" already, the telling at this point struck me as too on the nose.
This book gave me a hell of a hangover. I might actually have had my fill of the "dudes stumbling about in the woods" genre. For now.
Not that this book isn't rife with horrific and highly dramatic deaths of all kinds, to include the long and painful demise of the North American forest. While loggers were surveying ancient untouched pine forests, and causing deforestation mudslides, and crushing their own limbs, and setting deadly fires, I kept thinking back to the poetic opening chapter with the indentured French logger René Sel experiencing the virgin Canadian forest for the first time...and I'm struck with profound sadness over all of nature that has been lost to us forever.
There were plenty of memorable characters especially in the first 3/4 of the book, as the viewpoint switched back and forth between the descendents of two French loggers, one who founds a logging company, and the other who marries a local Miꞌkmaw woman, and whose children return to her people. However, I found the generations featured in the last bit set after the 1950s somewhat less memorable. Also, this is the point where the book gets up on its soapbox. Having suffered through 300 years of "showing" already, the telling at this point struck me as too on the nose.
This book gave me a hell of a hangover. I might actually have had my fill of the "dudes stumbling about in the woods" genre. For now.
docpacey's review against another edition
2.0
The best Annie Proulx has lively characters, quirky individuals who jump off of the page and enliven her prodigious storytelling skills with memorable lines and unforgettable scenes.
A hundred or so pages into Barkskins and i have found nothing of this Annie Proulx. I was so ready for this book. i love her work, and had just finished [b:Fathers and Crows|45679|Fathers and Crows|William T. Vollmann|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1388293921s/45679.jpg|382631], which covers the time period just before Barkskins begins. I hate to compare writers, but 700 pages of Vollman flew by quicker than a hundred pages of this book, and that's saying something.
A hundred or so pages into Barkskins and i have found nothing of this Annie Proulx. I was so ready for this book. i love her work, and had just finished [b:Fathers and Crows|45679|Fathers and Crows|William T. Vollmann|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1388293921s/45679.jpg|382631], which covers the time period just before Barkskins begins. I hate to compare writers, but 700 pages of Vollman flew by quicker than a hundred pages of this book, and that's saying something.
lindasdarby's review against another edition
1.0
I can't do it. I have tried but this book is not for me.
orygunn's review against another edition
3.0
Ugh. I hate books that just stop. It was an interesting and well researched story of the Nova Scotia region. The last 100 pages just felt a bit lost.
ianmcnamara's review against another edition
3.0
I struggled to get into this book however the way the audio book was narrated caused me to give this a higher rating than i would have. I found this a hard book to connect with.
trentthompson's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Truly epic. This is easily one of the best books I have ever read.
At its core, Barkskins is a meditation on the relationship between humans and nature; it is an exploration of environmentalism, capitalism, colonialism, and identity. Through the stories of Charles and Rene and their descendants over 300 years, Proulx shows how humans have transformed the natural world for their own purposes, with tragic results.
Despite its weighty themes, Barkskins is a beautiful novel in both form and content. Proulx writes such vivid descriptions of the natural (and unnatural) world and her characters are complex and nuanced, reflecting the complexity of the world around them.
I’m sure I will be reading this one again soon!
———
A few quotes that I liked:
“In every life there are events that reshape one’s sense of existence. Afterward, all is different and the past is dimmed” (p. 49).
“Americans have no sense of years beyond three—last year, this year, and next year” (p. 553).
“One must have faith in the power of a seed… We plant them knowing we will never see them when they are grown” (p. 583).
“Nothing in the natural world, no forest, no river, no insect nor leaf has any intrinsic value to men. All is worthless, utterly dispensable unless we discover some benefit to ourselves in it—even the most ardent forest lover thinks this way. Men behave as overlords. They decide what will flourish and what will die. I believe that humankind is evolving into a terrible new species and I am sorry that I am one of them” (p. 658).
At its core, Barkskins is a meditation on the relationship between humans and nature; it is an exploration of environmentalism, capitalism, colonialism, and identity. Through the stories of Charles and Rene and their descendants over 300 years, Proulx shows how humans have transformed the natural world for their own purposes, with tragic results.
Despite its weighty themes, Barkskins is a beautiful novel in both form and content. Proulx writes such vivid descriptions of the natural (and unnatural) world and her characters are complex and nuanced, reflecting the complexity of the world around them.
