were no quotation marks in the dialogue, and a very hitandmiss attitude to commas, I guess because this is artsy, literary fiction, It didn't make the story any less boring and predictable, I slogged halfway and then skimmed the rest, You don't need to read it, just think of the most obvious story you could tell given the premise of the blurb and that's the whole book.
"No atheist, Carolyn thought, is ever firm, " What does one do when presented with spiritual insight, revelation, and direct contact with deity, This book depicts the events surrounding a fictional Marian siting in northern Oregon by a troubled young girl with a tumultuous past, I was interested in how this writer would portray a modern visionary or someone who believes to have received revelation from God, or in this case Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Although thought provoking, this book was difficult to read, as was the pervasive baseness of human behavior, Not my review but this sums it up: Guterson explores larger social themesthe demise of bluecollar America the ironic symbiosis of religious devotion and commercial exploitation the replacement of faith in God by faith in psychopharmacology and the link between the exaltation of women's saintliness and the reality of women's degradation.
Searching for the miraculous in the mundane, this ambitious and satisfying work builds vivid characters and trenchant storytelling into a serious and compassionate look at the moral quandaries of modern life.
It was an interesting book, Very disappointing and quickly abandoned, I have loved reading Guterson's sitelinkSnow Falling on Cedars and sitelinkEast of the Mountains, so this was a surprise for me, I had to read the blurb on the back to convince myself that I hadn't gotten him confused with someone else in picking up this book.
I read enough to know I didn't want to read anymore, though, A dismal book about unpleasant, boring people leading pointless lives in a wet, cold place, I absolutely loved David Guterson's other books so this was a huge disappointment, I honestly am not sure what to make of this book, On one hand, the lack of speech punctuation and the changing viewpoints annoyed me intensely, but on the other, I was completely taken in by the intrigue surrounding Ann and her visions.
Although not particularly religious myself, I am fascinated by the magic and mystery that surrounds the 'older' faiths, Whether Ann is truly seeing the Virgin Mary, or she's hallucinating from drug addiction and bad flu, the author cleverly never answers, Because. although she is the main character, it is other people's reactions to her that make this story, There are people trying to be her true friend and look out for her, people who want to take advantage of the opportunity, people who want to believe and can't, and some that start of believing and become skeptical.
Personally, I like to believe she was truly seeing something,
As an aside, the church that is finally built sounds amazingly beautiful I think I'd be more likely to attend more often if nature was as part of it as here.
So, I know this will make me sound like an idiot, but I hate when writers don't use quotation marks for dialogue when it's a fiction novel told in the third person.
Especially when the books are mediocre, So not only am I having to stop to think a bit when reading, I'm having to stop to think for a not good book.
Which is lame. I mean, if it's a good book, fine, but get over the pretentiousness of not using quotation marks, Or just eliminate punctuation all together,
I also felt like I read way too much when I really just needed to read the lastpages of the book to get the whole story.
Onvan : Our Lady Of The Forest Nevisande : David Guterson ISBN :ISBN:DarSafhe Saal e Chap :Well I must have missed something along the way I honestly cant say I really enjoyed or understood this book.
It was a decent concept for a book, but the author could have taken it sooo many other routes, So much time was spent on building the characters, but the story never went anywhere, Ann was so devout to the point where it was starting to become annoying and I couldnt connect with any of the characters, Im not sure why so much time was spent on building Toms character/story, I would have hoped at least his character couldve been transformed by interacting with Ann which would have led to a rekindled relationship with his estranged family.
I was really hoping that there would be some sort of revelation or something exciting to happen I genuinely was hoping for this, but was sadly disappointed.
If I happened to miss something major, please enlighten me in the comments otherwise, I wouldnt waste your time with this book! How you can write a book about a sighting of the Virgin Mary and make so many references to sex in the same work is mind boggling.
But Guterson did it. This novel has made a deep impression on me, I am not particularly religious, but surprised myself by being deeply moved by the religiosity of the mushroompicking teenage runaway, Ann Holmes, who experiences the Marian visions.
The flawed, but very human, not to say humane priest, Father Collins, also attracted my sympathy, The rather cynical and educated societal dropout, Carolyn Greer, acts as an effective foil to the visionary and also manages to inject some dark humour into the novel her protectiveness towards the visionary is rather touching and clearly sincere notwithstanding the fact that she is also trying to exploit the situation for her own benefit.
