Into the Forest

Rating:
Summary: An amazing, all-consuming novel
Review: "Into the Forest" is the first novel in many years that I've been compelled to read in a single day. Jean Hegland's story of two teenage sisters facing the end of the world as we know it is told in a style that's as natural and ultimately mysterious as the redwood forest that surrounds their home. The descriptions of the gradual breakdown of civilation have a terrible fascination to them -- like news reports of a natural disaster that one doesn't want to see, yet can't turn away from.

Though the novel does contain feminist themes, this shouldn't deter men from reading and enjoying this novel completely. The book is for anyone interested in apocalyptic fiction or stories about survival in hardship, the loss of dreams, and the tenuous bonds linking families and society together.

Nell and Eva's progress from dependence to desperation and ultimate self-sufficiency left me both frightened for my reliance upon the modern world and grateful for what I have and e! njoy. This novel would make an excellent choice for a well-known talkshow host's book club -- and Hegland certainly deserves the recognition it would bring.

Don't wait for the movie (which will surely be on the way soon). "Into the Forest" is a powerful end-of-the-millennium read -- and I suspect the images and emotions in it will stay with me for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Review: I just finished this book just a few minutes ago, and it left me feeling very cleansed. While I do love the core question of the book-do we really need all this electricity?-I found myself very moved by the relationship between Nell and Eva. I strongly can relate to Nell when she mourns the time when Eva was taken from her by ballet. My older sister and I used to be very close but about five years ago she began to get into the whole sex, drugs and rock&roll phase-teenagerhood. To date I haven't read a book that was parallel to what I was feeling until I read Into the Forest.
I also liked how the book took place close to where I live. I live in northern California as well as the author and characters do. I used to live in an old farmhouse near the river that I spent my childhood in, and upon reading this book made me miss that place. That old house with few neighbors reminded me a little bit of the house in the book, only theirs was more isolated. In case you were wondering, I live in Sonoma County, west of Napa.
The novel took me by surprise-I didn't think that very much was going to happen. However, I didn't think that it was relevent to have the man come into the story as the enemy, and sinse he was, there should have been more about him. And I was surprised about the ending-I didn't think that they would do that. And there is a scene in the book that I don't want to give away, but after what happens to Eva and what the sisters do to each other I thought was both beautiful and disgusting. When you read it you'll see.
But I still thought it was a great read. It is ahead of its time and was worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: A début novel and already a masterpiece.
Review: At first sight you could call this a SF novel with the classical ingredients. Something happened: a nuclear war? an accident with a biological weapon? Anyway it seems that public live has ceased to exist. There is no electricity, no TV or radio and everyone seems to have gone.
Two young sisters, who lost their parents, live in a cottage deep in the woods of North-California. As a result of what happened they're cut off completely until one day a young man comes to their house and he stays for a while. After he's gone, the two sisters gradually change into a more 'primitive' way of life with a different perception (more elaborated as time goes by) of their surroundings. (To some degree, it reminds me of the novel 'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding).
But when you think it over, you could say it's a parable about growing up. The arrival of the young man drives them out of the 'Paradise' of their childhood and this starts the process of growing up. They don't turn into 'primitive' humans, they only lose their innocence. They become more mature and finally venture out of their cottage where they used to live for so long.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were other interpretations. It's a characteristic of masterworks to be interpreted in different ways.

Rating:
Summary: Improbable but beautiful look at man vs. nature
Review: Jean Hegland clearly knows adolescents, and that's what makes _Into the Forest_ so thrilling. Nell's dreams of the future, her crush on Eli, and her need for acceptance with the kids in town are next to flawless in their realism. The story is in first person, and Hegland takes the reader deep into Nell's perspective. I felt her experiences deeply, from the unvarnished despair of being in a post-apocalyptic world to her silent, intense joy at discovering for the first time her connection with nature.

Now that I've heaped up some praise, I want to defend this novel against some of the more common criticisms. First off, some people ask when they read this novel, "How likely is it that that could actually happen? The federal government collapses due to war and so forth, and for some reason the state governments don't take over, etc..." Well, the answer is that it's *very* unlikely. That part is not realistic and frankly, I don't think it needs to be. Hegland begins with a premise, that two girls are left alone out on the fringe of society, and she asks the question, "If this really happened, what would the response of these intelligent and sensitive but quite sheltered girls be?" She is exploring the connection humans have with nature in a way that *requires* all avenues of escape to be cut off.

Another thing about the novel some people have trouble with is its woman-centered approach and the lack of positive male characters. _Into the Forest_ is about women, and some of its issues are women's-only issues, but I don't see why a man couldn't enjoy it as well. I do not think that Hegland is criticizing men unduly; yes, the father is portrayed as sort of ineffectual, but no more so than the mother. It's obvious that Nell feels, or at least develops, a strong love for them both. As for the rapist...yes, there's some men-are-dangerous stuff in there, but I think it's offset by Eva's baby, who turns out to be, lo and behold, a boy, whom Hegland uses to remind Nell that humanity has not been reduced to only women.

Finally, as for the so-called lesbian incest scene...Maybe it *is* far-fetched, but it is also thematically appropriate. The point is that Nell and Eva are choosing leave behind everything that is dragging them back into the past. Afterwards Hegland is quite pointed, I thought, in indicating that there would be no repeats of that scene, and it was not about two sisters unnaturally lusting after each other, it was about reclaiming their lives from the terror they had been living in.

