Barkskins

Our summer read for our book club was Barkskins, by Annie Proulx.  It is a lengthy tome (though not as bad as Anna Karenina or Atlas Shrugged) about the lumber industry in colonial times.  The brutality of the colonials, the prejudice toward the Native Americans, the lack of concern about the wanton pillage of the forests depressed me to no end, but I could not quit reading the book.  Proulx's writing kept the story interesting, and her descriptions were beautiful.  It was not hard to visualize the beauty and mass of the forests, the cruelty of the masters, the arrogance of the colonials . . . all of it, yet the book ended with a spark of hope.  I had read a review in Oprah and she highly recommended Bearskins.  At first I wasn't so sure, but after reading it, I recommend it, too.