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Loading... Nightwoods (original 2011; edition 2011)by Charles Frazier
Work InformationNightwoods by Charles Frazier (2011)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Suspense In the backwoods of North Carolina in the 1950s, Stubblefield inherits his grandfather’s estate. He encounters Luce, a woman he knew in high school, living on his property. She has taken custody of her traumatized niece and nephew after her sister’s violent death. The children witnessed their stepfather murder their mother. Stubblefield has a romantic interest in Luce, but she is a victim of rape with her own set of traumas. So, this book takes disturbed children – they kill animals and light fires – and puts them in a situation where they are pursued by a crazed criminal. I should have known I would not care for this book. I was hoping the sister that takes in the children would be a be positive influence, but she has trouble figuring out how to reassure and protect them. I do not need the story to be full of kittens and rainbows, but this is just too dark for my taste. It is gory and joyless. Trigger warnings abound. The author turns a nice phrase on occasion, so I am going with two stars. It was okay. Luce lives alone as a caretaker in an old lodge in the NC mountains in the early 60s. She has custody of her murdered sister's 2 children, twins who have obviously been seriously affected by being abused by their stepfather and by seeing their mother's murder. Luce is a loner, coming from an unpromising background also, but she does her best to teach the mute children what she knows about the mountains and the natural world around them. The new owner through inheritance shows up, as does the stepfather who escaped murder charges. What I did enjoy about the book were the descriptions of the mountains and what Luce had to show the children. I felt as if I were there; I could almost smell the forest. What I didn't like was the confusing way it was written. I found it hard to follow at times because so much was implied instead of stated. This book is fairly short. I think it may have been better as a longer book.
Among James Fenimore Cooper’s many literary offenses, Mark Twain charged, was “surplusage.” The word’s undue thickness perfectly matches its meaning. It also feels of a piece with Cooper’s own prose, and likewise Charles Frazier’s: elegantly archaic-sounding, rough-cut and contrived. AwardsDistinctions
Fiction.
Literature.
Thriller.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Charles Frazier, the acclaimed author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons, returns with a dazzling novel set in small-town North Carolina in the early 1960s. With his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister’s troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine. Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape, choosing to live apart from the small community around her. But the coming of the children changes everything, cracking open her solitary life in difficult, hopeful, dangerous ways. In a lean, tight narrative, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art. “Impossible to shake.”—Entertainment Weekly “Fantastic.”—The Washington Post “Astute and compassionate.”—The Boston Globe. No library descriptions found.
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumCharles Frazier's book Nightwoods was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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