I hope the obviously controversial issues this novel deals with will not put anyone off. _Into the Forest_ is a challenging book because it treats the positives of the "back to nature" idea very unapologetically. But Hegland is not demanding that we ditch our society; rather, she is reminding herself and everyone else that when we chose this way of life we lost a connection to nature...She invites us to ask ourselves whether, if everything fell apart, we might not rediscover that part of ourselves after all.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I always enjoy checking out other readers' comments after finshing my recent selection. I was somewhat taken aback by a couple of those I read, in particular the suggestion that Hegland utilized amatuerish, obvious plot devices. The criticism concerning the Eva development (which, along with others I don't want to give away!) in my opinion lacks insight. Many times in life things happen that are actually quite obvious and predictible. I don't think that takes anything away from what has happened. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Jean Hegland isn't in any way "new author lacking" in this novel, and I would certainly hope people would not allow negative reader reviews to deter their reading of a superb, beautifully-written, thought-provoking, very timely novel. Also, my take on the Eva/Nell interlude was about re-creating and healing; I don't believe there was thought involved whatsoever. It was instinct. Something the girls were finally learning and experiencing.

I try to steer away from reading lots of reveiws before I begin reading something new. I am writing this for any potential readers urging them to read this wonderful novel. Also might add it reminds me very much of a fantastic short story I've taught many times--William Faulkner's "The Bear."

Rating:
Summary: Totally Plausible
Review: In response to a previous reviewer who reviewed, um, previous reviews: the electricity in the book, and you'll understand this when you read it, does not go off all at once. It goes in and out; the girls' family live on acreage in a nice house out in the sticks. They don't live in town, which actually bodes better for their survival. They hadn't been to school and had thusly been educated by their parents and themselves. They knew how to grow food and preserve it; they knew how to build crude structures; they knew how to ID plants. How many of us know those things?

Anyway, the power. It's never reliable, and as illness and political unrest abroad make the infrastructure in the US more shaky, life becomes more primitive. Backup systems aren't designed to run forever; things can't get fixed if the workforce is decimated by antibiotic-resistant infections.

I thought this was an excellent, spookily prescient book. Reading it again really makes me think -- the troubles Eva and Nell face in their world come about by a war fought far away, coincidentally compounded by illness and domestic terrorism. If you think it couldn't happen here, in this day and age, I believe you're wrong. I'm not saying it will... I'm just saying it could.

Rating:
Summary: I'm going to avoid this one...
Review: I haven't actually read this book, so take this with a grain of salt, but the more reviews I read the more irritated I got that so many people so easily accept, with barely an explanation, that all electricity everywhere would just stop. Pardon me? What about back up generators? What happened to them? How about alternative sources of power that are already in use such as nuclear, solar, wind, water, etc.? I am just too logical to tolerate nonsensical plot devices to humor a fledgling author . It's called deus ex machina, folks, and it went out with the Greeks. I'm going to avoid this book as I can see it is just going to aggravate me. There are too many good books for me to waste my time on a author who isn't willing to put the same effort into her plotting as she does her prose (and I'm just accepting this on faith because I can't imagine this stupid plot could have been what captivated so many readers).

I don't want to ruin the rating to much for this author considering I haven't read the book---thus the 3-stars.

Rating:
Summary: A story of Survival
Review: In this apocalyptic novel our wasteful consumer driven civilization here in North America has ground to a halt. The power is off, there is no more gasoline for cars, no phones, and little news from outside. Nell and Eva are a pair of teenage sisters living in a forest in northern California miles away from the nearest town, their mother died of cancer before everything collapsed and their father in a freak accident. The medical system has stopped functioning without power for equipment and refrigeration. The sisters are fortunate to have had eccentric parents that lived out of town with a garden to grow food, a wood stove, a loom to weave cloth and a gun, and many other things that prove useful. This is the story of their survival as told by Nell in the form of a journal.

It's true that some of the main questions are never answered. We never really find out what actually happened and what's going on in the rest of the world, or the rest of the country even. No one really knows, though it does seem that it wasn't one big disaster that ended it all rather multiple cracks throughout, overtaxed power system, overseas wars, collapsing economy, pandemics and we never really find out if it's going to get going again or not. The male characters seem a little lame too, except the eccentric dad who is killed off, and there is that scene between the sisters mentioned by previous reviewers here that seemed superfluous to the story and stretched my credulity.

Even so, I could hardly put the book down, really made me think, if something like this did happen, I would NOT want to be in a city. Most of us would be as helpless as babies without electric power and supermarkets to shop in. The story is beautifully written too with vivid descriptions of life in the forest where every action counts. If you enjoy "end of the world" stories, don't miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: post-apocalyptic masterpiece
Review: This post-apocalyptic masterpiece is brilliant and moving. It was so completely engrossing that I read it in a single day in 1998. That was over five years ago and the book continues to stick with me, especially the powerful ending. It's a story of survival, love, the human spirit, and getting back to nature that will appeal to both women and men.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME book!!!
Review: Any reader who enjoys books about the outdoors, survival, and living off the land, in addition to stories about family bonds and learning to adapt, will love this book. It tells the story of two teenage sisters who are left to fend for themselves when the world suddenly changes abruptly, leaving them without power, phone lines, and oftentimes, food. It will make you really think about where our civilization may be headed. This is an extremely realistic story told touchingly by the younger sister's point of view in journal style (but it's not annoying like some journal style writing; it flows seamlessly and you won't find any dates here, because they have no idea what the old-fashioned dates are!). You really get to know the characters and feel for them. And you will really start reconsidering what you would do in this situation... because the time may come that we all must face something similar to this. Definitely recommended- you won't want to stop reading! :)