Rating: 
Summary: Last Chapter Made Me Angry!
Review: A beautifully-written book and wonderfully executed plot. Although not easy to read due to the author's unusual -- "self-indulgent"? -- syntax and use of grammar. Once you get into the swing of it, it's not bad. First half of the book sort of plods along but in the second half the action gets moving and the book is hard to put down. However, what's with the epilogue? Are we supposed to know who the mother is? And is it Sally? IF SO, Jeffrey Lent, why not just TELL us, instead of making it your private game -- which is the feeling your book left with me. The only reason I didn't give the book "five stars" is because I felt, strongly, that the author was trying hard to "write above" his readers. Why? The only reason I can come up with is that Mr. Lent is taken with himself and wants us to be taken with him, too. Rather than concentrating on just telling us a good story -- which he has! -- he had to make sure we had to "work" to get through it! And, again, that epilogue! Why?
Rating: 
Summary: Unrelentingly Grim
Review: As children growing up in America we read a lot of stories about the American frontier which were probably a bit too idealistic, but which nevertheless for the most part were true. Undoubtedly communities gathered together at the church, or met to rebuild old Joe's barn, or celebrated the fourth of July with a square dance. What we didn't read about, perhaps, were thieving land-grabbers, family deserters, and prostitution. Well, this book makes up for that lack in a big way, in fact, too much so. If the children's stories were overly idealistic, this one is unquestionably overly pessimistic. The story takes place in 1838 and concerns a 46 year-old male, Blood, who to escape his self-inflicted demons, flees to the partially settled area north of New Hampshire, an area claimed by both Canada and the U. S. With him he brings rum, lead, gunpowder, and a sixteen-year old prostitute named Sally. The area he enters is populated mostly by farm families with a smattering of hunters and trappers. He's able to set up shop pretty quickly, selling both booze and the girl to the mostly unfazed populace. Which is the first red flag. Remember, this is a small community, with families. Would it really have been that easy? Yes, it is carefully pointed out a couple of times that there are disdainful wives in the community, but not once does the author mention children, whose presence would have almost certainly motivated the husbands as well. He completely sidesteps this issue. Then things get nastier. We find out that the community is mostly squatters living on land claimed by speculators. One of them gets arrested by an American sheriff so they all go to free him and a bloody fight ensues. The battles, between the settlers and the law, then escalate, and Blood somehow manages to be in the middle of each of them. Murders are committed, bodies disappear, houses are burned, men are cheated, and bribery and corruption rule the day. All of the characters act solely in their own self-interest, and there is not one who is even remotely likable. It should be said that the novel is competently written and the plot moves along. The style is reminiscent of McCarthy's Pretty Horses, or Frazier's Cold Mountain, but it lacks the lyrical quality of the former and the depth of both. In all, it's a rather bleak experience peopled by unpleasant wretches, the type of whom undoubtedly existed in colonial America, but never to such an overwhelming degree.
Rating:
Summary: Northern New Hampshire
Review: Having spent the first 18 years of my life in Lancaster, New Hampshire, I found the book especially captivating as Blood, the main character, and his ilk represent my roots! Jeffrey Lent portrays in chilling detail the incredibly hard, ruthless and bleak existence in the early 1800's and one can still sense these qualities today in the land and in the people of Northern New England. The book gave me new appreciation for the steely determination and toughness of my ancestors which Lent captured so beautifully. It's not an easy book to read as it draws one in to the suffering of Blood and the girl, Sally. I felt as though I was literally living with them throughout.
Rating: 
Summary: This is Literature
Review: I have just finished reading Lost Nation after reading Lent's other book, In the Fall. I cannot remember being so captivated by an author. These books read like thrillers but the characters are deep and complex and are slowly revealed to the reader as the story unfolds. Lent is a deep sea diver on the human condition and he integrates his characters, his story, and nature with the reader so you become involved through your own emotions and senses. He has a feel for dialect and draws people quickly and distinctly. I don't think I have ever been drawn in so quickly and thoroughly to the story or its characters by any other other author and I have read many, many, books. The only other comtemporary author I have read who is in his league is Charles Frazier who wrote Cold Mountain. If you liked Cold Mountain, you will love reading Jeffrey Lent who is even better I think. You will get to meet Sally in this book and she will be an unforgettable as Daphne is in In the Fall. The other characters are written so well that I feel like I know them and wish I could get in a time machine and go visit them. I cannot recommend Lent enough. His name will be spoken in the same breath as Twain and Melville someday.
