Barkskins
 First Scribner hardcover edition June 2016 | |
| Author | Annie Proulx |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Publication date | 2016 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 736 (first edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-7432-8878-1 |
| LC Class | PR3566.R697 B37 2016 |
| Website | http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Barkskins/Annie-Proulx/9780743288781 |
Barkskins is a 2016 novel by American writer Annie Proulx. It tells the story of two immigrants to New France René Sel and Charles Duquet, and of their descendants.[1] It is set over 300 years and witnesses the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming.[2][3]
Plot
The eponymous “barkskins,” are indentured servants, transported from Paris slums to the wilds of New France in 1693, “... to clear the land, to subdue this evil wilderness,” (p. 17) according to their master, a seigneur. The two men are contracted for three years of service to earn land of their own, but Charles Duquet runs away at the first opportunity, seeking to make a fortune for himself in the fur trade or by any means he can. René Sel, on the other hand, dutifully wields the axe clearing farmland for the master. Later, he is forced to marry the master’s cast off Mi’kmaq woman, Mari, a healer who gives him children. The Sel family heritage is thus native American and working class.
Duquet, luckily surviving his escape through the wilderness, has a fortune to make, mostly on furs and lumber, and by swindling others whenever he can get away with it. Only then will he marry the daughter of a Dutch business partner, open an office in Boston, therefore Anglicizing the family name to Duke, and father or adopt the boys who will build the Duke & Sons timber empire after him. . For the Dukes, property owned is never enough.
All the while, for the Sel family, there is unceasing discontent. The young are always seeking their future as Native Americans in a whiteman's world. Indian lumbermen, for example, were always recruited for river work balancing on the longest logs rushing down a river where an awkward move could get a man crushed before he drowned.(p. 299) Those who try to return to the old ways live in impoverished communities, eventually driven farther into forests until there are no more. For the Mi'kmaq people, all the 20th century brought their children was abuse in the Canadian Indian residential school system. How can the story of indigenous forest dwellers be anything but a tale of loss and death?
Major theme
Nature
Human struggles with nature are a recurring theme in Annie Proulx's books.[4] About the forest in 'Barkskins,' Proulx said, " It's the underpinning of life. Everything is linked to the forest. This is but one facet of larger things, like climate change and the melting of the ice. So deforestation is part of a much, much larger package."[2]
Reception
A few reviewers thought the sweeping epic scope of the work created a faulty structure for the novel as a whole.[4][5][6] Several expressed disappointment that the passage of so many years seemed to shorten the time given to the portrayals of some promising characters, especially toward the end of the book.[1][7][5][6] Some inconsistencies were noted, for example, changes in the diction a Native American character within a single episode.[4][6] The didactic nature of the theme was both applauded and faulted. A few reviewers thought it undercut the narrative perspective at times, imposing a good vs evil dichotomy.[4][5][6] Proulx’s descriptions were universally admired. Most readers found verisimilitude in these observations of the uncertainty and fragility of life, while a few spoke of an overwhelming echo of doom long foretold.[1][5][6]
Publication
Excepts from the novel were published in The New Yorker in March 2016.[3]
References
- ^ a b c Cummins, Anthony (19 June 2016). "Barkskins review – a grisly tale of chopping down people and trees". The Observer. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
- ^ a b Proulx, Annie (June 10, 2016). "All Things Considered". Annie Proulx's Bloody New Novel 'Barkskins' Is About More Than Deforestation.". Retrieved September 23, 2016.
- ^ a b Leyshon, Cressida (14 March 2016). "This Week in Fiction: Annie Proulx Discusses Her Upcoming Novel, "Barkskins"". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d Vollman, William (June 17, 2016). "New York Times". 'Barkskins' by Annie Proulx. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
- ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference
:7was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c d e Hensher, Philip (June 4, 2016). "Annie Proulx is Lost in the Woods". The Spectator. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page).