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Barkskins

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Barkskins

By: Annie Proulx
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
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About this listen

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017

NOW A MAJOR TELEVISION SERIES

From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the world’s forests.

In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a “seigneur,” for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters – barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mi’kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years – their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand, under stunningly brutal conditions; the revenge of rivals; accidents; pestilence; Indian attacks; and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.

Proulx’s inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid – in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope – that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.

©2016 Annie Proulx (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural United States World Literature Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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Critic reviews

‘An ambitious novel of extraordinary power that deserves to win the biggest literary prizes and confirms Proulx as a more gifted writer than many of those deemed “great American Novelists” ***** Sunday Express

‘Magnificent … might be her best book yet’ Anthony Doerr

‘Wonderful … A huge and brilliant novel, which takes us back to the uncompromising splendour of the natural world, and affirms Proulx’s reputation as one of the greatest and toughest prose stylists writing today’ TLS

‘Truly compelling … I quickly devoured it … Barkskins stays with you’ Stylist

‘An enthralling story … Forest ecology, indigenous culture, sea voyages, Dutch culture, colonial and Maori culture, the logging industry: all these subjects and many more are revealed through the adventures of her characters’ New Statesman

‘Proulx’s commanding epic about the annihilation of our forests is nothing less than a sylvan Moby-Dick … Proulx’s commanding, perspective-altering epic will be momentous’ Booklist

‘Many of the fine qualities we have come to look for and expect in Proulx’s writing are in evidence in Barkskins. There is comedy, grotesquery and quirkiness mixed in with startling moments of sadness and suffering … This is a big, ambitious novel that offers a new and cleverly indirect way of thinking about American history’ Financial Times

‘The pacing of her narrative, with each generation reflecting the further depredations of man against nature, its impact on the indigenous population and the twists and turns of colonial power, delivers a slowly gathering power, accented with the dread of irrevocable change’ Guardian, Book of The Week

‘Such is the magnetism of Proulx’s narrative that there’s no resisting her thundering cascade of stories’ Washington Post

‘Deeply rewarding’ Good Housekeeping
All stars
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What did you like best about Barkskins? What did you like least?

This story covers a period of about four hundred years, starting in the 16th century and finishing pretty much in the present day. It starts with two men arriving in North America as indentured workers for the same man. It follows both these men and their many descendents during the following centuries. In a way it is a story of slow and inevitable decline on the one hand and the naked exploitation of what is considered to be the infinite resources of the environment to build a business empire on the other.

In essence one set of descendents become rich and the other essentially become increasingly impoverished and excluded. There is a strong and compelling ecological narrative throughout the story which rings through to this very day.

The problem for me is that there are so many characters and so many relations that keeping track of, and staying interested in, two family dynasties is difficult. When introduced to a new member of one of the family dynasties you may be seeing them as young initially and then you may not see them again until there are in their final years. Their lives described in between of apparently little significance or interest. That makes it difficult for a reader to engage with the characters.

This is a story that could easily have been expanded out to two or three books. The jumping around from character to character and in time make for difficult reading and it also makes it difficult to really care about and be absorbed by the characters. I also felt a little that by the end of the book it was getting more difficult to create distinct characters and their part of the overall story became increasingly like not much more than vignettes of peoples lives.

There is no doubt about it, this a book with enormous ambition, but unfortunately it's not for me.

Ambitious story, but not for one book.

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vast story and history based around two French immigrants to New France/Canada and their descendants - the destruction of the boreal forests of North America and man's insatiable greed for wood

amazing

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A truely epic journey through the northeastern forests told through the eyes of members of a family- I learnt so much and travelled far and wide

Wonderful

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Annie Proulx manages to combine a history of North American colonialism, environmental destruction and great storytelling. It's not easy to maintain interest in characters over a period of 500 years or whatever, but I think she does it pretty well and makes you care about most of the central characters even if they only appear for a short while. It would have been nice to have a printed family tree available for reference, but mostly I managed to follow who was who. I thought the narrator was fantastic, keeping everyone clearly distinct. There were a few parts where it dragged a bit (unless you are really into trees) but I'm very glad I stuck with it. Wish Trump would read it and learn.

