Book notes: North Woods

By Daniel Mason.

I found this book from the New York Times best historical fiction of 2023.

Scoring:

• Axe for the frozen sea: 8/10.
• Page count: 370, effective page count: ~330.

The book is about the lifetime of a yellow farmhouse and its inhabitants in Western Massachusets, from around the 1700s to some point in the future. It took a while to figure out what this story was about. Characters are introduced, vetted, and ultimately die within a chapter or two, and you think “well, I suppose the story wasn’t about them.” The lighter-hearted moments of the book had a Mark Twain feel.

Religion is a theme. The original characters in the story are running away from a Puritan village to create the initial homestead site. After the first round of murders (from poisoning), an apple tree grows from the seeds that one of the murdered men ate, which goes on to grow amazing apples. Perhaps the original sin in this book was the slaughtering of Native Americans? Or the original clearing of trees in the field to build the house? Anyways, many dudes eat the apple and fall in love with dem apples. On balance the apples seem like bad luck because though they may live long prosperous lives, the family tree never continues. There are many biblical references.

People that die tend to stick around in this book, though only people that lived in the house (perhaps the only people that ate from the original apple tree?)They mostly keep to themselves in the afterlife but sometimes interact with the living for some reason… to protect the North Woods, or to protect the apple orchard. One of them may have helped a bobcat (on the cover art) eat the flock of sheep after the Osgood sisters “died”, most likely their dad Charles Osgood. I believe this is a reference to the Book of Job. The highlight of the book for me was the fortune teller helping the people in the yellow house who thought it may be haunted and was shocked herself to actually communicate with Charles Osgood, relaying his message: “what have you done with my apple trees?”.

Global warming is a theme. All the trees on the property suffer over time. (Spoiler) The house eventually burns down in a forest fire from climate change conditions. The character in the end reasons that nature is always changing, and maybe that’s a healthier way to view it.

This is the second book I’ve read that told the story of the American Chestnut blight. (The other being The Overstory). Living in the Pacific Northwest I didn’t know about this but now I realize it must have been a big deal in the Northeast.

I put this book in the category of “achingly close to great”, along with The Saint of Bright Doors. It would be a good book club book. Perhaps especially those living in the Northeast with a good understanding of the Bible? Was the house haunted? I’d say yes.