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Our Lady of the Forest
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
'One of the most exciting and thoughtful novels I've read this year ... a wonderful novel' Daily Mail
'Another virtuoso performance from David Guterson ... Gripping ... It balances the tension between belief and despair without ever losing its sense of mystery' L.A. Times Book Review
Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. Her past has been hardscrabble. Then one November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Is this delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God?
Gradually word spreads, and thousands converge upon the already troubled town. For Tom Cross, an embittered logger who's been out of work since his son was paralysed in a terrible accident, the possibility that Ann's visions are real offers a last chance for him and his son. As Father Collins searches both his own soul and Ann's; as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions; as Tom alternates between despair and hope; Our Lady of the Forest combines suspense, grit and humour in a story of faith at a contemporary crossroad.
'Another virtuoso performance from David Guterson ... Gripping ... It balances the tension between belief and despair without ever losing its sense of mystery' L.A. Times Book Review
Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. Her past has been hardscrabble. Then one November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Is this delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God?
Gradually word spreads, and thousands converge upon the already troubled town. For Tom Cross, an embittered logger who's been out of work since his son was paralysed in a terrible accident, the possibility that Ann's visions are real offers a last chance for him and his son. As Father Collins searches both his own soul and Ann's; as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions; as Tom alternates between despair and hope; Our Lady of the Forest combines suspense, grit and humour in a story of faith at a contemporary crossroad.
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Author
David Guterson
David Guterson is the author of the novels Snow Falling on Cedars, East of the Mountains, Our Lady of the Forest and The Other; a collection of short stories, The Country Ahead Of Us, The Country Behind, and of the non-fiction book Family Matters: Why Home Schooling Makes Sense. Snow Falling on Cedars won the PEN/ Faulkner Award. David Guterson lives in Washington State.
Read more from David Guterson
East of the Mountains Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Snow Falling On Cedars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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Reviews for Our Lady of the Forest
Rating: 3.1168582375478926 out of 5 stars
3/5
261 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A close, damp, green, cynical, and very real recounting of a young woman's hallucinating vision of the Blessed Virgin in a rain forest in the Pacific Northwest. The most telling part is the speed with which the faithful gather for this purportedly concrete manifestation. The use of chat rooms and Web forums leads to a camper city forming overnight on the site.Guterson is genuine, vivid, and unblinking in portraying the various players. And the cupidity - both in its lustful and avaricious meanings - shows through in this closely- and well-observed story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The style of writing was a bit of a revelation. In a lesser writer the lack of punctuation and capitalization would have been a disaster, but Guterson turned it to a graceful flow of thought, revealing a deeply feeling novel of faith and beauty.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A peculiar story written in a peculiar way by the author of the wonder Snow Falling on Cedars. In this novel, a young runaway sees & hears the Virgin Mary in the Oregon forests, & soon develops a vast following. Both the characters & the plot developments are at times implausible, but it's always fascinating reading.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The style of writing was a bit of a revelation. In a lesser writer the lack of punctuation and capitalization would have been a disaster, but Guterson turned it to a graceful flow of thought, revealing a deeply feeling novel of faith and beauty.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Loved Snow Falling on Cedars, but not this book. A homeless girl "sees" the Virgin Mary. Lots of boring in-betweens.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One of those books that we might label “thought-provoking”, and not character driven, or plot driven, but idea driven. It examines a case of Marian visions of a 15 year old runaway in Oregon in 1999. It investigates the nature of miracles and God, and is thoroughly cynical in some places and leaning towards mystical and unexplained in others. In many ways it is a complement to, you wouldn’t ever guess it, The DaVinci Code in its pondering the feminine, or rather the absence of it from the Catholic church. My esteem for the author has grown significantly after this book. He is able to produce books so different from each other that it’s hard to guess that they have been written by the same person. Besides, he was born to Jewish parents, and yet, has researched the subject so thoroughly in its theological and sociological phenomena, that you would never guess he is not a Catholic who spent his life contemplating the questions of his faith. I would be cautious about reading it if you are a strong believer, though. It’s critical of clergy too.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was enjoyable and very thought inspiring. I was slightly uncomfortable with the several self intimate parts of the book however. Other than that a great read
