In Wilderness

Fierce is an adjective I can’t get out of my head now I’ve finished this book. Fierce decisions and commitments. Fierce actions. Fierce conviction. Fierce talent.

Buying a remote cabin to die in seems like a good idea to Katherine and in a sense it gives proportion to her personality. She’s a stoic. Whatever life dishes out, she takes. I liked her dispassionate view and decision just to get on with dying. At one point she muses that even a planned death can go awry “Small wonder skeletons all grin.” p 47. Her early plans are just to wither and die, unnoticed and unclaimed. “In her safe shell she rides the night from sound to sound.” p 74. Then she discovers she might not be a city girl after all. She comes to love the show more forest and its bewildering array of plants, creatures and night sounds. After some of her strength returns she revives the garden and delights in her talent for growing things (hint hint...the lost baby, the looming D). Her affinity for a weaving hung in her old offices makes her try her hand at this art and she produces things described as wild and with the potential to swallow the viewer whole. It’s these passages that held the most power for me. The brutal counterpoint of Danny’s actions were hard going. I admit to crying uncle and skipping the pages immediately after what happens to the surveyor. I read the last chapter and discovered that things don’t end so badly for K, though I should have realized through a tiny bit of foreshadowing in the form of her one piece of mail.

Danny incensed me on almost every page and while I’m sure the author didn’t intend for me to like him, she wanted me to feel sorry for him. I didn’t. He’s one of those man-children who want everything their own way. That mostly manifests in controlling women and denigrating them to elevate his own self-worth; in this case Katherine takes the brunt of his hateful nature. At first he objectifies her and calls her bitch and whore within seconds of seeing her on the path to the cabin. Ugly. Vicious. I didn’t care what horrors he’d seen in his five minutes in Vietnam, this kind of psychosis is inexcusable (but no wonder considering the ghastly Memaw). Then when he finds he’s “in love” with her, he employs more kindly ways to label and hobble her. I’m really sick of men who just want to corral, control and mummify women so they become the objects of their fantasies. Mute receptacles. Idols with no agency or action. The scene where she finds what he did to her car was dreadful and I skimmed it because it was so like a rape.

Katherine’s obsession and spineless submission to her own need of him wasn’t all that attractive either. This section of the book reminded me sharply of The Good Mother by Sue Miller. Sexual obsession is a powerfully mysterious thing. The writer didn’t pin all of K’s healing on Danny’s magic dick though, which was a relief. No, the book is called In Wilderness for a reason. Both the physical and the mental wilderness that a lost soul can find itself in. Danny’s persistence in that wilderness gives him ways to justify his actions. The oft repeated line about stalking the panther just because she’s there comes to mind. His dreams of restoring Gatsby’s mansion are romantic and I felt a bit of empathy with his desire to do it. That and his affinity for the moldering library.

Some parts and passages were darkly lush and odd in a way that reminded me of the late William Gay - “A pack of wild dogs bayed down in the valley, a moiling, frantic sound of lives gone suddenly so strange they couldn’t figure out which way to run.” p 39.

Overall this isn’t an easy novel. Not in concept, language or circumstance, but it is intense and atmospheric. If you’re brave enough, you can certainly lose yourself in it and hopefully return unharmed. show less

A Twisted Anti-Romance Set Against an Unspoiled Forest Wilderness

(Full disclosure: I received a free book for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. Trigger warning for rape, suicide, and racist and sexist language. This review contains clearly marked spoilers.)

Dr. Third Opinion sighs. He leans back in his creaky chair, stares past her into some middle distance to her left. "A hundred, hundred-twenty years ago, we used to tell patients like you, patients we had no hope of curing, to go west, move to the country, take the Grand Tour of Europe. Anything. A change of scene. After all this time, we can't do any better."

"Were they healed? The ones who went away?" Hates her voice's horrid, hopeful whine.

He shrugs. "Who knows? show more I doubt most of their physicians ever heard from them again."

###

Katherine Clopton had a blessed life: A loving husband, a nice house in Atlanta, a much-loved baby on the way, and a lucrative job at an advertising agency (even if she was forced to pass her creative work off as Tim's. This was the "good ole days" of Mad Men, after all.) And then she lost it seemingly overnight. As quickly as a city pesticide truck could sweep through her neighborhood, Kate's health took a nosedive; she suffered a miscarriage; and Tim up and left her.

Almost four years have passed, yet Kate's not over any of it: her health problems least of all. What started out as migraines - crippling but not fatal - has snowballed into a mysterious constellation of symptoms: nausea, weakness, non-localized pain, lethargy, and forgetfulness. Her body is failing to assimilate food, her doctors say; she's slowly starving. Given just six months to live, Kate impulsively purchases a rustic cabin in the Atlanta wilderness, sight unseen. Within weeks she's sold her share in the ad agency, vacated her suburban home, and headed into the woods to die.