Great American novel status?

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The book takes you through a historical journey and describes the political and commercial forces and the brutality and abhorrent ignorance with which a whole continent was raped of its ecological strength and the implications on our planet totally ignored.
It's a clever book that makes its point in the ebb and flow of describing a family dynasty over four hundred years and describes how Native American Indian culture was overwhelmed by white determination and greed.
It makes a point about where the global effect of stripping and changing the forests will impact on changing the earth irrevocably.
The words reverberate in me and unsettle me.
Not a history that we can have an ounce of pride in.

A powerful book that makes you uncomfortable

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This book is as much the story of trees as told through the generations of two French families settling in canada. it follows the history of the settlements and the obliteration of pine forests and oak as well and of course all the Indian trbes whose lands they stole along the way. However that said it has its faults. For one thing the various wars going on throughout Canada and america during the history of this book are barely touched on though they do come in to it vaguely. Also there is an awful lot of needless info dumping. it's a historical novel so there's not much plot. The dialogue is okay but too many 'saids' for my taste as usual and there's a huge amount of atmosphere and tragedy. It's not a bad book but then again it's not perfect. I'd say though if you want to learn something of the history of early canadian settlers you could do worse than read this though it is very long.

Now for the narator. Not bad actually. He has to deal with a variety of different languages and accents and he's competent in this if not perfect. I must say when it comes to the French, Scots, English and German accents I've certainly heard worse. So overall I could never give this book five stars but it's tolerably good and the naration could be a lot worse than it is. So go ahead and give this one a go if you have the time and want to learn something of how they did things in centuries past. It says a lot about the way dollars take the place of common sense and how many lessons that could have been learned have not been.

The story of trees

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I can’t recommend this highly enough - a superb story beautifully narrated. The historical sweep is astonishing - I learned (and felt) so much across the centuries right up to now and our ‘what next?’ story about the trees and the planet still unfinished. I am in awe of Annie Proulx’s skill and so grateful that she took the time to research and write this book. Please read it - you will never look at a tree the same way again.

Stunning

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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Maybe. You can tell Annie Proulx researched this novel thoroughly and you do get a strong feel for the settling of North America, from both the colonizers and the colonized. Often very gritty and thorougly detailed, but after awhile the characters become character studies--summations. A character will be there for several chapters and then die out, so I never got fully invested with any of them. I have read other epic novels and loved them, but with so much years passing, it just became a thing of 'OK, what decades are we onto next? Which generation is this now?' Most of the point of views were from the male characters and rarely from the female. I was also quite annoyed by the dialogue of the Native Americans, which seemed to fall on the stereotypical speech of no reflective verbs 'am', 'is', or 'are'. I was expecting 'Me Tonto' at any moment.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Didn't finish the book.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Robert Petkoff?

Not really. While his accent range was quite amazing and his pronunciation of French and Danish words and names equally so, his narrative voice wasn't particularly exciting or enganging.

Very detailed story, but couldn't finish

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The summary of this book did not appeal but, having just listened to 'The Shipping News' and loved it, I thought I would try my second Annie Proulx. Very glad I did. A fascinating book, beautifully written and well read. I felt it tailed off slightly at the end and became a little preachy, but that is a minor criticism of a long and enthralling novel. I think listening to the audiobook was a good move for me as I tend to struggle with difficult/unfamiliar names. I suspect the written version would be more of a challenge.

A real tour de force

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Few people can be more qualified to write the great American novel than Annie Proulx. Her range is vast and her mastery of language, plot and texture is almost unrivalled among contemporary writers. It’s a long, often painful but an extremely rewarding listen. Best book I have read this year.

The new Great American Novel

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