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.
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.
