Among my Christmas gifts, I found North Woods by Daniel Mason. The blurb promised a journey through American history via one plot of land and an old house. Loved the idea.
What I found was that the different sections highlighted social values at the time (mostly the horrendous ones by modern standards), but the history was a tad missing, generally mentioned in offhand ways.
Never mind, there was a great deal to admire in the cleverness of the book: the different sections written in a time-appropriate manner, the research (just wow), the descriptions, and the tying in of the various stories. But the characters were an unempathetic bunch by and large, even in their ghostly forms, and I only warmed to the young man who spoke with the ‘soul heirs’.
But what has plumped me to err slightly on the ‘not like’ side, is the ending. For me, this should have been the penultimate chapter, simply to finish on a more positive note than the rest of the book, which is, frankly, rather depressing in its awful reality.
Find North Woods here.
More reviews here and my monthly round up of what I’ve read here.