English language
Published Feb. 13, 2010 by Oregon State University Press.
I truly loved this book. My only regret is that it took me this long to get around to reading it. It's got a plot, more or less, but is more a poem than a novel. Or a fairy tale, about a magical place were crows converse and bears read the New York Times, wrapped around countless other tales. Salish, Irish, human and non-human, all mixed and mingled together.
The story is set in a small town on the Oregon coast, where people are managing as best they can with little or no logging, and just a bit of fishing. He's got some fantasy going on, with at least one person and one crow having powers not normally found. There's love, courage, cowardice, selflessness, and crime. The characters are interesting. There's sufficient plot to carry me along, and I'm a lazy reader who requires a good firm tow from a plot. In some ways, the novel resembles Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row', only without the older novel's racism and misogyny.[return]Doyle is a poet, and you can see that in the lush language. I do love a novel by a poet. While I like the mad dash of his prose style, if there is ever to be an audio book, they'll need a reader with the lungs of a whale!
