Ambitious story, but not for one book.

What did you like best about Barkskins? What did you like least?

This story covers a period of about four hundred years, starting in the 16th century and finishing pretty much in the present day. It starts with two men arriving in North America as indentured workers for the same man. It follows both these men and their many descendents during the following centuries. In a way it is a story of slow and inevitable decline on the one hand and the naked exploitation of what is considered to be the infinite resources of the environment to build a business empire on the other.

In essence one set of descendents become rich and the other essentially become increasingly impoverished and excluded. There is a strong and compelling ecological narrative throughout the story which rings through to this very day.

The problem for me is that there are so many characters and so many relations that keeping track of, and staying interested in, two family dynasties is difficult. When introduced to a new member of one of the family dynasties you may be seeing them as young initially and then you may not see them again until there are in their final years. Their lives described in between of apparently little significance or interest. That makes it difficult for a reader to engage with the characters.

This is a story that could easily have been expanded out to two or three books. The jumping around from character to character and in time make for difficult reading and it also makes it difficult to really care about and be absorbed by the characters. I also felt a little that by the end of the book it was getting more difficult to create distinct characters and their part of the overall story became increasingly like not much more than vignettes of peoples lives.

There is no doubt about it, this a book with enormous ambition, but unfortunately it's not for me.

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7 people found this helpful

amazing

vast story and history based around two French immigrants to New France/Canada and their descendants - the destruction of the boreal forests of North America and man's insatiable greed for wood

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3 people found this helpful

Wonderful

A truely epic journey through the northeastern forests told through the eyes of members of a family- I learnt so much and travelled far and wide

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Wanted so Much to Like This

OK only got 15 hours into this book but was just too bored. Wanted to like it after watching the TV show, I know you are probably thinking, she only reads what she can watch on telly but no, even though the characters differed in personality and description, I was able to put that aside to emerse myself in the time and story, but found the going hard, the pace very slow and in places downright boring. Sorry not for me. Surprised to find out it was such a bestseller.

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Depth lacking

When I started listening I thought this was going to be epic. I felt the author did not always give enough time to allow you to engage and grow with a character before moving on, almost like the amount of years covered in the book did not allow the author to do this. The performance was ok but I almost felt like he needed to move it on as there was a lot to get through. Would I recommend probably not, I have listened to far more entertaining stories which cover generations. Who would I recommend to if I did, probably someone interested in the logging history of North America.

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Lacks passion

Long and lacklustre. Annoying narrator who repeatedly mis-pronounces common words (pasty, plaited, etc.) and read sections as if he either didn't understand them or had just lost interest. Clearly this novel contains topics about which we are meant to take up arms on the side of right. Sadly, I got to the point where I just didn't care anymore.

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Great American novel status?

Annie Proulx manages to combine a history of North American colonialism, environmental destruction and great storytelling. It's not easy to maintain interest in characters over a period of 500 years or whatever, but I think she does it pretty well and makes you care about most of the central characters even if they only appear for a short while. It would have been nice to have a printed family tree available for reference, but mostly I managed to follow who was who. I thought the narrator was fantastic, keeping everyone clearly distinct. There were a few parts where it dragged a bit (unless you are really into trees) but I'm very glad I stuck with it. Wish Trump would read it and learn.

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A powerful book that makes you uncomfortable

The book takes you through a historical journey and describes the political and commercial forces and the brutality and abhorrent ignorance with which a whole continent was raped of its ecological strength and the implications on our planet totally ignored.
It's a clever book that makes its point in the ebb and flow of describing a family dynasty over four hundred years and describes how Native American Indian culture was overwhelmed by white determination and greed.
It makes a point about where the global effect of stripping and changing the forests will impact on changing the earth irrevocably.
The words reverberate in me and unsettle me.
Not a history that we can have an ounce of pride in.

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The story of trees

This book is as much the story of trees as told through the generations of two French families settling in canada. it follows the history of the settlements and the obliteration of pine forests and oak as well and of course all the Indian trbes whose lands they stole along the way. However that said it has its faults. For one thing the various wars going on throughout Canada and america during the history of this book are barely touched on though they do come in to it vaguely. Also there is an awful lot of needless info dumping. it's a historical novel so there's not much plot. The dialogue is okay but too many 'saids' for my taste as usual and there's a huge amount of atmosphere and tragedy. It's not a bad book but then again it's not perfect. I'd say though if you want to learn something of the history of early canadian settlers you could do worse than read this though it is very long.

Now for the narator. Not bad actually. He has to deal with a variety of different languages and accents and he's competent in this if not perfect. I must say when it comes to the French, Scots, English and German accents I've certainly heard worse. So overall I could never give this book five stars but it's tolerably good and the naration could be a lot worse than it is. So go ahead and give this one a go if you have the time and want to learn something of how they did things in centuries past. It says a lot about the way dollars take the place of common sense and how many lessons that could have been learned have not been.

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Stunning

I can’t recommend this highly enough - a superb story beautifully narrated. The historical sweep is astonishing - I learned (and felt) so much across the centuries right up to now and our ‘what next?’ story about the trees and the planet still unfinished. I am in awe of Annie Proulx’s skill and so grateful that she took the time to research and write this book. Please read it - you will never look at a tree the same way again.

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