Now a television mini-series airing on National Geographic May 2020! A Washington Post Best Book of the Year & a New York Times Notable Book From the Pulitzer Prize-ÂÂwinning author of The Shipping News and “Brokeback Mountain,” comes the New York Times bestselling epic about the demise of the world’s forests: “Barkskins is grand entertainment in the tradition of Dickens and Tolstoy…the … entertainment in the tradition of Dickens and Tolstoy…the crowning achievement of Annie Proulx’s distinguished career, but also perhaps the greatest environmental novel ever written” (San Francisco Chronicle).
In the late seventeenth century two young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters–barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a native woman and their descendants live trapped between two cultures. But Duquet runs away, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Annie Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years–their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand–the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation. Over and over, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.
“A stunning, bracing, full-tilt ride through three hundred years of US and Canadian history…with the type of full-immersion plot that keeps you curled in your chair, reluctant to stop reading” (Elle), Barkskins showcases Proulx’s inimitable genius of creating characters who are so vivid that we follow them with fierce attention. “This is Proulx at the height of her powers as an irreplaceable American voice” (Entertainment Weekly, Grade A), and Barkskins “is an awesome monument of a book” (The Washington Post)–“the masterpiece she was meant to write” (The Boston Globe). As Anthony Doerr says, “This magnificent novel possesses the dark humor of The Shipping News and the social awareness of ‘Brokeback Mountain.’”
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It is a lengthy, historic epic saga of the history of the lumber barons from the time of hunters, trappers, and explorers through the present day. Now a feature film on the National Geographic channel.
Started out ok. Kinda Michner-ish. Really bogged down midway Gave up!!!
This was a serious book about the lumber industries rape of our forests and the exceedingly cruel treatment of native people. This is a serious but very readale book. The cast of characters is amazing. I recommend it highly
reads like a long poem of action and adventure
Interesting story about New France and how people had to work off their years under another person in order to earn land. Also women are the ones that chose their husbands. Filled with just the right about of devious behavior. Can be a little hard to follow at first until you get to know the characters.
This was a fascinating history of the forest industry with the two families intertwined throughout. Having lived in Maine for many years and familiar with forestry practices from the 1970’s on, I was saddened by the attitude of “get what you can and move on,” leaving the responsibility of repairing the damage to the land to future generations.
This is a great book. Read it if you like Annie Proulx rather gloomy, but unfortunately accurate world view. She’s a brilliant writer. I couldn’t put it down, much to the annoyance of my husband.
Barkfest traces the developing foundations of Canada from when it was still called new France. Two Frenchmen arrive to work for a man who hired them. it is the mid-1600’s.
The book is multi-generational and traces the total and utter destruction of the great North American forest. The characters are all descendants of the original two settlers. In the light of full disclosure, my ancestors are Canadian, which might have moved me somewhat.
It follows both men–one is good and the other is bad…those roots continue until Canada is how we know it today, having been populated, stripped of resources by a loving family and a greedy one…one of my favorite ever “fat-books”
Proulx takes on the history of the American northeast and Canada’s colonialization and deforestation, all while following the intertwined fates of two compelling families. The world’s great forests are the true subject of the book, but never without sympathy for the forces that shape the human lives whose work is found in wood.
A compelling read, as with all of Annie Proulx work, as we learn how the timberlands of North America gradually were decimated by white settlers and the lumber barons (male and female!) who saw the opportunity to make their fortunes meeting the new demands for building materials during western expansion. Proulx’ research provides us with a deep and, at times, heartbreaking, look into the generations of Native Americans who had lived and worked in the forests with a reverence and an understanding of the requirements for sustainability. We learn the fates of family members as the forests disappeared, as they took the most dangerous of jobs in logging to survive, as they intermarried, as they searched for their heritages, as they tried to save the forests.
Most interesting! A long story and at times a little tedious to follow (an amazing 200 years and multiple characters to whom one does get attached, all sufficiently compelling to keep one following to the end).
makes one realize the environmental crimes of our colonists.