Only something quite unexpected happens: there in the pristine, virgin wilderness, Kate's health improves. Flourishes, even. Except for her semi-regular supply runs to town, that is: then the dizziness, sickness, and confusion return. After the first few trips, Kate finally pieces it together: it's civilization that's killing her. What once looked to be her salvation is now a prison.

But little does Kate know that she's not alone in the woods. The former occupant of the "Old Man's" cabin, twenty-year-old Vietnam veteran Danny McLean, is living his own form of self-imposed exile. Suffering from PTSD - triggered by witnessing the violent death of his best/only friend in Vietnam; Danny still carries one of Jimbo's bones, lodged in his thigh like human shrapnel - Danny no longer trusts himself around other people.

Displaced from the cabin by Kate's arrival, he's taken up residence in "Gatsby's" house, a ruined mansion set high on Panther Mountain. And he's watching her; has been from the first moment "the city bitch" set foot in the forest's magical green rooms. She becomes an object of interest, then obsession; and before the story's done, these two damaged individuals will enter into a passionate affair that's highly dysfunctional at best. Forced together by circumstances, neither one can untether themselves from this toxic relationship.

In Wilderness is like watching a train wreck: it's almost impossible to look away, even as your complete lack of will and decorum make you feel like a shameless vulture. It's certainly a compelling read, but it'd be a mistake to say that I enjoyed it.

Danny is seriously fucked up, and I'm not referring to his PTSD - which isn't something of his own doing, and makes him deserving of sympathy, not scorn. If the PTSD was his only issue, then yeah, I'd be rooting for this couple all the way. But he's also a racist (everything is "gook" this and "gook" that), and a virulent misogynist (women are all "bitches" and "whores"), which is demonstrated in full force by his relationship with Kate.

Danny's first instinct is to spy on Kate: stalk her like prey - or like a soldier at war. Watching from afar quickly escalates to spending the night outside of her cabin, just so he can listen to her breathe. When, having survived longer than expected and thus run out of supplies, Kate uses her Mustang to drive into town, Danny panics; thinks she up and left for good. (How dare she!) And so he vandalizes her car - strips it completely. But hey, at least he left her a cart in which to lug her groceries back from town. What a peach!

** begin spoilers **

During the first half of the book, I worried that Kate and Danny would eventually hook up and go on to have a healthy and fulfilling relationship - thus framing Danny's stalking behavior as romantic, as is too often the case in pop culture. A show of loyalty and devotion! Thankfully, this does not happen. After the watcher gets his woman, so to speak, Danny's abusive behavior only continues to escalate; and Thomas ultimately identifies the relationship as unhealthy. Yet this doesn't make the downward spiral any easier to stomach.

While together, Danny becomes possessive, controlling, and manipulative. Bossy. Bullying.

When an acquaintance from her previous life approaches Kate in town, Danny confronts him - and then promises Kate that he'll kill any man who "bothers" her. She receives an unexpected letter in her post office box, and Danny tries to snatch it away from her, thinking it's from 'that Atlanta guy.' He hectors her into performing sexual acts in public. He very emphatically doesn't take "no" for an answer. He insists that "no" means "yes." He "has sex" with Kate while she's sleeping. (Pro tip: this is rape.) On one occasion, he tries (but fails) to hit her.

And mommy issues? This boy's got a few. Grandmother issues, too. He buys Kate a red flannel nightgown just like Memaw had, and when she tries it on at his insistence, he finds the sight so arousing that it immediately leads to sex.

The final straw comes when Kate realizes that Danny's been slipping her Pennyroyal tea - his Memaw's secret weapon - in order to abort the fetus she wasn't yet aware that she was carrying. (Reproductive abuse FTW!) The doctors told Kate she was infertile; Danny thinks she's a "lying bitch."

This latest affront spurs Kate to finally excise Danny from her life. When he refuses to leave, she shoots him (not-fatally, in the shoulder). His response? It's true love! "Loves him so hard she fucking shoots him." No means yes to the nth degree. Jesus, take the wheel!

** end spoilers **

So...yeah. Though I was unable to put this one down, I can't quite say that I liked it, or would even read it again if given a do-over. It's just not my cup of tea, and the unsatisfying climax didn't help much.

Although I did find the nature writing enchanting. I also love that Thomas spotlights two illnesses - PTSD and Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) - circa 1966, in the days before proper diagnosis and treatment. (The DSM first classified PTSD as an anxiety disorder in 1980, while MCS is still a subject of debate.) Katherine's journals in particular (daily observations that read like haikus) are enchanting as well. (More please!) And the subplot involving Carlisle-Colorado, which plays out in the epilogue, hints at the tension between conservation and development ("progress") in an interesting way.

