Rating: 
Summary: A novel teaming with the hazards of the swamp
Review: This novel takes place in the southwest Louisiana of the 1920s, a place at the very end of the virgin cypress era, a region no more tame than a sack plumb full of cottonmouth moccasins. In this tale, Tim Gautreaux's fourth book-length work of fiction, all of the innate wildness and danger of the cypress swamp comes full bore, like a reader's feast of unforgettable words. Two brothers, Byron and Randolph Aldridge, the sons of a Pennsylvania timber baron, go south for different reasons. Byron, a lawman in the fictional Nimbus, is fleeing his memory and his war-torn past, the skull-wrenching effects of World War I service. His younger brother attempts to bring Byron back to the family and to sanity. This attempt, coupled with the hazards of the swamp, crazed sawmill workers, corrupt marshals, and the liquor-running mob, is slowly fashioned into a beautiful piece of work. I will only mention Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses) in passing. Not mentioning McCarthy would be a mistake, for this book has the beautiful marks of McCarthy's influence on Gautreaux, and the language used throughout the story is at a level on par with McCarthy's inestimable prose. Ultimately, this is a novel about love and lust, place and period that only Gautreaux could write, now at the height of his powers as one of the South's greatest living authors. The Clearing had me involved in a cast of characters far beyond what I'm used to. Believe it or not, I read it on my honeymoon. This says less about me and more about the strength of Gautreaux's novel. A marvelous Louisiana story for our times. I highly recommend this novel. ---------- Reviewed by Dayne Sherman
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written - best book I've read in years
Review: This was an amazing story of family and trauma. The characters were well-developed and beautifully drawn in direct, piercing language. You didn't know where the story was going to end up, even in the last 10 pages. It was a fantastic read. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Novel of the Year
Review: With the year more than half over, this is by far my best read of the year so far. Beautiful language, engaging story, a time piece that has something to say about American business, about envoirmental issues, about violence and meaning. A tour-de-force of modern American literature. I am surprised to be the first customer reviewer singing its praises here. I won't be the last.
| 
