English teacher Jillian Bowen has recently read “North Woods” by Daniel Mason. It is a historical fiction that tells the story of a house and the people that encounter that house over a period of time lasting several centuries.
“There’s a little bit of the supernatural,” Bowen said. “There’s a little bit of realism, but stylistically it’s just beautiful.”
The narrative depicts the temporal nature of human existence in contrast to the lasting effects of each person on the house and landscape itself. Told from multiple different narrators, the story interweaves such rich perspectives together with the land itself.
“The story winds back on itself over and over, and you start seeing all of these connections,” Bowen said. “One of the most fascinating chapters to me was actually a chapter that was all just a footnote, and it tells the story of how a seed came over and grew into a tree.”
The book opens with a young couple running away from a Puritan settlement. They end up building a house together, and this house becomes the main focus of the story. Over the centuries more and more people reside here and each of their memories are absorbed by the house.
The plot jumps between a wide variety of viewpoints, ranging from a small seed to a starving artist. The influence of each person is observed through the impact they have on the home and its natural landscape.
“What does it mean to really exist and be here?” Bowen said. “It goes on to show that nature and the world will go on without us even though we are a part of it.”
“North Woods” is a relatively new book by Daniel Mason that was published on September 19, 2023. Daniel Mason is a physician and author whose research focuses on the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature, history, and culture on the practice of medicine. His book is about our connection to existence and nature that Bowen highly recommends.
“It’s so beautifully told, and it’s accessible,” Bowen said. “It has deeper things that I think people feel accomplished in reading.”