I’m sure I will be reading this one again soon!
———
A few quotes that I liked:
“In every life there are events that reshape one’s sense of existence. Afterward, all is different and the past is dimmed” (p. 49).
“Americans have no sense of years beyond three—last year, this year, and next year” (p. 553).
“One must have faith in the power of a seed… We plant them knowing we will never see them when they are grown” (p. 583).
“Nothing in the natural world, no forest, no river, no insect nor leaf has any intrinsic value to men. All is worthless, utterly dispensable unless we discover some benefit to ourselves in it—even the most ardent forest lover thinks this way. Men behave as overlords. They decide what will flourish and what will die. I believe that humankind is evolving into a terrible new species and I am sorry that I am one of them” (p. 658).
jyunker's review against another edition
5.0
Barkskins tells the intertwined and intergenerational stories of the natives and immigrants of the North American territory once known as New France.
Because this novel takes place over more than 300 years, there are quite a few stories to tell; I found myself frequently consulting the two lengthy family trees in the appendix to keep track of the many characters that come and go.
But the primary (and most tragic) character of this novel is one with no dialogue at all.
As Annie Proulx noted in a recent interview with The New Yorker:
For me, the chief character in the long story was the forest, the great now-lost forest(s) of the world. The characters, as interesting as they were to develop, were there to carry the story of how we have cut and destroyed the wooden world. There was the real tragedy, and there was no way to make it seriocomic. But rather than calling it an environmental novel I think of it more in the sense of a writerly nod to human interplay with climate change, what some in the humanities and arts are beginning to think of as a cultural response to the environmental changes we have inherited in the so-called Anthropocene.
For early European settlers, the trees were a gold rush with no end. The patriarch of one family tree, Charles Duquet, devotes his life to harvesting as much of this gold as he can. And in a pivotal scene he sheds light on the rage that fueled his rise from poverty to timber baron:
Inside Duquet something like a tightly close pinecone licked by fire opened abruptly and he exploded with insensate and uncontrolled fury, a life’s pent-up rage. “No one helped me!” he shrieked. “I did everything myself! I endured! I contended with powerful men. I suffered in the wilderness. I accepted the risk I might die! No one helped me!”
Ultimately, there would be too many Duquets arriving in search of unlimited trees and land; natives suffered this violent and slow-moving disaster firsthand. As a Mi’kmaw elder observed:
“We are sharing our land with the Wenuj and they take more and more. You see how their beasts destroy our food, how their boats and nets take our fish. They bring plants that vanquish our plants. Most do not mean to hurt us, but they are many and we are few. I believe they will become as a great wave sweeping over us.”
Proulx, like Cormac Mcarthy, has a dark sense of humor that expresses itself through the bizarre and unpredictable ways many of the characters meet their demise. I sometimes felt like I was watching Game of Thrones in the sense that just as I become attached to a character he or she would be quickly expired.
In a work of this scale, it’s not surprising that some characters and scenes feel rush or underdeveloped. Proulx was forced to cut a good 150 pages out of the book, which could be a reason why some chapters feel this way. I would have gladly read another 200 pages.
I’m in awe of how Proulx balanced documentary like detail with a plot that takes readers not only across time but halfway around the world. It’s easy to attach “epic” to any novel that weighs in at more than 700 pages, but when I say this novel is epic, I’m talking about what Proulx set out to accomplish, and ultimately did accomplish. Where Sometimes a Great Notion is a testament to the forests along the coast range of Oregon, Barkskins is a testament to all forests.
Despite the overarching sadness of seeing so much beauty and innocence wiped away, there is hope. And it is the young who offer it up. Like the son of a compromised logger, Charley, who asks one day:
“Father, how do you feel about this logging enterprise? Better and better?”
“I give it my support, as we start replanting a year after they get out the cut. It is a balanced process.”
“I can’t image what you think will replace two-thousand-yer-old redwoods–Scotch pine seedlings? And what of the diversity of the soil? Erosion? All those qualities you once cared about? Are you cutting old-growth fir and cedar and planting pine? You mentioned Oregon and Washington.”
Living near the redwoods, where only 5% of these majestic trees remain from a forest that once stretched a thousand miles along the Pacific coast, we came all too close to losing it all.
Proulx dedicates this novel to “barkskins of all kinds” which includes not only those who fell trees for profit, but those who study them and those (we meet near the end of the novel) who devote their lives to protecting the trees we have left.
