Sometimes, you want to sit down and read a nice, tight narrative that propels you through the story with no stops and starts, no time for a bathroom break or to get a full night’s sleep. And then there are books like Daniel Mason’s sprawling and eclectic North Woods, which knows exactly what it’s doing, even if it doesn’t want to tell its readers for a while.
The plot of land in Western Massachusetts gets a European-style residence built upon it soon after colonists establish themselves in New England, a shelter for a pair of lovers fleeing their disapproving parents and one’s unwanted engagement. Through different chapters, each covering another month of the year and chronological era, we learn what happens to the lovebirds, what becomes of the young woman and her child seeking sanctuary, two generations of a family obsessed with a particular variety of apple, a painter and his very close relationship with a writer, a ghostly encounter within the home’s walls, and the haunting quality a troubled loved one can bring.
It’s impossible to describe succinctly. While each of the twelve chapters encompass a different month, the definitions of “chapter” and “month” get stretched according to the needs of the narrative. And it takes more than twelve voices to tell the sprawling story the 400-odd pages contain, some, frankly, more readily compelling than others. Remarkably, North Woods rarely drags, and never for long. Even in its more intricate and obtuse moments, it quickly links itself back to its original purpose: to tell the story of one fictional geographic location through the ages.
North Woods has drawn obvious and well-deserved comparisons to Richard Powers’ Overstory, and with the recurring themes of people’s ties to the environment and the effect of people on that same environment over time, that’s not unfounded. But as I read, I couldn’t help but think of another book by another Richard: Here, the incredible graphic novel by Richard McGuire. In both Here and North Woods, the story centers on a single bit of land in New England from the distant past to the distant future but centering on the early colonial era to the present. Environmentalism isn’t the point of either so much as a natural element given the circumstances in the Anthropocene.
I can’t say whether Mason likes or even knows about Here (if not, he should), but the similarities I found between the two did nothing to dull my enjoyment of North Woods. Mason uses an array of narrative frameworks to tell these interconnected stories, from the usual third-person and first-person narratives to epistles, magazine columns, song lyrics, and almanac entries, among others. The effect is sometimes dizzying and occasionally a bit disorienting, but contributes form as well as storytelling to the cacophony of voices swirling around this little plot of land. Those different forms require more work on the part of the reader to connect the dots, as it were; none are terribly obscure, but some were just tenuous enough to feel like I’d uncovered a secret when I made the connection.
I found this kind of scrapbook narrative engaging, but others will likely find it pretentious, and that’s fair. I don’t think North Woods is for everyone (but you should all go read Here immediately, every last one of you), and I wouldn’t be surprised if it became a polarizing read even in literary circles. Not everyone opens up a book looking for a treasure hunt. Not every book needs a treasure hunt. Not every book benefits from a steamy romance between a pair of beetles. In fact, we probably don’t need a subgenre of books with steamy beetle romances (not when inanimate object romances are already having such a moment). I won’t pretend that North Woods, the must-read of a laundry list of different publications in 2023, is a niche read. But it is a different read, and one that won’t hit everyone just right, and I kind of love it even more for that. What a weird little book getting attention. Maybe it will encourage publishers to look for more weird little books from more—and more diverse—authors telling stories from just off the beaten path.
Ring Reads 