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Summary: ONCE UPON A TIME A GIRL WALKED INTO THE FOREST...
Review: Our Lady of the Forest is not my usual cup of tea. How could it be? This book--part fairy tale, part social commentary, part rain-sodden film noir--is unlike any book I have ever read.A while back I tried to read David Guterson's Snow Falling On Cedars. I could not get into the book for some reason. I could not invest myself, emotionally or mentally, in any of the characters. I started out not caring and ended up not finishing the book. You can then imagine my trepidation when I picked up a copy of Our Lady of the Forest. However, I found myself intriguiged by the story description. Against my better judgement I gave the book a try. I found that Our Lady of the Forest is one book that is very hard to put down. Guterson rambled in Snow Falling On Cedars. Here he proves himself to be a master of spare, soul-reverberating prose and taught plot-lines. His characters are hauntingly simple but carry an immense weight and depth. His scenes, especially the climax, echo in the reader's mind for a long time after putting the novel down. The tale of Anne and her visions, and of the lives affected by them is one of the best pieces of storytelling I have read in a long time. Like the great Northern Forest in which it is set, it is vast--inspiring to the intellect--and stirring, even humbling, to the soul. I give this book my full recommendation.
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Summary: Our Forest of the Lady
Review: As a great fan of Guterson's previous novels, I was eager to read "Our Lady of the Forest." Page by page, the book has elements that please, particularly the descriptive treatment of the forest community and Guterson's literate dialog. But ultimately the book fails to satisfy. Ostensibly, the theme is the personal struggle to come to terms with religious experience. But Guterson makes it clear through this book that he has no first-hand religious experience to draw upon: no anguish of soul, no conversion, no sense of devotion, no spiritual witness, and ultimately no faith. We're left with a portrayal of Christianity so lifeless and banal that it might have been pieced together from NPR talk-shows. Please, Mr. Guterson, inform your next novel from your own experience, and people it with folks that you really know.
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Summary: A Big Disappointment from Gutterson
Review: I loved Snow Falling on Cedars and was hoping for a similiar literary experience. I plodded through this book hoping it would get better, instead I was disappointed and felt cheated of my time and money. I cannot recommend this novel plain and simple!
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Summary: Where's the eloquence.....
Review: Like another reviewer, I found myself wanting to abandon this book at several points. However, I was determined to finish it in hopes that Guterson would throw a twist or SOMETHING to make the drudgery go away. Instead, I finished the book with immense disappointment and a strong sense of having wasted my time. A confluence of poor character development, slow pacing, repetitiveness, an incomplete plot and absolutely NONE of the eloquence of "Snow Falling on Cedars" render this novel meaningless. Sadly, Guterson may have achieved his artistic peak with "Snow Falling on Cedars." Unless word of mouth influences me, I will not bother with future Guterson novels.
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Summary: Stopped at page 129
Review: While David Guterson's previous book, "Snow Falling On Cedars" was exceptional -- it won an award -- and "East of the Mountains" was ok, "Our Lady Of The Forest" just doesn't rank with his others. My struggle to continue reading this book has come to an end because I stopped reading. The first time I stopped reading was on page 111, but later picked up the book, hoping to get to the final page. However, on page 129 I decided again, enough is enough. There just isn't enough interest and believability in the story to continue. One curious characteristic of this book is that Guterson has chosen not to use quotation marks in the dialogues, and I wonder why he left them out. Maybe that is a new trend of which I am unaware. Maybe someday I will finish the book, but not now.
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Summary: Unsatisfying...
Review: I hate to throw "cold water" on other happier reviewers, but I read 5-10 books per month and I hate to waste my reading time. I felt that I wasted time on this book. Although David Guterson's insight into the life and doubts of a priest was very well written, the choppy, unpunctuated dialogue was hard to follow. The main character Anne, was so sketchy that it was hard to determine what she was really all about. The storyline is intriguing...an appearance of the Virgin Mary to a non-Catholic teenaged runaway with no religious training, but the novel failed to deliver the goods. Ultimately, we are left to our own assumptions about whether or not Ann was the real thing, and perhaps that is the point, that all faith is just that. But the lack of fleshing out of characters, coupled with the odd writing style, especially in terms of the dialogue made me long for the end of the novel, and not in a good way. I kept hoping that SOMETHING would happen, but the "something" that did was just so abrupt that it didn't pack the punch it could have. I wouldn't recommend this book, unless you have time to kill and don't mind a lot of "loose ends" in your fictional reading.
