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keepreadingbooks's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
So, this book. I loved it. Itâs best described as Migrations, but in the past and with trees (thatâs not an apt description at all, but itâs what Iâve got), and â for once â we see the environmental story through the eyes of the âbad guysâ, the loggers harvesting old-growth redwoods in 1970s California. I loved it much more than I did a book like The Overstory, which did the opposite and focused on the ones fighting to save what can be saved of our forests and should have been right up my alley, but it became mightily preachy for me, and thatâs not my thing. My thing is morally grey characters, a narrative emphasising the fact that the world is rarely, if ever, black and white. And thatâs what Damnation Spring does to absolute perfection. Was it conflicting rooting for a guy who plans to harvest a grove of ancient redwood trees? Yes. Did I simultaneously hope he would be able to do it, while also hoping he could make money some other way? Yes. But oh, isnât it marvellous how stories like this can broaden our minds and make us see things from a new perspective, forcing us to acknowledge the people on the other side?Â
Some have criticised the heavy use of logger lingo in this book. For me, though, it felt natural. Some things I didnât quite understand, but thatâs okay, the context did the job, and in my view it didnât hurt the story at all. On the contrary, it painted a pretty good picture of a community of people who live and breathe logging, who know every single detail of the job and of the environment they live in, because thatâs what theyâve been doing for generations, and thatâs whatâs keeping them alive. In all honesty, it would have felt unnatural if a book like this wasnât littered with logging slang.
Some have criticised the heavy use of logger lingo in this book. For me, though, it felt natural. Some things I didnât quite understand, but thatâs okay, the context did the job, and in my view it didnât hurt the story at all. On the contrary, it painted a pretty good picture of a community of people who live and breathe logging, who know every single detail of the job and of the environment they live in, because thatâs what theyâve been doing for generations, and thatâs whatâs keeping them alive. In all honesty, it would have felt unnatural if a book like this wasnât littered with logging slang.
Itâs a fairly slow book, especially the first 150 pages, but I love this kind of slow. The characterisation is excellent, the plot builds and develops intriguingly, itâs suspenseful, gritty, vivid, educational, timely, beautiful, heart-breaking all in one. Itâs a story of manâs havoc-wreaking ways, of greed and desire, of community, for better and worse, and not least of a family and its hardships.
Graphic: Violence, Car accident, and Miscarriage
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
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