Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Published by Scribner on June 14, 2016

Barkskins is a generational saga that covers ground from 1693 to the present. The key characters are descended from René Sel or Charles Duquet. The story focuses on a family lumber business that begins with woodcutters and grows into a multifaceted corporation. The novel is as big and sprawling as the “new world” history that inspires it. Like a settlement, it begins with a few people and slowly expands as new generations claim new territory.

René Sel is a French settler indentured to M. Trépagny. Sel’s job is to help the unlikable Trépagny clear land near Kébec in New France. Sel is eventually given a Native wife he did not choose and the chance to work land of his own.

The focus then shifts to Charles Duquet, another Frenchman indentured to Trépagny. Duquet has fled his servitude and intends to find his own path to success. He does so by pursuing a trade empire involving lumber and fur. The greatest profit lies in trade with China, a country Annie Proulx depicts as vividly as she does the new worlds that have been colonized by England and France.

The story follows descendants of Sel and Duquet through the centuries. Much of his story concerns the politics of timber as rough entrepreneurs eventually give way to more sophisticated businessmen -- and, late in the story, businesswomen. The Duquet name is eventually “Americanized” to Duke when family members begin Duke & Sons, a lumber business that family members in later generations struggle to control.

The novel draws a clear picture of the evolving logging and timber business. Lumber barons shared the opinion that it was their destiny to chop down every tree in sight, as if the forests were “infinite and permanent.” The Duke family sneers at early notions of forest management. Arguments in favor of reforestation are rebuffed with the company’s forest management policy: find virgin forests and “cut ‘em down.”

One of the story’s most interesting aspects is its illustration of the problems encountered by people who live in two racial worlds. Intermarriage between Natives and Europeans produces children who feel like outsiders, belonging neither to the Native people or to the white settlers. Sel’s children, for example, are half-French and half-Native. His Canadian grandchildren encounter the worst of both worlds as they face the English, who are killing Natives and overwhelming French settlers.

The novel’s strongest theme is the loss of identity that the Native people experience when they are uprooted by white settlers, or when the forests and animals that they depend upon disappear, usurped by European colonists. With the displacement of Native peoples comes a slow death of traditions that parallels the destruction of the wilderness.

Characters are varied in their personalities. Some are gentle and others violent, some are lustful and others chaste, some are vulgar and others refined. As do real people, they often behave in surprising ways. Proulx follows each long enough to give the reader a sense of who they are, but with so many characters coming and going, it is difficult to form an attachment to any of them.

Male characters dominate early in the novel, although a few strong women play key roles in family life. There is also a hint of early feminism as a young woman insists on joining the family business rather than attending finishing school and selecting a proper upper-class husband. Reflecting history, women play a greater role in the economic world in later years.

My only serious complaint about Barkskins is that it is longer than it needs to be. Some of the scenes of hunting and logging and sea travel seem repetitive. The high quality of Proulx’s prose and her detailed descriptions makes the reading consistently pleasant, but the atmosphere, having been well established, doesn’t need all of the embellishments that Proulx gives it. The novel is never dull, but some chapters are more interesting than others.

The story is told in manageable episodes, although it’s all a bit of a whirlwind toward the end. The ending gives the book a nice balance, however, adding an academic understanding to issues that are important to the story, including population growth and deforestation. I’m not a big fan of generational sagas, but Barkskins is a book I enjoyed.

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The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg

Published by Grand Central Publishing on June 7, 2016

Hazel Nash grew up with a famous father who had a television show -- The House of Secrets -- that appealed to the gullible, particularly those who believe in Sasquatch and implausible conspiracies. Her brother, Skip, was also on the show and is also famous. Hazel is not famous. At the age of 35, she is an anthropology professor who studies death rituals. She manages to escape her own death in an accident that scrambles her brain. Hazel now finds herself at the center of her own conspiracy, one that involves a dead man who had a bible sewn into his chest.

Hazel’s accident has caused her to lose her emotional memories, her attachments to people and things. She doesn’t recognize or remember having relationships with the people in her past. At the same time, she doesn’t remember the kind of person she used to be -- perhaps for the better, since she might have been something of a sociopath before the accident. She doesn’t remember all the details of her old life, but she remembers how to be dangerously violent.

Someone called The Bear has taken an interest in Hazel and Skip. So has an FBI agent named Trevor Rabkin, who thinks Hazel’s father was up to no good. All of this ties in to people who are turning up dead in foreign countries while wearing Revolutionary War uniforms (American side). It also turns into a search for Benedict Arnold’s bible -- something that Hazel’s father spent the clandestine part of his career trying to find. Why? You need to read the book to find out. No spoilers here.

I’m not fond of the contrived “lost memory” device, which writers use as a convenient way to conceal important facts from the reader in the hope of building suspense. Unfortunately, The House of Secrets isn’t very suspenseful. Hazel and Skip are reasonably sympathetic but not fully rounded. The House of Secrets certainly isn’t a character-driven novel, so the question is whether the plot makes it worth reading.

At best, I would answer that question with a qualified maybe. The story holds a few surprises, including the nature of Benedict Arnold’s bible, but it is needlessly convoluted. Occasional action scenes keep the story lurching forward but when she isn’t fighting or fleeing, Hazel engages in a lot of hand-wringing and pointless speculating. Information dumps at the end finally explain the plot, but I’m not sure they are worth waiting for. This could have been a much tighter novel, and by the time the truth about the bibles is revealed, it isanti-climactic and a little too goofy.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Admiral by Sean Danker

Published by Roc (Berkley Group) on May 3, 2016

Four people wake up in the sleeping pods on a ship. The ship has crashed on a creepy planet. One of the survivors is wearing an Admiral’s uniform. He claims to be an honorary admiral but the others are suspicious. The ship’s only two crew members have burned to death in an airlock.