This isn't to say that you won't enjoy In Wilderness, particularly if you're heavy into psychological thrillers; for me, I think it's just a case of right book, wrong reader.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/07/15/in-wilderness-by-diane-thomas/ show less

To be honest, I got a little creeped out by the obsession and submission in this book. Clinically, I understand what was going on in medical diagnoses with Katherine and Danny, but the workings of their relationship, particularly as the leaves began to fall in autumn and during the winter, still got to me-- which I guess says "the writing was good."

This book is set in a sacred part of the world (for me) so the scenery came vividly to life, along with the characters. I'm rating the book not on how I actually felt about the story (remember that key phrase in the first sentence? "Creeped out"?) but rather by the power of the story and what the author was trying to do.

Thank you to Library Thing early reviewer program and the publisher for show more sending me this book. show less

You want to read this. Please believe me: it's outstanding. This book is not a thriller, at least not in the way we normally think of a thriller, but you won't want to put it down.

I feel so lucky that I picked IN WILDERNESS from librarything.com's list of giveaways the same way I always feel lucky when I've just finished a great book. By "great book," I mean one that is both well (in this case, beautifully) written and can't-put-it-down terrific.

But resist reviews that want to tell you the story. You'll love it so much more if you do. Let this suffice: It is the 1960s. Katherine, a 38-year-old woman with a successful career, buys a cabin and property deep in the wilderness and moves there alone, unaware that Danny, a damaged Vietnam show more vet, has been squatting in the cabin and now is squatting in an abandoned home not too far from there. That is all you need or want to know until you read it.

And, really, you do want to read it. show less

In Wilderness is the sort of novel that I found myself thinking about for days after having read it. I was immediately drawn to Katherine's character, wanting to know what was making her so terribly sick, wanting her to somehow conquer her illness. Following her into her mountain refuge, I rooted for her as she tried to make her new life work. Danny, broken with mental illness, was both heartbreaking and terrifying. Together, the two of them wove a tale that grew darker and more disturbing page by page. I'd recommend this book, especially to book clubs - there are so many interesting discussions to be had - and Diane Thomas' writing style is lovely.

In Wilderness is a story of two damaged and needy people who have removed themselves to the deep and mountainous North Georgia woods in the late sixties. They are each having trouble living in society but for very different reasons.

Katherine is ill without any medical recourse. From a methodical list, created from books rather than experience, she purchases supplies to last for her short end-of-life stretch in a cabin in the wilderness. Slowly, away from her city environment, Katherine feels the healing powers of the isolated woods. Her senses heighten. She feels the presence of a "deer" holding forth in the night, breathing just outside her wall.

But it is not a deer. It is Danny, who first spots Katherine in the forest, her coat a red show more dot moving through his territory. Danny is so damaged by war and upbringing that he follows an inner command to stalk this interloper. He is very good at that as he hikes through the woods every day to watch Katherine at her cabin. Creepy? Oh, yes.

The prose was wonderful. I especially loved the descriptions of the woods, Katherine's recitation of the names of trees and backs of seed packets, the garden. I have to admit that I almost abandoned this book after about 60 pages because it was so disturbing. Continuing, I was rewarded with a very good book, with a story line that surprised me along the way.

A small detail: The title page and its facing page have a shadowy background photo of a forest. Nice job, Bantam Books. show less

She will remember this moment all her life, she is sure of it. – from In Wilderness, first sentence –

The year is 1966. Katherine Reid is sick. She thinks she is probably dying. It seems as though her happy life has completely unraveled. And so, she leaves society behind and heads to a cabin in the Georgia Appalachian Mountains. She brings very little with her – a sleeping bag, a loaded gun, a tin plate. She expects to die soon – alone in the woods.

But Katherine is not alone. Not by a long shot. Twenty year old Danny, a troubled Vietnam Vet, has discovered Katherine. He watches her. Stalks her. Fantasizes about her. Danny’s past suggests violence – especially towards women. As winter gives way to spring, Katherine is still show more alive and Danny is getting closer.

Diane Thomas has penned a novel that is a psychological thriller about obsession, desire, and the healing powers of nature. Katherine finds that isolating herself seems to make her feel better, while at the same time she is living on the edge of terror.

She should leave immediately, run as fast as she can into town and catch a bus back to Atlanta. That’s the only sane, sensible thing to do. She knows this, and at the same time knows she will not go, knows she would not have gone even the other day. In this wilderness, and only here, she feels as if she isn’t dying. Dares not carry this thought further. Dares not hope. And dares not go. – from In Wilderness, page 94 –

Katherine is experiencing a clash of emotions that is elevated by a raw desire for something she has never known before. She sees the danger, but cannot stop what she is doing.

I was totally engrossed in this novel. I feared for Katherine. I longed to know more about Danny’s past. I wanted to see how this tale of two damaged people driven by erotic desire and something unnamed would end. Thomas weaves together the protagonists stories against the stunning backdrop of the wilderness. Beautiful, frightening and hauntingly compelling, this novel will resonate for readers who enjoy both literary fiction and thrillers.

Highly recommended. show less