I didn't get it...I mean it's not that I couldn't follow the story but I couldn't figure out what the author intended me to get out of it. Coming of age story? Nah. It was an imaginative story though, I'll give it that.
Mattie/Linda is a young girl growing up in a cabin in the woods formerly housing a commune. Things got uncomfortable with that venue, and everyone moved away except for Mattie and her parents. There are problems with the heat, an outhouse instead of a bathroom. Mattie lives most of her life searching and learning the woods.
Soon a family moves in across the lake in a house that is more like a mansion than a home. A couple and their young son. Mattie becomes the babysitter for this couple. The father, Leo, is not there too much, so Mattie becomes close to the mother, Patra, and the young boy, Paul.
Paul seems to have mental issues and is just a little bit protected. He is sometimes a little alarming in his behavior.
While Mattie is attending school, a classmate, Lily, claims that their teacher, Mr. Grierson, attacked her and she has become pregnant. This seems to fascinate Mattie. It is almost as if she wishes this could be her.
I almost gave up on the book 6 chapters in. That is usually my cut-off point if a book hasn't captured my interest. I kept reading, though, and was taken with the loneliness you feel in Mattie and her yearning to be something, to feel important.
I thought the book skipped around a little too much, with no real understanding of what was really going on. There was a lot of switching the story from one point to another, without a clear understanding of why.
Soon a family moves in across the lake in a house that is more like a mansion than a home. A couple and their young son. Mattie becomes the babysitter for this couple. The father, Leo, is not there too much, so Mattie becomes close to the mother, Patra, and the young boy, Paul.
Paul seems to have mental issues and is just a little bit protected. He is sometimes a little alarming in his behavior.
While Mattie is attending school, a classmate, Lily, claims that their teacher, Mr. Grierson, attacked her and she has become pregnant. This seems to fascinate Mattie. It is almost as if she wishes this could be her.
I almost gave up on the book 6 chapters in. That is usually my cut-off point if a book hasn't captured my interest. I kept reading, though, and was taken with the loneliness you feel in Mattie and her yearning to be something, to feel important.
I thought the book skipped around a little too much, with no real understanding of what was really going on. There was a lot of switching the story from one point to another, without a clear understanding of why.
Moments from this book linger in my mind as if they are my own memories -- the freckle on Patra's eyelid, the lake in the morning, a headache caused by the teeth on a stolen blue headband. The History of Wolves haunts me, and the sadness of its young protagonist makes my heart ache. What an incredible gift author Emily Fridlund has to pull outsiders directly into her paper and ink and the soul of her characters. Despite its darkness, I was so involved with the characters that I could not stop reading until I had finished this story set in the countryside of northern Minnesota. The beauty of the place is married to economic privation as well as the greater loss of meaningful family and friends. Yet, wealth ultimately exists in nature and its observation. And lest you think this book is purely observational, it is also an unfolding tragedy that plays itself out as a kind of mystery within the glorious fabric of Fridlund's writing. I hope we see many more novels from Ms. Fridlund. Thank you for touching me so profoundly.
