Mythical Woods

After reading the book, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, I started recommending it a lot and thus started looking for read alikes. I found Touch by Alexi Zentner. Both have similar qualities. They take place in Alaska (Snow Child) and British Columbia (Touch), which are neighbors and share harsh climates, deep woods, and difficult living. Both stories are in the genre of magical realism, a genre characterized by its use of reality or real life situations with a few mystical elements. Everyday life is the same, but there is one thing that is magical or different whether it’s a character’s ability to do something out of the ordinary or occurrences. Both books deal with the settling of wild lands. In my opinion, both were fabulous books.

Stephen is a middle aged man living in the 1940s with three daughters of his own, and he has moved back home to Sawgamet. His mother is on death’s doorstep and therefore, Stephen begins relating the story of his parents and grandparents and the founding of this town. Each story pulls you through time and illustrates the rich history of this family and place. Jeanot, Stephen’s grandpa, walked to Sawgamet and made it his own, discovering gold and then the richness of the trees. He began a lumber company, continued by his son, Stephen’s father. The stories have magical elements thrown in, such as the appearance of strange creatures and ghosts, but it is not a foreign world.

This is a storyteller’s novel. Stephen is certainly a storyteller, relating each story to the audience, and the novel had the rhythm, flow, and language of a storyteller. It was well done. I got lost at points with which story belonged to what person, but I wanted to keep discovering more about these people and this mysterious place. I also wondered at the end what the point was. Was it just to remember times gone by as the last of an older generation died or was a missing the point?

This was truly a novel that was more about the journey than the end result and it was beautiful. The writing is atmospheric taking you to the brink of the known world and sending you into an untamed forest where creatures only spoken about in legend still roam.

It seems I have a penchant for backwoods magical realism. I also seem to love tales told in the storytelling style. They feel more natural and flow with ease. Zintner did a wonderful job with this novel. It makes me long for the distant woods and the mystery of nature. Perhaps I’ll take a lesson from Thoreau and shrug off society for the blessings of nature. Then again, maybe I need to work…

If you’re a fan of the settling of forest lands, or magical realism, or this kind of storytelling narration, here are some read alikes:

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Gathering of Waters by Bernice McFadden

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Wild Life by Molly Gloss

Crazy Lady or Unjustly Accused?

So I must admit, I've never read Margaret Atwood before. Well there are a lot of other books out there and I'm a busy girl! I finally got around to it and read Alias Grace. A friend told me this was one of her favorites and I find it both intriguing and annoying when people tell me to read their favorite book unless I know we have similar taste. It's awkward when someone hands you a book and you can't get through it or dislike something that they adore. It could break up a friendship in extreme circumstances (Fitzgerald and Hemingway were frienemies because Hemingway didn't like Fitzgerald's writing-or-because he thought Fitzgerald was a pansy-don't quote me on that).

Just so happens Atwood is a fantastic writer. A good portion of the story is told as Grace, the main character, talking to a psychologist about her past. A very tricky thing to do well, but Atwood weaves the story's present in with the storytelling. Luckily, I will not be losing a friend on this one. It was a good recommendation.

Grace is a quiet woman and as you get to know her, she starts opening up. The story is based on true events. There was a Canadian woman murderess who killed her employer and the housekeeper. Grace is that woman. Through a back and forth between Grace's narrative and what is happening in the psychologists life, the audience is unsure about what the truth is or if Grace is an anti-social, psychotic murderer. While getting to know the character, it's hard to think of Grace as a murderess. She is well mannered, but strong in spirit. She takes her predicament in stride and carries her burden with...well, grace.

As I believe is Atwood's style, the story has a bit of a supernatural twist. You can pick it up from the beginning, but it's not meant to be a sci-fi novel and it certainly is not a central focus of the novel. Towards the end, it kind of threw me off because the novel was set so much in the rational and scientific look at the human brain and manner, that adding a supernatural element felt a bit out of place. Judge for yourself.

All in all, I would recommend this to the patient reader. It is a bit longer (480 pages) and takes some patience to invest in, but it is a wonderful piece of historical fiction. This is a character-centered book, so if you want to delve into the human psyche and get to know a famous murderess, give this a shot.

Also, if you have recommendations for me, I'm always more than happy to hear them. I love hearing about new material. Just take it with a grain of salt, because I might not read it, or, God forbid!, I might not like it. Hopefully, we can remain friends even if your favorite book rubs me the wrong way:)

Happy Reading.

Anne

There are those works that leave you hopeless. Once you finish rifling through its pages you're heartbroken and the rest of your day is ruined for the loss of those beautiful words. The characters, plot, writing have touched you in a way that makes it futile to even try for happiness. Your life seems simple and trivial in comparison and you wish for the world of the book back.

Welcome to my current state of being.

I have just put down "Anne of the Island", the third installment of the 'Anne of Green Gables' series. The past two books were enjoyable and I grew to love Anne, the charismatic, imaginative, charming girl of Canada. But it was the third book that blew me away. Anne goes to college to get her BA and she's truly grown up now. Her struggles, triumphs, dashed hopes, and confused romances echoed my own experiences. I connected with Anne in this book as I hadn't in the others. Her encounters with romance and her tarnished girlhood images of what romance should be resonated with me. After four years at college, her sense of loss at having to leave the place that was her home and the girls who became her best friends was almost an exact match to the despondent feelings I felt at leaving my own Alma Mater.

In Anne I find a hero, an ideal, a girl to whom I should aspire. She is good, loving, and kind yet she has faults. I want to be as decided and clear in my morals and attitudes as she is on the page. Anne has become royalty in my world of literary characters. She is a new favorite, the likes of which is rare to find in literature and the world.