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Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:NOW A MAJOR FILM, LEAVE NO TRACE. Inspired by a true story, a riveting and unsettling novel about a girl and her father who live off the grid, in the shadows at the edge of civilization. Thirteen-year-old Caroline and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water's edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight. Told through the startlingly sincere voice of its young narrator, My Abandonment is a riveting journey into life at the margins and a mesmerizing tale of survival and hope.… (more)
Caroline and her father live a simple, meager existence, shrouded in Forest Park, a nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. Ostensibly homeless, they have built a secluded home in the woods, complete with garden, library, and shower. Caroline reads the encyclopedia and runs barefoot in the forest, exploring the boundaries of her domain. Occasionally, she and her father visit the nearby town for food, the library, his SS check, but mostly stay out of the reach of other people.
Peter Rock's My Abandonment is really a huge surprise. This slim novel examines their lives with dazzling, electric prose, starting with the childish naivete of the opening pages, to the shock of her father's subsequent unraveling, to the quiet mournful remembrance at the end. As each chapter unfolds, a stranger, more twisted history evolves, yet Rock writes with a tenderness that belies the darker truths.
Read this. Jeez, it will only take an hour. Okay, maybe two, but it's worth it.
The basis for the film "Leave No Trace" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt389217), and one of those unusual occasions when the film is a lot better than the book. The book is Rock's imagined take on a true episode of a man living wild in the Pacific Northwest forest with his pre-teen daughter. When discovered, well-meaning law enforcement and social workers tried to help, placed them on a horse farm with a job for the dad, school for the girl... and not long after, the pair disappeared again and no one knows what became of them. Rock builds the first part of the story convincingly, told in the naive, almost affectless tone of the girl's viewpoint. The father is clearly damaged, presumably from wartime experiences, paranoid and overprotective; the girl has learned to cope. She is brave, intelligent, and loving, and thriving in some ways. But once the conflict between "civilization" and their isolated life begins, the story - all Rock's imagination now - rather falls apart. It becomes something darker and more thriller-ish, suggesting kidnap and captivity. Perhaps the girl's flat tone is a defense against memories she cannot bear, but it doesn't match the earlier tone of their relationship in the book. Ultimately, the title may not mean what we initially think it does. I will just say as a librarian, I rolled my eyes at the final resolution of working in a library as the final refuge of an irredeemable misfit. Sigh. (Shades of It's a Wonderful Life... gack.)
See the movie instead. Wonderful actors, a nuanced relationship, true heartbreak, and respect for the characters and the paths they finally choose. ( )
I was drawn to this book because it is based on a true story from my hometown, Portland, OR. It is the dramatization of the sensational story about the discovery a 10 year old girl, Caroline, living/hiding in Forest Park with her father. Forest Park is located within Portland city limits and close to small community, St Johns. Besides having a hidden garden, further support came from monthly disability checks. Every month they made their "trips into town" which meant walking over the St. Johns bridge to the PO box, the bank and Safeway. The hiker who accidentally found Caroline, brought back police who arrested her father, a Vietnam vet with PDST. With questioning, the police were able to find out that the father and daughter lived together in a hidden cave for 4 years but instead of incarceration, it was determined by authorities that the two should be placed on a horse ranch where her father could work and Caroline could attend school . Caroline had not been abused in any way as shown by a thorough medical exam and oddly, when tested, Caroline scored above grade level although very naive about life. I was absorbed and intrigued until I discovered that the book is called a novel!...... Looking up the facts, the first half of the story is based on actual events, but everything written after their stay on the horse ranch is the imagination of the author filling in the blanks in the story. It's a good read but I thought people should know ahead of time that the second half of the book is fiction. Very clear imagery and well written. ( )
It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods, and still sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by only hunters. --Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Very soon after, I saw a little snake. He was crawling along. When I see snakes, I like to stop and watch. The dresses they wear fit them tight - they can't fluff out their clothes like birds can. But snakes are quick people. They move in such a pretty way. Their eyes are bright, and their tongues are slim. --Opal Whiteley, The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow
Dedication
For Ida Akiko Rock
First words
Sometimes you're walking through the woods when a stick leaps into the air and strikes you across the back and shoulders several times, then flies away lost in the underbrush.
Quotations
If a paragraph is a thought, a complete thought, then a sentence is one piece of a thought. Like in addition where one number plus another number equals a bigger number. If you wrote down subtraction you would start with a thought and take enough away that it is no longer complete. You might write backward or nothing at all, or less than nothing. You wouldn't even think or breathe.
A wizard is one who practices magic but can also be a person who is clever at a task or test, which is a series of questions, a trial, affliction, crucible, ordeal, tribulation, visitation.
It is important to always remember that at any time you think of it there are people being kept in buildings when they want to go outside.
From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.
Last words
In the soles of my bare feet, I can feel him say my name.
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:NOW A MAJOR FILM, LEAVE NO TRACE. Inspired by a true story, a riveting and unsettling novel about a girl and her father who live off the grid, in the shadows at the edge of civilization. Thirteen-year-old Caroline and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water's edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight. Told through the startlingly sincere voice of its young narrator, My Abandonment is a riveting journey into life at the margins and a mesmerizing tale of survival and hope.
▾Library descriptions
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▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
Puzzling title. Fine book. (I wonder if anyone will suggest a better title: I'm still trying to think of one.)
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