Into the Forest

Rating:
Summary: Do we really need all this electricity?
Review: It's not hard to believe that the US economy could collapse. I do wish the author had explained just a teensy bit more about it though. I can accept not knowing what everybody else in the world is doing about it because that is not the focus of the story. But I would have liked a little more explanation of the cause.

I can see where people might think a couple of the male characters were mere plot devices because they came in, served their purpose, in some cases remained nameless, and moved on.

However, this is still a great story about two girls who have a lot of growing and adjusting to do during a crisis. If nothing else, the reader will pause briefly to think that perhaps he or she is taking his or her life in this brief age of electricity for granted. This book poses the question: How did we ever live without power? This book also answers that question.

Into The Forest describes how inescapably close two sisters can be when they are all they have - and no, I'm not just talking about the debatably gratuitous sex scene, although I had a hard time buying that one myself.

I have to admit, there wasn't a great deal of character development in terms of figuring out personality traits, but then the story was told as journal entries of one of the girls. The story was more like: this happened, then that happened. Rather than: She was tall, thin-lipped, gossipy, lazy, and too pretty for her good.

As the title suggests, this story is also about the forest, perhaps the most developed character of them all. It's about how the forest took care of these girls in many ways during a crisis and their decision about choosing between it and their modern-day conveniences. Sort of one of those " It Takes a Disaster to Make You Realize What Life is All About" stories.

Rating:
Summary: Survival and coming of age
Review: A story of survival and coming of age for two teenage, orphaned sisters, set in the northern California redwoods during an apocalyptic disaster. A suspenseful read, with beautiful prose that called to mind the writing in Barbara Kingsolver's more recent novels.

Rating:
Summary: Often Profound
Review: Through the journey of the protagonist's struggle for survival, the reader is presented with the emmence potential of human power, and at the same time, human vulnerability. "Into the Forest" provides the reader with a glimpse of how a future world could look like without technology. A whole entire universe that never existed was suddenly created out the past. Overall, an intriguing and interesting book!

Rating:
Summary: thought provoking
Review: I found the reviews almost as interesting as the book. The book gave me much to think about. I think it was a highly probable premise: that society could collapse because of our voracious consumerism and the wars that rage at all times. I agree with those who said the author's prose was beautiful and delightful to read. I understand the comments about the lack of development of some of the characters, and the convenient location of the heroines far from the riots of civilization collapse. However, it allowed for the development of changes the characters experienced in the face of their isolation and dependence on their own resources. I don't think this book was anti-religious, nor do I think the sexual encounter between the two sisters was really about sex. I think it was about humans needing each other, and expressing that need in the one of the few ways we know. I also think this was ultimately a novel about change and learning to adapt. It was not saying that one way of life is better than another, but saying that all ways of life can be beautiful when you're willing to embrace what is, instead of resisting changes you don't like. It made me think about what is essential to life. In this book it boiled down to food, clothing, shelter and relationship. It made me consider how I have lost the ability to fend for myself in this world of conveniences and yet, how the world could still provide for me if the conveniences were to end. It reinforced my respect and gratitude for nature. It also got me interested in noticing and learning more about what is in the natural world for my benefit.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Memorable Book I've Ever Read!
Review: My husband and I both loved this story.
So often books are read and then forgotten,
but this one will stay with me forever.
A fantastic story that captures your mind
and your heart. I only wish Jean Hegland
would write another novel. I would be the first
in line at the bookstore. Extraordinary!

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully written metaphorical fable
Review: The writing is beautiful and a joy to read. If for no other reason, this book deserves to be read for the craft and poetry imbedded in Ms. Hegland's prose. The story begins with a family of four that includes two daughters. One of them, Seventeen-year-old Nellie, the younger of the two sisters is the protagonist and the story line unfolds through her experiences and perceptions. Eva, who is older than Nellie by only a year, is initially only a backdrop but evolves into a more significant role as the plot progresses.
After reading the book I found it difficult to decide whether it was an odyssey or a fable, and maybe it's both. The environment for the story and the motivation that drives the plot line is the total failure of civilization's infrastructure. The family lives in an undetermined wilderness area, thirty miles from the nearest town, Redwood, which is remarkably similar in description to Healdsburg the author's hometown.
The story unfolds through a logical progression from problem through crises to climax and resolution. The emotional content includes denial, bestiality, fear, loss, love, depression and happiness, portrayed as randomly as it occurs in real life. We all grow up, traverse emotions similar to these, and then realize we are alone in ourselves and mostly we prevail by means of courage, resourcefulness and perseverance which are also in the story.
I used the verb 'portrayed' rather than 'told' intentionally, because to read this book is to live the story as it unfolds in your mind. It is said that a good story creates a dream state for the reader and it was true for me with this book. Half way through the book I woke one morning from an anxiety dream involving the dangers of living in the country as we do. So I was living the book. The author accomplished this by letting me experience events as they would occur and not as they might be told.
This is a story written from the first person perspective of a young woman and it is about the issues that she and her sister have as women. I began to wonder as I read whether this was a book written for women or for everyone. It does focus on abilities not usually required of women in today's society. However their obstacles in the story were universal. A man might deal with them differently, but he would still have to deal with them. We need to remember that protected young civilized women, who are products of a relatively affluent society would react much differently than other ages or the other gender, and so goes the story. Furthermore, it is thought provoking to consider our exposure regardless of gender to a collapse of the infrastructure that we take for granted.
Several things bothered me as I read. What happens to the father is predicted fairly early, but I had to wait quite a while to learn what it was. I also had a hard time tolerating the lack of information about the disaster, whatever it was. For me, how I would react and what I did would depend to a large extent upon what was going on in the world. And the absence of men for most of the book unbalanced the story for me, but that was probably because of my own gender. Finally the ending was too flamboyant and illogical for me. Although, I have to conclude that these criticisms disappear when the story is taken as a metaphorical fable.
I haven't heard the name, Nellie used during my time in the 20th century. And ballet dancers use Marlee to create a dance floor, not Mylar. But these are really nits.
The writing in this book makes it a piece of art in my view. That it raises more questions than it resolves only increases its value for me. It's not a lightweight story. Reading it will engage some serious emotions.

