Touch (original 2011; edition 2011)

Excellent protrayal of what it must have been like for the first of the European immigrants to move to the further reaches of Western Canada during the times of the several gold rushes. It's not about the populating of the land. It's not about the finding of gold. It's more about the relationship of three generations of a family with an extremely harsh, deadly environment and the spirits and creatures of an unknown land. It's a very original style of telling that I have a hard time classifying. It has elements of paranormal or perhaps fantasy or perhaps myth or perhaps one of a couple other categories but I didn't feel like it fit anywhere. Those elements were important parts of the telling and important parts of the lives of the people but they weren't focal points at all. They also didn't seem so paranormal or fantastical in context. They seemed more a true part of the history. I had a hard time eventually even considering them as myth. I'm considering this as pure historical fiction = and one of the most interesting that I've read. This is going to be reread and that's going to happen when I can read it straight through in a day or two. Two thirds of the way through I was regretting having had to take too many breaks during the reading and stretching it out to over a week. Something about it seems to require remaining more continually immersed in the story.

Anyone interested in or studying the earliest expansion west of the European immigrants on this continent has to read this to get an amazing feel for the realities of the time and place. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book--it was a fast, compelling read. I enjoyed how the stories of the three generations were intertwined and advanced together. I had to pay close attention to which story was being told at any given time; however, I thought this made for a richer storytelling than if it had been simply told chronologically. I would have liked to know more about Stephen (the grandson), but perhaps there are more stories to still be told here.

I would class this as Canadian wilderness gothic or Canadian magic realism--plenty of ghosts, monsters, and magic. I look forward to reading future novels by Zentner. He has a real gift for the story. ( )

Different.
Three plot lines: the narrative one, set in WWII in the narrator's adolescent home where he's tending to his dying mother, reflecting back in preparation for her eulogy.
He reflects back on the winter his mother remarries and his grandfather returns. He also weaves in stories of his grandfather's youth and the town's origins with his father's youth. All of this, plus the fact that the narrator is a priest, gives the story credibility. Credibility is essential, because the myths the boy/man tells are fantasic and otherwise unbelievable. Yet I found myself believing to some extent.
Most of the story takes place during winter scenes, so it makes sense to read it in winter.
My one pet peeve is that when the grandfather and boy and his cousin find a particular tree, the grandfather points to "gashes" high up in the tree and claims that he was last at the tree when the gashes were at his knees. Trees do not grow up this way; new cells are added at the top, not the bottom, so the gashes would still be knee level, but they'd probably be grown over by the widening trunk and undiscernible.

Everything else about the book is good. ( )

Such a refreshing and different story, a magical way of interpreting life's events. I loved this book. ( )

This was an ER novel I received, set in the wilds of Canada. I’ve been intrigued with the cold areas of the world of late – mostly because I just cannot understand how a body could survive. The novel is multi-generational, spanning from the founding of the town to roughly present day. There’s an air of magical realism, family tragedies, lyrical descriptions of nature. All of which led me to quite enjoy this slow-paced story. I even found it somehow comforting even though the themes are not particularly happy ones.