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Title: Into the Forest by Jean Hegland, Alison Elliott ISBN: 0-553-47878-8 Publisher: Bantam Books-Audio Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (100 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Frightening Prospect
Comment: I found the premise of this book to be eerily fascinating and frightening. It hooked me from the first page and I could not put it down. This was very fast and interesting reading, except for one totally unnecessary scene which those of you who have read it will undoubtedly remember.
"Into the Forest" is what has been called "speculative fiction" and is set in the near-future, focusing on two teenage orphaned sisters. The girls try to survive the collapse, for no apparent reason, of their world and society as they knew it. All of a sudden, tankers do not arrive at gas stations, electricity disappears, law and order become a thing of the past, and there is no communication.
Living in the forest in Northern California, Nell and Eva struggle to survive in an often -alien environment as they try to adjust to isolation. Once they deplete the pantry in their house, feeding themselves is a daily challenge, as is their need to conquer overwhelming feelings of despair.
The author gradually builds the story to the point where the reader realizes that every single action these young girls perform is related to their continued survival. I think that this book provided food for thought, making me cringe at how dependent we all are on today's technology. I appreciated Hegland's knowledge of the uses of forest plants and berries, and of food preservation.
Like Paul Watkins' "Archangel" and Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", the forest is a major character in the story.
I fear that I would not be a survivor.
Rating: 4
Summary: A beautifully written metaphorical fable
Comment: The writing is beautiful and a joy to read. If for no other reason, this book deserves to be read for the craft and poetry imbedded in Ms. Hegland's prose. The story begins with a family of four that includes two daughters. One of them, Seventeen-year-old Nellie, the younger of the two sisters is the protagonist and the story line unfolds through her experiences and perceptions. Eva, who is older than Nellie by only a year, is initially only a backdrop but evolves into a more significant role as the plot progresses.
After reading the book I found it difficult to decide whether it was an odyssey or a fable, and maybe it's both. The environment for the story and the motivation that drives the plot line is the total failure of civilization's infrastructure. The family lives in an undetermined wilderness area, thirty miles from the nearest town, Redwood, which is remarkably similar in description to Healdsburg the author's hometown.
The story unfolds through a logical progression from problem through crises to climax and resolution. The emotional content includes denial, bestiality, fear, loss, love, depression and happiness, portrayed as randomly as it occurs in real life. We all grow up, traverse emotions similar to these, and then realize we are alone in ourselves and mostly we prevail by means of courage, resourcefulness and perseverance which are also in the story.
I used the verb 'portrayed' rather than 'told' intentionally, because to read this book is to live the story as it unfolds in your mind. It is said that a good story creates a dream state for the reader and it was true for me with this book. Half way through the book I woke one morning from an anxiety dream involving the dangers of living in the country as we do. So I was living the book. The author accomplished this by letting me experience events as they would occur and not as they might be told.
This is a story written from the first person perspective of a young woman and it is about the issues that she and her sister have as women. I began to wonder as I read whether this was a book written for women or for everyone. It does focus on abilities not usually required of women in today's society. However their obstacles in the story were universal. A man might deal with them differently, but he would still have to deal with them. We need to remember that protected young civilized women, who are products of a relatively affluent society would react much differently than other ages or the other gender, and so goes the story. Furthermore, it is thought provoking to consider our exposure regardless of gender to a collapse of the infrastructure that we take for granted.
Several things bothered me as I read. What happens to the father is predicted fairly early, but I had to wait quite a while to learn what it was. I also had a hard time tolerating the lack of information about the disaster, whatever it was. For me, how I would react and what I did would depend to a large extent upon what was going on in the world. And the absence of men for most of the book unbalanced the story for me, but that was probably because of my own gender. Finally the ending was too flamboyant and illogical for me. Although, I have to conclude that these criticisms disappear when the story is taken as a metaphorical fable.
I haven't heard the name, Nellie used during my time in the 20th century. And ballet dancers use Marlee to create a dance floor, not Mylar. But these are really nits.
The writing in this book makes it a piece of art in my view. That it raises more questions than it resolves only increases its value for me. It's not a lightweight story. Reading it will engage some serious emotions.
Rating: 4
Summary: Totally Plausible
Comment: In response to a previous reviewer who reviewed, um, previous reviews: the electricity in the book, and you'll understand this when you read it, does not go off all at once. It goes in and out; the girls' family live on acreage in a nice house out in the sticks. They don't live in town, which actually bodes better for their survival. They hadn't been to school and had thusly been educated by their parents and themselves. They knew how to grow food and preserve it; they knew how to build crude structures; they knew how to ID plants. How many of us know those things?
Anyway, the power. It's never reliable, and as illness and political unrest abroad make the infrastructure in the US more shaky, life becomes more primitive. Backup systems aren't designed to run forever; things can't get fixed if the workforce is decimated by antibiotic-resistant infections.
I thought this was an excellent, spookily prescient book. Reading it again really makes me think -- the troubles Eva and Nell face in their world come about by a war fought far away, coincidentally compounded by illness and domestic terrorism. If you think it couldn't happen here, in this day and age, I believe you're wrong. I'm not saying it will... I'm just saying it could.
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Title: The Condor's Shadow: The Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in America by David S. Wilcove, Edward O. Wilson ISBN: 0385498810 Publisher: Anchor Books/Doubleday Pub. Date: 09 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution by Devra Lee Davis ISBN: 0465015212 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Windfalls by Jean Hegland ISBN: 0743470079 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Lambs of God by Marlene Day, Marele Day ISBN: 1573227226 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Earth Abides by George R. Stewart ISBN: 0449213013 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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