Rating:
Summary: Literary Beauty
Review: I read LOST NATION and was completely hypnotized by Mr. Lent's true talent as a literary artist. Just finished his debut novel, IN THE FALL, and I must concur with most of the reviewers that Mr. Lent is an extraordinary writer that will not be flying under the radar for long if he keeps writing beautiful, heart-wrenching stories such as these. DO NOT BE MISLEAD by those reviewers who did not have the patience to fully absorb the rich characters and their environments. Never have I read such amazing characterization that explores the true nature of the human condition. These are the most multi-dimensional characters to grace the pages of a novel in awhile. Some of the passages are so expertly and beautifully constructed that they will take your breath away. Excellent plot structure, narrative pacing, and a truly gifted appraoch to writing. A wholly enriching literary experience. Highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE
Review: I read this author's other book, "In the Fall" and loved it. I think this author writes very well and keeps my interest to the end....This story takes place in the 1800's and is not alway pleasant, but I guess life back then was difficult at best.......To escape his life and humanity, after the drowning of his wife and son, Blood leaves New Bedford, Ma. for New York. He then leaves there by foot with a hand drawn peddlar's cart to wander the western hills of Connecticut and Massachusetts backwoods for 17 yrs. selling goods to poor farm wives....One day he wins the 16 yr. old prostitute daughter of a prostitute in a card game. He travels with Sally and settles in Indian Stream which is a country in dispute between Canada and New Hampshire. Blood opens a tavern/store and also sells the services of Sally to any man who has money to spend.....This is a very wild and dangerous country where there is no real authority and people have to struggle just to stay alive.....This is a violent, raw land with little pity for human life.....This wonderfully written story takes us from hardship to hope and love and brings out all sorts of feelings in the reader. Worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Why the "postlude"?
Review: I was gratified to read Richard A. Mitchell's review and agree with him that I do not understand what Mr. Lent was attempting to accomplish in his epilogue, which takes the reader forward 50+ years into Sally's life and introduces several new characters with only the most cursory explanation of how she arrived at her new station in life. Better, I think, to have left her escaping the last scene of the novel with Blood, Fletcher, and Cooper dead. I found no reference to what I feel is a dissapointing epilogue in the "official" reviews of this book; thank you Mr. Mitchell. Still, I will suggest that my husband read this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Lent is Unique
Review: Jeffrey Lent's writing style is unique. I, personally, find it difficult to read. His syntax is not common and his descriptive sentences and passages are often over-written. This was particularly true for the first third to half of this book. I felt the second half was much more clearnly written and less cumbersome - fewer times did I have to go back and reread a sentence to figure its meaning. Mr. Lent's characters in this book are far stronger than in In the Fall. Blood and Sally, the two main characters are strong, unique and haunting. Lent draws the reader into their growing relationship using their pasts effectively to explain their present personalities. These characters were the best part of the book. My major criticism of Lent's main characters is they are prescient beyond believability. The plot line is very good until the end when it gets a bit hokey to fit with the rest of the hard-bitten story-line. The epilogue is useless and I could not figure out why it was included. It did nothing to add to the book. This is not a book to read if you are looking for a sunshine view of humanity or the world. It does paint a good picture of an area in the wilds where people settled because they had a past they were not to be asked about - a seedy side of America's wilderness where people settled for reasons other than arable land or good climate. The characters in this book will stay with me for a long time. Unfortunately, I found it a task to plod through too many parts of it to rate it higher.
Rating:
Summary: Lent is Unique
Review: Jeffrey Lent's writing style is unique. I, personally, find it difficult to read. His syntax is not common and his descriptive sentences and passages are often over-written. This was particularly true for the first third to half of this book. I felt the second half was much more clearnly written and less cumbersome - fewer times did I have to go back and reread a sentence to figure its meaning. Mr. Lent's characters in this book are far stronger than in In the Fall. Blood and Sally, the two main characters are strong, unique and haunting. Lent draws the reader into their growing relationship using their pasts effectively to explain their present personalities. These characters were the best part of the book. My major criticism of Lent's main characters is they are prescient beyond believability. The plot line is very good until the end when it gets a bit hokey to fit with the rest of the hard-bitten story-line. The epilogue is useless and I could not figure out why it was included. It did nothing to add to the book. This is not a book to read if you are looking for a sunshine view of humanity or the world. It does paint a good picture of an area in the wilds where people settled because they had a past they were not to be asked about - a seedy side of America's wilderness where people settled for reasons other than arable land or good climate. The characters in this book will stay with me for a long time. Unfortunately, I found it a task to plod through too many parts of it to rate it higher.
Rating:
Summary: Lost Nation
Review: Lost Nation by Jeffrey Lent is the story of a man named Blood and a girl that he wins in a card game and takes to northern New Hampshire where he builds a tavern/cabin and sells her to customers for a dollar a trick. Blood is haunted by early misdeeds; he is merciless and unforgiving.
In the "lost nation" territory between settled New England and Canada, life is primitive. A few trappers, a handful of subsistence farmers scattered along streams, Indians, and men on the run make their own agreements and keep their own justice. The situation is ideal for Jeffrey Lent's skill in story telling, his passion for nature, and his need to delineate a stark and brutal view of human nature. The accurate and evocative descriptions of land and weather on almost every page layer a realistic cloak over what is really romantic darkness--a rejection of simple happiness, humor, self-sacrifice, our better angels, if you will. As the reader, unable to stop, moves deeper and deeper into the story, the desire to be done with the book grows proportionately. The book is memorable but mad, less than the sum of its beautifully written parts, perhaps, but more than most novels, a considerable accomplishment.
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