This is a powerful novella by a master storyteller. I think his best. ( )

All I could think of while reading Denis Johnson's dense novella was that he writes some the most muscular prose I have read in years. No sentimentality. No drifting off to speculation. Just the facts, ma'am. A war between the environment and the man. And the brutality of the human condition. Men aren't good in this book. They mirror the wolves who surround them in the wilderness and in the towns. ( )

One of our reading groups discussed this novella (under 100 pages) last night. Results were mixed: some people were not sure what the author's point was, but I had no trouble with that. In fact, I read it twice. Most agreed that it presented both a time and a character poignant and occasionally funny.

An orphan is taken in by his uncle in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s, even taking his name, but has little memory of his origin. As he grows, a striking incident turns him from a layabout life to one of utility, if not purpose. As he goes through his adult life, he finds love and disaster, hard work and its joys; industry and culture grow around him, past the essential rural 19th century on into the machines and entertainments of a more modern era.

Highly recommended. ( )

This is an interesting novella that describes the hardscrabble life of a man living out west in a time long since past. The various vignettes made me feel as if I was actually witnessing the protagonist's experiences. The author's writing style is generally straightforward, and he certainly has a skill for painting a picture of days gone by.

To me, the work teaches that most people's lives are hardly easy -the protagonist's was certainly much more difficult than most. Still, each of us must carry on when difficult times, even tragedy, strike.

My only criticisms are the book was a bit disjointed at times, and actually may have been a better as a full-length novel. Also, I found the superstitious elements unnecessary. To me, they devalued his work somewhat. ( )

Beautiful prose to illuminate a life of bleak tragedy.
Episodic, but as others have said, written as epic in miniature. A whole life boiled down to a few short scenes, almost all solitary, focused on Robert Grainier.

I read this trying to recall where I had previously read something of such seemingly simple storytelling about the American wilderness. Perhaps something like Cormac McCarthy edited like Raymond Carver. I am also reminded of Sebastian Barry’s Days without End, which also combines the harsh environment of the American West with poetic language. ( )