With each chapter, each passing generation, this book gains a presence that you don’t fully appreciate until you are near the end. At least I didn’t. As I approached the end, chronologically the present, I felt the weight of all that was lost. But I also felt a growing sense of optimism for what people are doing today to save what is still here and to regrow what is lost.
NOTE: This review first appeared on http://www.ecolitbooks.com
Because this novel takes place over more than 300 years, there are quite a few stories to tell; I found myself frequently consulting the two lengthy family trees in the appendix to keep track of the many characters that come and go.
But the primary (and most tragic) character of this novel is one with no dialogue at all.
As Annie Proulx noted in a recent interview with The New Yorker:
For me, the chief character in the long story was the forest, the great now-lost forest(s) of the world. The characters, as interesting as they were to develop, were there to carry the story of how we have cut and destroyed the wooden world. There was the real tragedy, and there was no way to make it seriocomic. But rather than calling it an environmental novel I think of it more in the sense of a writerly nod to human interplay with climate change, what some in the humanities and arts are beginning to think of as a cultural response to the environmental changes we have inherited in the so-called Anthropocene.
For early European settlers, the trees were a gold rush with no end. The patriarch of one family tree, Charles Duquet, devotes his life to harvesting as much of this gold as he can. And in a pivotal scene he sheds light on the rage that fueled his rise from poverty to timber baron:
Inside Duquet something like a tightly close pinecone licked by fire opened abruptly and he exploded with insensate and uncontrolled fury, a life’s pent-up rage. “No one helped me!” he shrieked. “I did everything myself! I endured! I contended with powerful men. I suffered in the wilderness. I accepted the risk I might die! No one helped me!”
Ultimately, there would be too many Duquets arriving in search of unlimited trees and land; natives suffered this violent and slow-moving disaster firsthand. As a Mi’kmaw elder observed:
“We are sharing our land with the Wenuj and they take more and more. You see how their beasts destroy our food, how their boats and nets take our fish. They bring plants that vanquish our plants. Most do not mean to hurt us, but they are many and we are few. I believe they will become as a great wave sweeping over us.”
Proulx, like Cormac Mcarthy, has a dark sense of humor that expresses itself through the bizarre and unpredictable ways many of the characters meet their demise. I sometimes felt like I was watching Game of Thrones in the sense that just as I become attached to a character he or she would be quickly expired.
In a work of this scale, it’s not surprising that some characters and scenes feel rush or underdeveloped. Proulx was forced to cut a good 150 pages out of the book, which could be a reason why some chapters feel this way. I would have gladly read another 200 pages.
I’m in awe of how Proulx balanced documentary like detail with a plot that takes readers not only across time but halfway around the world. It’s easy to attach “epic” to any novel that weighs in at more than 700 pages, but when I say this novel is epic, I’m talking about what Proulx set out to accomplish, and ultimately did accomplish. Where Sometimes a Great Notion is a testament to the forests along the coast range of Oregon, Barkskins is a testament to all forests.
Despite the overarching sadness of seeing so much beauty and innocence wiped away, there is hope. And it is the young who offer it up. Like the son of a compromised logger, Charley, who asks one day:
“Father, how do you feel about this logging enterprise? Better and better?”
“I give it my support, as we start replanting a year after they get out the cut. It is a balanced process.”
“I can’t image what you think will replace two-thousand-yer-old redwoods–Scotch pine seedlings? And what of the diversity of the soil? Erosion? All those qualities you once cared about? Are you cutting old-growth fir and cedar and planting pine? You mentioned Oregon and Washington.”
Living near the redwoods, where only 5% of these majestic trees remain from a forest that once stretched a thousand miles along the Pacific coast, we came all too close to losing it all.
Proulx dedicates this novel to “barkskins of all kinds” which includes not only those who fell trees for profit, but those who study them and those (we meet near the end of the novel) who devote their lives to protecting the trees we have left.
With each chapter, each passing generation, this book gains a presence that you don’t fully appreciate until you are near the end. At least I didn’t. As I approached the end, chronologically the present, I felt the weight of all that was lost. But I also felt a growing sense of optimism for what people are doing today to save what is still here and to regrow what is lost.
NOTE: This review first appeared on http://www.ecolitbooks.com
xystophi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0