Rating:
Summary: Survival at your feet
Review: Jean Hegland gives us a provocative novel about a family who lived far on the out skirts of a northern California small town surrounded by second growth redwood forest. The two girls, Eva, 17, and Nell (the protagonist) 16, explored the forest in their younger years, heeding the many warnings of their mother to beware the many perils lurking in the woods. As they became older, their interest in playing in the forest waned, replaced by Eva's commitment to ballet and Nell's advanced self-education to prepare for matriculation to Harvard.

Unfortunately, their mother's untimely death heralds the collapse of their society as they know it. Political and environmental catastrophies create anarchy on a local and grander scale.

Deadly epidemics break out across the nation as modern age medical systems become obsolete without electricity to power the diagnostic equipment and refreigerate the medications and vaccines. Infections now resistant to antibiotics become more virulent and illnesses easily managed by surgery now prove lethal as hospitals close and physicians find themselves helpless without the ability to operate. The infrastructure to distribute drugs collapses as there is no way to procure or prescribe medication. There is not transportation system as there is no gasoline available and the freeways have become parking lots for abandoned cars. It is indeed a dismal picture of dread and doom. Literally everything that has been taken for granted in their lives has now failed them and their survival skills are newborn at best.

The fascinating accounting of these girl's efforts to adapt is a rich and rewarding adventure. Left to themselves, they must now learn that everything they need is ultimately at their feet, but the path to understanding this is a difficult one. Their isolation in the house far away from town leaves them vulnerable. Their reliance on everything modern leaves them initially helpless and the loss of their parents leaves them emotionally wasted. It ultimately becomes quite obvious that no one will save them and their own survival will be up to them.

Nell begins to research their environment and her studies prove to be their saving grace. Nell learns that generations of Indians before them survived hundreds of years in the very same forest they live in. Nell must now extract from the forest gifts they need to survive. Everything they need is at their feet in the forest. Herein is the unique survival story of Eva and Nell.

My family consists of environmental biologists, wildlife biologists and nursing science. When I began this book, the concept so intrigued me that I gave a nightly summation to everyone while I prepared dinner. Soon, we were all involved in the story line while we projected a similar fate for ourselves and what issues would be important to us and the survival skills we would have to be proficient.

It is abundantly clear that we have become a dependent and wasteful society. Our waste paper basket hold objects that Nell and Eva would have cherished. I found this book not one of fear and fatalism, nor did I find this to be a story without faith and morals, as one reader stated. I found many messages of faith and hope in the book and am frankly shocked that some readers could not understand them.

I took away a powerful message to be more self reliant, conservative and environmentally sensitive. I do believe my garden will be a little larger this year!

Rating:
Summary: A dark jewel
Review: "Lick by insistent lick, [the bear] shaped the naked lump of me, molded my body and senses to fit the rough tug of her intentions. Lick by lick, she birthed me yet again, and when she was finished, she shambled on, left me -- alone and Nell-shaped -- in Her forest."

Subversive, incendiary, poetic and incantatory, Into the Forest reminds me in some ways of Cold Mountain, moving seamlessly between quotidian logic and dream logic.

The author Jean Hegland has weaved in large, primordial themes: life, death, childbirth, security, fear, dancing, nature, earth, animals. And she has followed her instincts to their far extremes. The structure is impeccable. What is to follow is foreshadowed so subtly that you may not know it. The result is a driven, hypnotic narrative which builds to a shattering, radical conclusion.

Into the Forest is quiet yet compelling, with undercurrents of shocking power. It will echo in the corridors of your mind long after you put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, frightening and compelling
Review: Maybe I have a shred of doomsday thinking residing deep in my bones but this book rang true to me. Heglands deft use of words took me directly into this possible future world and left me inspired yet chilled to the core. I found myself exhilarated by each deeply instinctual survival mechanism the young women discovered. I was left wondering how I and my loved ones would behave if found in such a monumental shift of reality. Having a mother that lives a nature based/minimalistic lifestyle VERY similar to Eva and Nell's, the novel hits uncomfortably close to home. I would love to share it with her but I know it would send her deeper into her isolation and hatred of American over-consumption and men. This book left me depressed but wonderfully in touch with the ancient force of feminine survival. I, like many, was very uncomforatable with the incestual tryst between Eva and Nell but on some deep level I understood the necessity of it to heal the near mortal emotional wound of Eva's first sexual experience...a horrible rape.
I felt the act of sisterly passion was a powerful reclaimation of their souls...souls facing mortal emotional scars, scars whose only cure hinted at suicide. At first I was REALLY uncomfortable with the incestual scene but yet in the wild isolated state in which they found themselves, the act almost seemed natural/primal....like the forest itself.

Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS SICK!
Review: The argument Hegland makes in this book is that all religion is bull and the only true religion is to get away from all of technology and become one with the earth. The book is tramatizing. When one of the sisters is raped, the other heals her by making love with her. There's another part where one of the sisters has sex with her crush on their first date. My teacher had us read this when I was a freshman in high school, so I may have been too young to understand, but to all you young readers out there, read something else and save yourself from months of terror. This book made me cry.