A review by eric_roling
Barkskins by Annie Proulx

4.0

A tremendous new work by Annie Proulx. Spanning multiple centuries, it tells the stories of two family lines that immigrate to North America together and work in the lumber trade. One family is Mi'kmaq and experiences racism and struggle but also exhibits great industriousness. The other founds a lumber empire and various generations build, squander, and rebuild that inheritance. Proulx does a good job of focusing on important figures in a generation and telling their story, then giving us a fast forward to the next important generational stage. Given this, there are a ton of characters, of which the important ones are well developed, and others are mere glimpses. Tracking familial relationships was a huge challenge, with a number of similar names or vague relations. There is a family tree in the back to help once you are done. Of course, the forest itself plays a huge role as a character in the study. Proulx lays it on quite heavy about the grievous damage that man did to the forests and nature, as well as how badly we abused Native Americans. Both are undeniably true, of course, and they weigh on the narrative. But the telling itself is superb, and this was a wonderful, if heartbreaking, journey across generations.