It is obvious almost from the outset that the exlogger, Tom Cross senior, who openly admits to hating and paralyzing his own son, and is, on the face of it, unpleasant, mildly racist, and even menacing, yet still eager to be redeemed by his faith, is going to feature prominently in the denouement.
The dark, rainsoaked, mysterious forest provides a wonderful backdrop to the story, The spirit of the place is evoked in very poetic, literate and polished prose that is occasionally, as one reviewer has put it, 'thesaurussplitting', One very unusual and rather radical aspect of the writer's style is the fact that he doesn't use apostrophes to report speech instead the characters' spoken words feature within normal sentences.
I cannot recall a book I've read where the author has chosen to do this, yet it works well here,
I think this novel is not only entertaining, and gritilly realistic, if a novel about Marian apparitions can be described as such, but it also touches on some very profound epistemological and ontological questions yes, both those words feature in the book.
And although I don't recall the author mentioning shamanism, I think the experiences of the teenage seer have as much connection to that ancient form of spirituality as they do to Roman Catholicism.
Perhaps it is the novel's explicit association with Roman Catholicism that is the reason for some of the totally unwarranted and jaundiced reviews of this book I have seen elsewhere e.
g. on Amazon some reviewers appear to take offence when characters and events don't live up to expectations they may have because of their own Catholic faith.
Ironically, I do not believe that the author presents the Roman Catholic faith, or the Church, in an unsympathetic light at all his take on religious experience and belief is nuanced and sophisticated.
I loved this haunting and vivid book, and will never forget it, This is a dark book indeed but I thought it was a worthwhile read, ALL of the characters are pathetic creatures but I suppose it is said God uses the most unlikeliest people, Man, they don't come more unlikely, Even the priest gave me the creeps, Everytime I read a chapter, I felt covered in mildew it was so damp all the time, I really liked how it delivered a message of redemption with no real definitive conclusion why things happened the way they did, It relies on the readers own belief or lack of belief, All the elements of a resurrection story were there: sacrifice, repentance, redemption and miracle, What makes this book significant to me is the way Gutersons characters respond to Anns vision, as struggles over the role of religion and faith in our lives are growing today.
What motivates people to believe or not Why do some people become so attached How do others exploit these attachments Does the church accept honest doubt or does it clutch at tradition In this forest, mystery and faith collide with greed, ego, and power.
I found it a fascinating read, and timely,
This story revolves around a character who is a vital presence at the outset, with disturbing memories, and then, as she is seen more and more from the perspective of others, gradually becomes objectified.
Ann is an adolescent runaway with a domestic situation behind her that would inspire just about anyone to flee, She now has no home other than a sagging tent pitched at a campground outside a downattheheels logging town in Washington, and one day when foraging for mushrooms she sees the Virgin Mary.
Her chance companion, Carolyn, is older and very cynicalnot just about the repeated Mary sightings but about everything, Father Collins, the young priest Ann seeks out, wants to believe her but cannot truth be told, he wishes he could relate to her as a man.
The most problematic character might be Tom Cross, one of many outofwork loggers in the area, Tom can swing between fits of rage he crippled his own son and hopelessness, but mostly he just tries to cope with an unrewarding life.
When these people speak, the dialog is wonderful, It should be read aloud, The story should be enacted, To me, it feels almost more real than actual life, But I will say, as I recently did regarding sitelinka Saramago title, that the refusal to set off
dialog with normal punctuation is a needless distraction.
The setting of the story almost qualifies as a character, as well, Not having been to the Northwest, I wonder if the forests there are truly as perpetually dank, dripping and cold as North Fork is depicted on virtually every page.
In the midst of that, Ann's constantly mentioned pallor and feverishness stand out even more than they would otherwise,
It's a complicated story, somewhat similar to sitelink Lying Awake as far as the question of possible divine revelation goes.
Not being a Catholic, I don't get the idea of Mary as an intermediary between God and man, I've never given a moment's thought to reported Marian apparitions, and so feel bemused by the multitude of Mary followers I almost said groupies who descend on North Fork.
That did not interfere with my admiration for how the story is handled,
I'm not sure the conclusion is as satisfying as I'd hoped it might be, but overall this is a remarkable philosophical novel that is also an intense pageturner.
What else might I have expected from David Guterson,