Barkskins - BookWyrm

No cover — Annie Proulx: Barkskins (2016)

907 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 2016

ISBN:: 978-1-4104-9089-6
OCLC Number:: 944087615

In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," 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 Mi'kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. 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, under stunningly brutal conditions -- the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to …

In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," 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 Mi'kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. 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, under stunningly brutal conditions -- the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.

11 editions

GG reviewed Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Review of 'Barkskins' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

2.5 stars. I liked the writing and the story, but this novel was just TOO LONG. Proulx easily could have conveyed her sense of the epic span of time, with the forest as the main character as generations of human lives come and go, with half as many characters and maybe 400 pages. By the last round of character introductions, I was skimming through to the end -- I just couldn't get to know yet another generation of Sels. If she had focused more on the more interesting characters and eliminated many others, this would have gotten 4 stars from me. The themes of ecological destruction throughout North American history that Proulx conveys are important, but I wish the book had had a stronger editor.