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Summary: Guterson's fall
Review: An utter disappointment. Guterson falls way short of the bar he set for himself in Snow Falling on Cedars, which was the best book I've ever read. I feel like I've been raped in the same way Mark raped Ann.
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Summary: Someone has been eating too many mushrooms
Review: Yuk! I am having trouble finishing this book. I had to take a break to see if I was the only one who felt this way. No, I am not, but there are also some who claim to actually enjoy this mishmash of a story. Having loved Guterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars," I couldn't wait to read "Our Lady of the Forest." If the author's name were not on the cover, I would not believe it is by the same author. I think Mr. Guterson must have been eating those magic mushrooms he talks about in the book too. His story rambles on. The lack of quotation marks makes it difficult to follow. There is not one redeeming character in the story. Although I am not quite finished, I do intend to even though it makes me feel as though I have been "slumming."
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Summary: Fair And Compassionate Exploration Of Visitation Phenomenon
Review: Although I am not Catholic, I completely concur with several of the former reviews regarding this book in the sense that it is a wonderful story and does delve realistically into the depths of the paradox of human nature and faith. No one person is all light or all dark. Often we are a unique combination of many colors, irrespective of the appearance we choose to present to the world in an attempt to consciously or unconsciously sway opinions of others into believing we are who we want to believe we are. Guterson demonstrates this beautifully with each of the characters in his book by exploring each from an external perspective as well as an internal one. The main character, Anne, is a perfect example - a teenager runaway who most would dismiss at first glance as an unkempt homeless girl, yet who becomes the vehicle that thousands would follow in pursuit of the opportunity to touch God. At first glance, she's not what many would expect to be the most likely candidate for divine visions, to be so infused with unshakable faith or to be called on by God... yet the contrast in this story is that those who have consciously chosen to be vessels for the possibility of such occurrences are the ones who have the most doubt and who struggle with their faith and who struggle with accepting what they experience through and because of Anne. The story illustrates how one truly cannot judge what is in the heart of another based on superficial appearances and how the surface appearance anything is not necessarily truth. Again and again, this book addresses this theme in a thousand overt and subtle ways and can, if allowed, leave the reader questioning themselves and their own levels of compassion and judgments or lack thereof in profound and moving ways. In addition to the marvelous and very realistic characters, Guterson also explores the phenomenon of divine visitation from many different angles - from the devout who believe faithfully, others who prefer the more rational explanations to account for such phenomena, to still others who struggle with doubt in it's myriad of forms and who never quite gain a satisfactory explanation for themselves - yet he manages to never impose onto the reader any concrete opinion of what "the truth" of it all is. The reader is given the opportunity to explore themselves and their own beliefs about such issues through the characters and come away with their own interpretations. Some may criticize the book for not wrapping everything up in a nice, neat little package at it's conclusion but I found the author's choice to refrain from doing such to be very refreshing and, again, true to life. Although there are episodes in our lives that do have a beginning, a middle and a definite end with irrefutable closure that allows us to move forward into the next chapter of our lives, more often than not, life is an ongoing story where answers to old questions are revealed in the process of the lifelong journey and through seemingly unrelated incidents. Guterson, as is true of most authors telling a story, focuses on the central incident itself by way of "a snapshot in time" and concludes the story with the point and purpose of Anne's life fulfilled - since the story is primarily about Anne's journey. All other characters who play a part in her story, one that becomes their story too, go on to grapple with questions that I expect will continue to tease or haunt them for the rest of their lives. Guterson does not attempt the feat of following each of the many other characters over the course of each of their lives to ascertain how the incident continues to impact and shape them but he does give glimpses that let the reader imagine the possibilities. That was enough for me. All in all, despite the movement of the story being a little slow in places, I truly appreciated it as a whole as well as Guterson's fair and very compassionate handling of the humanity of each of the characters. His delicate yet thought-provoking exploration of the many perspectives of divine visitation and visions - both what they could be and what they might not be - was handled beautifully as well and ultimately leaves the issue of faith where it should be: In the mind and heart of the beholder.
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Summary: A Great Read
Review: David Guterson's books have always been a great read and a wonderful story. Our Lady of the Forest is no exception. I read this book in 2 days, I just couldnt put it down. Guterson has a way with weaving words into an intricate story that is heartbreaking, magical, breathtaking and inspiring. His prose is elegant, the story is beautiful and his characters are wonderfully developed as is the scene of his tale. He takes you inside the town and people and allows you to get lost in their thoughts and feelings. The only disappointment came when I finshed the book and knew I would have to wait a while for his next one.
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