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48. Mink River, Brian Doyle
This one was a surprise. I loved it, loved it, loved it. It was like a big poem river to swim in. Doyle's story, complete with Oregon coast village life, a talking crow, assorted Natives and Irishmen, looked at first like it was going to be maudlin and perhaps racist/appropriative? But instead it was rich and wonderful, and just the right amount of quirky -- a bit like David James Duncan mixed with Murakami mixed with...I dunno, someone very Irish. There are bits about The Hunger (an gorta) and lots and lots of gaelic, and Worried Man and Cedar who run the very, very unusual Department of Public Works in the tiny village and do all kinds of semi-magic (ignore the blurbs about this book, which make the DPW angle sound like the only thing, like it's some kind of Twin Peaks/Northern Exposure thing, but it's really not the main story, at all). It's slightly mystic in that the town's inhabitants are, slightly, but the reverence and the spiritualism never comes off as trite, it's just kind of...there. It's knit in with the whole style of writing and the backdrop. I can't help but love this, partially, because it's about a corner of the world I especially love, and wish I knew better. Doyle's writing is beautiful; his particular genius is in these long, parallel-construction passages where he knits together dozens of stories happening simultaneously around the town, all united around a random moment, like at one moment everyone in the village is singing at the same time, or everyone is kneeling at the same time. There are passages like this which are like long run-on poems. They were just right. I wish I'd noted down some of my favorite phrases to share with you, but this was one of those books that I just swam into and through, so if you like novels like that, I highly recommend this one. Especially if you're in the mood for visiting a damp little fish midden on the North coast and meeting an erudite gentleman crow named Moses who will eventually make you cry (maybe). Okay now I'm being deliberately evasive. If you like this review you just might like this novel, otherwise, skip it.
This one was a surprise. I loved it, loved it, loved it. It was like a big poem river to swim in. Doyle's story, complete with Oregon coast village life, a talking crow, assorted Natives and Irishmen, looked at first like it was going to be maudlin and perhaps racist/appropriative? But instead it was rich and wonderful, and just the right amount of quirky -- a bit like David James Duncan mixed with Murakami mixed with...I dunno, someone very Irish. There are bits about The Hunger (an gorta) and lots and lots of gaelic, and Worried Man and Cedar who run the very, very unusual Department of Public Works in the tiny village and do all kinds of semi-magic (ignore the blurbs about this book, which make the DPW angle sound like the only thing, like it's some kind of Twin Peaks/Northern Exposure thing, but it's really not the main story, at all). It's slightly mystic in that the town's inhabitants are, slightly, but the reverence and the spiritualism never comes off as trite, it's just kind of...there. It's knit in with the whole style of writing and the backdrop. I can't help but love this, partially, because it's about a corner of the world I especially love, and wish I knew better. Doyle's writing is beautiful; his particular genius is in these long, parallel-construction passages where he knits together dozens of stories happening simultaneously around the town, all united around a random moment, like at one moment everyone in the village is singing at the same time, or everyone is kneeling at the same time. There are passages like this which are like long run-on poems. They were just right. I wish I'd noted down some of my favorite phrases to share with you, but this was one of those books that I just swam into and through, so if you like novels like that, I highly recommend this one. Especially if you're in the mood for visiting a damp little fish midden on the North coast and meeting an erudite gentleman crow named Moses who will eventually make you cry (maybe). Okay now I'm being deliberately evasive. If you like this review you just might like this novel, otherwise, skip it.