A harrowing escape from a perilous situation is followed by a series of harrowing escapes. In between escapes the four characters get to know each other.

Characterization isn’t bad, but Admiral is ultimately a “humans chased around by alien monsters” novel. I’ve read enough novels (and seen enough movies) with that plot to last a lifetime. The intriguing background (which involves a couple of recently warring groups) is more interesting than the action story that follows the setup.

I liked parts of the novel but was indifferent to most of it, so my recommendation is filled with reservations. The most interesting part of the story -- the Admiral’s identity and mission -- is too far removed from the alien monster story. Unfortunately, by the time the story reveals which side the Admiral is on, I no longer cared. Had the novel’s focus been on the backstory that is told in the last pages rather than alien monsters, Admiral might have been more engaging.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Seven Days Dead by John Farrow

Published by Minotaur Books (Thomas Dunne) on May 24, 2016

Seven Days Dead is a fun, engrossing novel. It has a peculiar, meandering plot that invites the reader to speculate about how the characters and their stories will come together. The story has the charm of a well-conceived mystery but the novel’s characters are its strength.

Alfred Orrock, the major property owner on Grand Manan, has arranged to die. Simon Lescavage is present and not happy about it. Alfred’s daughter Maddy is on her way but, as always, her father doesn’t wait for her. Shortly after Alfred’s death, a popular island resident comes to a violent end. A third death follows.

The Canadian island of Grand Manan is populated by eccentrics, busybodies, and tourists. The locals regularly set each other’s property on fire or dangle someone over a cliff to resolve a quarrel, but they draw the line at murder. Wade Louwagie, a burnt-out Mountie who has is coping with panic attacks, isn’t sure he’s capable of dealing with a disemboweled corpse. That body was discovered by Aaron Roadcap, the son of a convicted murderer whose heritage makes him a suspect in the death.

Rounding out the cast are a retired police officer, Émile Cinq-Mars, and his wife Sandra, who are attempting to vacation on the island. Sandra and Émile are trying to sort out their lives, to decide what they want and whether they are capable of change. For Émile to become involved in murder investigations seems contrary to their attempt at a fresh start, but they both know that solving crime is in Émile’s blood.

The primary characters are constantly evolving as they deal with their pasts and find the courage to address the future. Colorful background characters are drawn with the kind of quirkiness that makes them seem real. Selecting the murderer is as challenging for the reader as it is for Émile.

Seven Days Dead is marketed as a thriller but I would classify it as a crime novel. A single action scene that places Émile and Sandra at risk generates a surprising amount of suspense, but the novel focuses on solving the mystery rather than generating excitement. It is a quick and compulsive read. The story is tight; every scene has a purpose. Émile solves the crime with a Sherlockian flair. This is an old-fashioned mystery that combines an intricate yet credible plot with fetching characters, a refreshing change from the outrageous plots and cartoonish characters that dominate modern crime fiction.

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The Fat Artist by Benjamin Hale

Published by Simon & Schuster on May 17, 2016

The Fat Artist is a collection of stories that (with one exception) range from good to excellent. Starting with excellent:

“If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” follows a man who is scraping by, working two jobs with a wife and baby and a truck that won’t start, a man who can never get ahead because his bank charges him fees for having no money, a man who wants to kill his wife’s former boyfriend. The story also follows a man who wants to make artistic porn with his teenage niece. Clearly, nothing will ever go well for any of the sharply drawn characters. The story is gritty and funny and infused with the blues.

“The Fat Artist” is about a (fat) artist who has made his body into an art object. He puts himself on display as an ode to consumption. The story is written as an autobiographical meditation on what it means to live one’s art, to crave fame, to personify Oscar Wilde’s observation that all art is useless. The story can be read as an allegory of, or as satirizing, artistic creation, or as a meditation on the meaning of art. Readers who aren’t grossed out by the story should be amused, but I think the story’s best moment is a brief tribute to the life and art of Franz Kafka, whose story “The Hunger Artist” is here turned upside down as self-indulgence replaces self-abnegation.

“The Minus World” is alternately funny and gloomy as it tells of a young man who is trying, without much motivation or success, to get over his drug addiction and make something of himself. His new job -- collecting squid from fishermen for marine biologists at MIT -- gives him a chance to feel both good and bad about himself, another chance to mess up a fresh start. If only life were a video game, he could conquer it. The story has an unfinished feel, but that’s consistent with the young man’s unfinished life.

Three other stories are quite good:

The protagonist in “Leftovers” is good at rationalizing -- his affairs, his drug addicted son, his career advancing the interests of an uncaring corporation -- but isn’t good at compassion. The plot is conventional but the story is very funny in a morbid way.

A Congressman dies in the arms of his long-term BDSM provider in “Venus at Her Mirror.” Rebecca (a/k/a Mistress Delilah) then plans her response the Congressman’s death. The story is interesting, but more a character sketch than a story with a plot.

“Beautiful Boy” is another character sketch. It might also be read as a celebration of New York City drag queens, or to New York City architecture, or to the beatification of celebrities who die violently.

Only one story failed to impress me. In “Don’t Worry, Baby” stoners get stoned and fly on a plane while their baby cries. They are wanted for crimes of protest. The crying baby triggers an epiphany in the mother. If the story had a point, it eluded me.

On the whole, the stories take a bright look at the dark side of life. Benjamin Hale’s prose is creative and energetic. The stories showcase a writer of great promise.

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