Laird Hunt

Laird Hunt's novel is an account of the life of a woman most would overlook. Zorrie is born and raised on an Indiana farm until her parents die when she is young and she is sent to live with an aunt who provides her with a place to stay and plenty of work, but little in the way of nurturing. When her aunt dies, Zorrie is a teenager left homeless and penniless in the middle of the Great Depression. But while Zorrie may have had to prove her resilience time and time again, this isn't a tragic show more tale because Zorrie is no one's tragic heroine. She's a tough and yet loving woman who loves the Indiana soil and the people in her life.

I loved this quiet story about an ordinary and remarkable woman. Hunt writes about her with such love and understanding that she feels like a beloved older relative. Zorrie lived through a tumultuous time in history, working as a "radium girl" painting clock faces and dials with glowing paint, seeing her husband leave for the war and not return and to have a transformative experience of her own, late in life. I'm glad this book was shortlisted for the National Book Award and so brought to my notice. It's a worthwhile read. show less

I enjoyed “In the House in the Dark of the Woods” very much. It has a del Toro-esque atmosphere mixed with dark Studio Ghibli surrealism. I honestly thought our protagonist was dead from the beginning, lost in a purgatory world in the woods. And Captain Jane and Eliza were there to guide lost souls through, whether they be other Puritans (heavily implied), Native Americans (“first-folk”) or slaves (the group in shackles.) Our main is referred to as “Goody” but her real name is show more revealed early on if you’re sharp. There are other clues as well: the robin redbreast means rebirth but also a messenger for the dead, crows represent illness and death, purple connects to the spiritual unknown, and owls represent prophecy. But the ending was satisfying and the state of Goody's family is kept vague until the very end, which I appreciated. show less

If you love quiet introspection (and I do, I really do) then have I got a book for you. How this author, with whom I have no acquaintance, wrote such a beautiful book, depicting one woman's life from about the 1930s on, in under 200 pages is quite remarkable. But by the end of the book, I knew Zorrie like I'd known her all my life.

Although she often led a life of disappointment, Zorrie was a bigger than life character. Her parents died when she was a young child and the aunt who took over show more her care was a bit of a wicked stepmother. When her aunt died and Zorrie was a teenager, she had to fend for herself as her aunt left her with nothing. Set in rural Indiana for the most part, Zorrie gets her first real job, working in the radium factory in Ottawa, Illinois where she bonds with two other women who become lifelong friends. But Zorrie wasn't one to stay in one place long. She eventually settles on a farm in Indiana and stays there for the rest of her life. Her years on the farm go a long way to developing her character. If that all sounds boring to you, well, this quiet little book may not be for you. For me it was bliss. And above all, a book about hope, and how we have to fight sometimes to hang onto it.

"Her aunt had disparaged the concept of hope with such caustic efficiency that Zorrie had naturally learned to discount what had ever been an important part of her nature. If she had done her best to seal up the spring during those early years....hope had nonetheless often found a way to seep out and surprise her, bow graciously, extend its hand, and ask her to dance." (Page 58)

I will not soon forget you Zorrie Underwood. show less

This book does what it sets out to. It is a charmingly polished bit of manipulative fiction. I can't love it, but I did feel it.