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guterson is a fine writer....and his previous works have set a high bar. This book was a bit unique in style, and I enjoyed that. However, the characters and storyline were not so gripping, although they were very real and devleped well. This book is not in the same league as "Snow Falling on Cedars", but perhaps it was written not to be.....a different effort to be judged differently. A book I will recommend, but a hint to the new reader to expect something new from this author.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I picked up this book because it was a price-reduced hardcover, and I thought I might give this best-seller author a try, and quite a disappointment it was. The story is extremely flimsy, and lacks suspense. It read like a mediocre kind of B-movie, somewhat reminiscent of Dream Catcher, but with unexpectedly strong religious overtones. Is there anywhere the suggestion that the vision is psychedelic? It could be, why else is the main character out in the woods picking mushrooms (of all things)?Nothing in the story justifies its development into 320+ pages. A real pain to get through.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never got me to really care about the characters. I liked Ann and I thought her interaction with the priest was interesting, but the side story of Tom was annoying and I didn't really care about him. I also never believed that Carolyn was out for anyone but herself. The ending was better than the book, but I think I was just glad to be done with it.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I was hoping for something more along the lines of Snow Falling on Cedars, I didn't get that. Perhaps I'm a skeptic anyways, but I never found any descriptions of visions to be convincing. Perhaps it was ment to be that way. If you want a good David Guterson book, read Snow Falling on Cedars, not this one.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was intrigued by this book because of the subject matter. I lived in Conyers and indeed even knew the lady who saw the Virgin Mary back in the 1990s. I wanted to see what this author's take on it was. This novel is about so much more than a young girl who has visions, however. It's mostly the story of an economically depressed town and some of the people who live there, who are trying to do what they can in a bad situation. When Ann sees her visions, it's interesting to see how people react, both believers and nonbelievers. The author does not really present an opinion as to whether or not the visions are real. I learned a good bit about how the Catholic church handles such things, and it prompted me to do my own research regarding our local experiences. The book did drag a bit, and if I hadn't had some distant experience with the subject matter, I don't know if I would have finished the book.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5absolute tripe.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Magical and real at the same time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"Give your heart to the precious son and take refuge within his wounds."Ann Holmes is a teenage runaway girl whose only source of income is from gathering and then selling mushrooms in the woods around the North Fork camp-ground in up-state Washington. One day whilst alone in the forest as she brushes dirt from the gills of a mushroom she notices a strange bright light that hovers between two trees. She is initially frightened and runs away reciting an Our Father and three Hail Marys as she does so. However when she witnesses the light again she sees a human figure within it gliding towards her and recognises the figure as being the Virgin Mary. On returning to the camp-ground Ann seeks refuge in her friend's Carolyn Greer camper-van. On hearing Ann's tale Carolyn is sceptical but agrees to accompany Ann back into the woods for another look. Although Ann alone sees the figure again Carolyn is struck by her reaction to the apparition and reports the sighting to a few of her own friends. Thus word spreads and so ever greater crowds of pilgrims, including the local priest Father Donald Collins, turn up to accompany the two women to share and document Ann's contact with the Holy Virgin.Ann Holmes is an unlikely choice as a visionary. She is sixteen, an itinerant runaway, the daughter of an unmarried teenage mother who lives with a meth-amphetamine addict who at fourteen repeatedly raped Ann resulting in two abortions. Ann is a severe asthmatic, small, skinny, has jagged cut hair and constantly wears a hooded sweatshirt to shroud her features. Carolyn Greer a fellow mushroom picker who lives in a van in the North Fork camp-ground is the only person she has that even approaches being a friend.North Fork was once a relatively prosperous logging town but has been in decline for a number of years due to environmental concerns meaning that many off the loggers are unemployed, listless and desperate for an upturn. Guterson's imagery gives his audience a clear sense of his setting, the landscape is almost tangible and the reader can almost smell the aroma of the forest and the desperation in its inhabitants.However, the real strength of this book is the characterisation of the four main characters, Ann, Carolyn, Father Collins and a former logger called Tom Cross. All are deeply flawed. Ann has been subjected to an abusive where she was raped and has taken a cocktail of drugs, including magic mushrooms or psilocybin, to cope with the trauma. Carolyn is a non-believer who is mouthy and exploitive whereas Father Collins is fairly newly qualified as a priest and is struggling with his own calling and sexual desires in a mildewing parish. Tom Cross is an ex-logger who now works as a prison officer whose bullying of his wimpish son led to the latter having an accident which left him a quadriplegic. Tom curses God but feels guilt for his son's accident and is desperate for a measure of redemption becoming in the process an unlikely believer. Despite what on the face of it appears a rather gloomy subject matter there is also a certain wry humour dotted within the book which made me smile. In particular the author takes a rather tongue in cheek dig at the resultant commercialism that enters the scene along with greater numbers of followers with it's accompanying trinkets and Catholic memorabilia. Ann reports that the Virgin wants a church built in the forest and ministry commenced by the faithful whilst church leaders who scrutinize Ann's story have already decided that she is a fraud. Ann wants the greedy to turn over a new leaf but is unable to see that those closest to her are also guilty of that sin.However, Guterson successfully manages to skirt the question of truth or fraud but instead focuses on the persistence and perhaps even need of faith in modern times, the limits of human reason measured against spiritual yearning. I have a few minor quibbles with this book, the use of the word "nigger" in one section and the lack of quotation marks for dialogue, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The story is told with passion and readers whatever their beliefs will be able to relate to the feelings that it inspires even to those, who like myself, aren't particularly religious at all.