The Forest

 

The Forest – by Edward Rutherford

This was Edward Rutherford’s fourth book, and the fourth one of his that I’ve read. His formula, as I’ve stated in my other reviews, is similar to James Michener – you title your book about a place, and then cover several hundred years of this particular place with families and the descendants of those families, along with their interactions, their conflicts, their dramas, etc. So when all of the action takes place in the particular geography, the idea is for the “place” to serve, not only as a background to the characters, but also as a character of its own during the entire novel.  This allows the historical events throughout the years of the particular place to influence the many actions and predicaments that the people in the novel face.

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.  In my judgement, the “place” of this particular novel, really didn’t work that well, but the stories that were told within the book were mostly good.  It’s just that this “place” seemed rather mundane and hard to really grasp the intricacies of said location.   The particular “place” in this novel is “The Forest”.  What exactly is this “Forest”?  Essentially this is an area somewhere in Southern England close to the Isle of Wight; not too far from Rutherford’s first novel “Sarum” (or, for that matter, his second “London”).  What exactly is a forest?  In my mind, I picture an outdoor setting with plenty of thick trees, rivers, and wildlife.  This is an o.k. setting for a story like “Snow White” or a film about nature, but a novel about people?  So it was very hard for me to actually visualize the surroundings that these people lived their lives in and around.  Maybe, for us that live in America, a similar setting might be called “The Country”.

Anyway, such surroundings really didn’t add much to the story for me.  Unlike places like London, Paris, or New York (all titles of Rutherford books), there simply isn’t anything in the background that speaks to me like Big Ben, The Eifel Tower, or The Brooklyn Bridge.  I can’t really get excited reading about deer and trees.  In fact, Rutherford actually tells part of his story through the eyes of a deer and the um….eyes of a tree. Fortunately these instances are minimal, but having to read 2 or 3 pages of what a tree in a forest is thinking is 2 or 3 pages too many. When one is reading an almost 800-page book, one can get rather impatient when having to digest such narratives.

But Rutherford mostly tells good stories here, so overall I was pleased with the novel.  True, these particular stories could have probably taken place anywhere in the world. But for me, a good story is a good story regardless of where it takes place. I really don’t give a rip about the location, as long as I’m enjoying the story.  These stories are told over several centuries, and like his other books, the characters in the latter stories are all related to various characters in the earlier ones.  This is something I’ve never really been able to assimilate well. By the time we get to the 18^th century Pride family and Albion family, I had already forgotten what their ancestors were doing when I read about them in the 15^th century in earlier stories. Maybe my retention span isn’t that good?

One thing that I thought was an improvement in this book as opposed to some of his others was that the timeframe for the entire novel wasn’t nearly as long. The first story in this book takes place in 1099 and the last goes to 1925. Sure, that’s a whopping 826 years, but in some of Rutherford’s books, he starts in several millennia B.C. and goes to the present day.  Since this one is only 826 years instead of several thousand, it allows the stories to breathe a bit more; at least in most cases.  Sometimes Rutherford feels he has to pack too much time into too little space, and it’s too easy to get overwhelmed.  For example, the last story in this novel “Pride of the Forest” covers 67 years in 66 pages.  Not surprisingly, this was my least favorite chapter in the novel.

Conversely, my favorite story (chapter) here, “Albion Park” is the longest in the book at 192 pages, yet it essentially only covers one year (apart from a brief epilogue). This is so much better for my tastes as it allows me to relax and enjoy the stories, and I feel much more able to absorb all of the characters.  I’d much rather read a nice linear story of characters’ day-to-day interactions that move a particular narrative forward, then to have to read a story where parents, children, and grandchildren are packed in a small story so tightly over dozens of years that it makes your head spin. I hope in the author’s latter books, he lets his stories breathe more as he did in the “Albion Park” chapter.  Sure, I get it; he’s trying to tell as much as possible about the location.  But a story about people trumps stories where his focus is too heavy on the particular place, and sometimes only has characters to serve a scenery for his descriptions of places and events. Stories really should be focused on people.

Also, 764 pages is rather short compared to his other epics. Again, this is a good thing as one can’t get bogged down too heavily. Overall this was a good book, although not his best.  I still look forward to reading his other 5 (as of this writing) newer ones, and despite my gripes, it does have its own rewards to learn a bit about places of the world that you might know virtually nothing.