A slant of light

The story of some tragic murders and their effect on the people left behind, set in mid 19th century upstate New York. Much of the verbiage is an almost erotic paean to farm fecundity with detailed and rich descriptions of livestock, the harvest, old farm equipment, many meals, and occasional D.H.Lawrence-like sexual discovery. It seems at times to be a battle between Rabelaisian naturalism and the plot's dour elements – human self-interest and its pal, religion. Strangely, the murders themselves don't seem to trouble us or most of the characters very much. The novel is beautifully written, but its thematic elements didn't click for me, and the story ends rather arbitrarily.