There are very few books that I fail to finish reading. This was one of those books. The story jumped all over the place and it spent too much time on things that didn't seem to relate to anything else. Characters were introduced and then abandoned as the book took off in a different tangent of time and location. The book failed to keep my interest and I gave up after the fourth chapter. ( )

Lance Weller's descriptions throughout this book are outstanding. He almost lost me, though, up front with too much description and, it seemed, no story. But I kept reading, looking for story, and did find one that is mostly heartbreaking.

The story I found wasn't quite what the book flap says, although that was probably because I misunderstood parts of it. That is too easy to do in WILDERNESS. I had to read many paragraphs more than once.

The subject of WILDERNESS is Abel Truman. Chapters cover Abel as an old man in 1899 and as a Civil War soldier in 1864. The years not described are those between 1864 and 1899, when Abel lives in a shack in the woods with his dog. Those are years we just assume.

My feeling is that in 1864, 1899, and the years between Abel is either dealing with or not dealing with the loss of his baby and wife. For me, that is the story. ( )

I think this may be the most unusual novel I have read in a long time. This is due, not to the format, style, or subject, not due to many things, but to the dense melancholy beauty of it as a whole. WILDERNESS is an extraordinarily courageous historical novel that links the end of the Civil War in the east with the bleak settling of the Northwest not long after the end of that war. Author, Lance Weller, holds back nothing of the gritty reality of battle, particularly the last battles of that difficult war; and there is not one iota of romanticizing it. What is surprising is that the war period of the book is not even the saddest part of it; for throughout the story the wilderness ,whether in Spotsylvania or the Olympic peninsula, is the wilderness of the human heart. At times, the sadness of this book is almost unbearable but the reader stays with it because it is unbelievably beautifully written and because the desire to know how it ends and what it all amounts to is too great to put it aside. As much as WILDERNESS is not about the wild places of the country, it is no more about the Civil War; and although it seems to be about Man’s capacity for violence, it isn’t about that either. Although there are many scenes of great violence, there are also moments of mercy and grace. It is really about the human heart and about people, especially about those people who come along and, against all reason, help and heal. It seems to be about those with souls and those without souls and the fact that we can’t know who is redeemable and who is not. Thankfully, after all the pain and suffering, there is redemption for those who seek it most through a most unlikely little girl, and although she only appears at the very beginning and the very end of the story, she provides the bookends that hold this masterpiece together. ( )

This is a debut novel by Lance Weller. I was attracted to it about a year ago when I saw a favorable mention in somebody's Best Books of 2012" The plot summary reminded me a bit of "Cold Mountain", a book that I enjoyed very much, so I thought I'd try it. "The Wilderness" (TW) tells the story of Abel Truman, a survivor of the Civil War and a survivor of Life thereafter. Abel, though born and raised in the north was in North Carolina when war broke out and hence became a Reb, which was OK with Abel. He survived countless battles, and managed to escape serious damage until the Wilderness Battle near Fredricksburg where he suffered a number of wounds. Most of the story flips back and forth between that battle and events in 1899 when Abel and his dog roamed the wilderness near the coastline of the northwest. Most of the story is narrative with very little dialog. The battle scenes are gruesome, but then so are many of the scenes in the wilderness post-Civil War. Abel is a guy who is content with going along. He is not very bright, and he often speaks without thinking, but generally he tries to do the right thing. He encounters some interesting folks but there were no moments nor relationships which particularly moved me. Some of the storyline was a bit confusing, perhaps purposefully unclear, but I didn't really care. I cannot remember the list I found it on and if I did I would probably not pay too much attention to their Best Books of 2013. ( )

A harsh, brutal, beautiful story of the Civil War, the Pacific Northwest and the capability of mankind for both great evil and great kindness and bravery. Heartbreaking story, with rich, transporting writing in the style of Jeffrey Lent and Charles Frazier. At times very difficult to read for its brutality, but I was captivated by the story and characters and could not put it down until I reached the end. ( )