Barkskins

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Proulx, Annie	4-week checkout	Due 05-16-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Proulx, Annie	4-week checkout	Due 04-29-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Proulx, Annie	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024

"Bark Skins open in New France in the late 18th century as Rene Sel, an illiterate woodsman makes his way from Northern France to the homeland to seek a living. Bound to a "seigneur" for three years in exchange for land, he suffers extraordinary hardship and violence, always in awe of the forest he is charged with clearing. In the course of this epic novel, Proulx tells the stories of Rene's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, as well as the descendants of his friends and foes, as they travel back to Europe, to China, to New England, always in quest of a livelihood or fleeing stunningly brutal conditions--war, pestilence, Indian attacks, the revenge of rivals. Proulx's inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid--in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope--that we follow them with fierce attention. This is Proulx's most ambitious novel ever, and her master work"-- Provided by publisher.

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Not a master work submitted by mowjac on August 28, 2020, 12:18pm This novel really begins on p. 153. Or page 208--because that's when Proulx starts with character development, when she stops reciting events as a disjointed plot narrative. There is no map to aid in any orientation, no creating of historical atmosphere to aid in understanding the founding family men, and no female characters of note for the first 300 pages. Intended as a work of historical fiction, I don't think this is Proulx's strong suit and while later chapters show her skill, there's a lot of wading through colonial viciousness, greed and racism to get there.