Genre: Book
Grade: B+
Notable People: Daniel Mason
Title: North Woods
Review: This interesting fifth novel from a psychiatrist/ author has been the rage of our local mountain libraries. I got on a wait list for it, waited for a month, started reading it, and was ready to be done after first 25 pages. Not my style to give up, so persevered-and it got a lot better, though still obtuse at times. Story of a single house and its occupants in a rural area of Western Mass., for centuries, starting with what seemed to allegorically (or not) be the garden of Eden with the book’s apple orchard initial setting and related bad behavior, and then gravitating into an unending line of seriously dysfunctional generations of inhabitants. Got a lot more interesting in the pre-post civil war years and then faded some in modern times. Mason writes more like a shrink than a man of letters from my point of view, but the story is unusual and many of the characters are captivating. Could have been 100 pages shorter for my money……and have a bit less forbidden fruit.