Czułość wilków
by
Stef Penney
book data
735 ratings, 3.69 average rating, 248 reviews
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book data
all editions
735 ratings, 3.69 average rating, 248 reviews
this edition
0 ratings,
0.0 average rating, 0 reviews
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19%
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40%
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28%
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published
binding
Paperback
isbn
8375080675
(isbn13: 9788375080674)
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Read in September, 2008
Sometimes insightful remarks are made which are so reductive they have the power to diminish life even as they explain it. In 1939 Alfred Hitchcock explained in a lecture at Columbia University: "We have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers." Wikipedia elaborates :" A MacGuffin is a plot device that moti...more
Sometimes insightful remarks are made which are so reductive they have the power to diminish life even as they explain it. In 1939 Alfred Hitchcock explained in a lecture at Columbia University: "We have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers." Wikipedia elaborates :" A MacGuffin is a plot device that motivates the characters or advances the story, but the details of which are of little or no importance otherwise. The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot devices is that it is not important what the object specifically is. Anything that serves as a motivation will do."
This is one of the principal reasons why spy and "mystery" novels bore the living bejesus out of me, and alas, when I realised "The Tenderness of Wolves" was not, in fact, a cookery book as I had been led to believe, I found it was a "mystery" novel, a stone whodunnit in fact. The victim is murdered because of the big fat MacGuffin which in this book takes the form of a bone tablet which some guys think is valuable because it may indicate there once was a literate Indian society. So in this book people do a lot of following trails, which are footprints in the snow. I won't give the ending away, but they do so much tracking they almost find the Woozle.
I liked the chaotic flailing about which takes up most of the plot, it reminded me of two great Coen Brothers movies, Blood Simple and Fargo. But enjoying the bafflement of others only takes you so far.
The other thing which bugged me about this book was The Historical Present. It's weird enough when authors write in the first person past tense but you can suspend enough disbelief and imagine (if the self-consciousness of reading imaginary narratives ever surfaces) that you are hearing a perfect recollection by the narrator. The Historical Present smashes this conceit. "I am not gentle but he makes no sound as I clean the wounds with rubbing alcohol. He has his eyes shut. From the corner of my eye Parker seems to be watching us..." That kind of thing. It's a strange idea - instead of the perfect recollection the perfect real-time self-description like you are on an advanced driving test - "Describe your observations Mr Bryant" "In my rear view mirror I see a black Fiat Punto with a blond male driver and a woman with a leopardskin coat, can't see if it's fake fur but I am assuming so; now I am making a left turn into Cold Potato Street, avoiding the cyclist who has large earrings and is weaving slightly as his panniers are overfilled".
And finally - this book was famously written by a woman who suffered so much from agrophobia that she did not leave a wooden box measuring three feet by six feet by ten feet for over two years. So the book was written entirely out of research and imagination. I like this idea a lot because after all, fiction is made up, and I have little time for autobiographical coming of age novels (except for Edmund White). However - if I look at the author blurb and I see "John MacGuffin has been a lecturer at the Creative Writing School of the University of Do As You like, Minnesota for 37 years" or I see "John MacGuffin has been employed variously as a prizefighter, royal embroiderer, catamite, chef on board a nuclear submarine and private detective; John was born Stephanie MacGuffin and transgendered at the age of 31. He now lives in a community for the blind and limbless in Katmandu" - I kind of get the notion that the latter's interesting experiences will make the better writer. Literature proves this prejudice nonsense, but it lingers.
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bookshelves:
historical-fiction,
mystery
Read in December, 2007
For what it's worth, this is the first book I've read since I joined Goodreads to which I've given five stars. So, at the risk of gushing, I'm telling you to run, don't walk, to reserve this at your local library or buy it.
The setting is the 1860s in Canada, where the small community of Caulfield and cabins strung along the Dove River sit at the edge of the great North Woods. The book opens with the murder of French-Canadian trapper, and that event unlocks several intertwined subplots among ...more
For what it's worth, this is the first book I've read since I joined Goodreads to which I've given five stars. So, at the risk of gushing, I'm telling you to run, don't walk, to reserve this at your local library or buy it.
The setting is the 1860s in Canada, where the small community of Caulfield and cabins strung along the Dove River sit at the edge of the great North Woods. The book opens with the murder of French-Canadian trapper, and that event unlocks several intertwined subplots among the people who live in this wintry landscape, dominated by the Hudson Bay Company.
The sharp description of the landscape and lives of European settlers and Indians alike is all the more remarkable because Stef Penney was agoraphobic when she wrote this and was unable to visit the scene of her novel, instead doing all of her research from the safe womb of the British Library.
This is also much more than a mystery, with finely drawn human portraits, stories of forbidden love and heartbreaking loss, all set in a time and place that is vividly evoked. If it were possible, I'd coin the term histery for this amalgam.
When the trapper is found dead in his cabin, a young man, Francis Ross, also disappears and is the first suspect. His father hunts for him briefly, but after he returns home empty-handed, Francis' mother is determined to search for him herself, and to her own surprise, she ends up going off secretly with a man named William Parker who is half-Indian and who has just escaped from official custody as a suspect in the murder.
The killing is the biggest sensation in the community since the disapperance several years earlier of two girls, who some feel died in the woods and were eaten by wolves, a story none of the experienced woodspeople believe, and a chapter of history that will make an eerie reappearance as the novel progresses.
Penney is a screenwriter by trade, and part of the sheer enjoyment of this book is the movie-like pacing, with short chapters weaving expertly back and forth between three and four subplots (I'd be surprised if this isn't made into a movie at some point). Mixed into this cast of characters is a venal and paranoid Hudson Bay official, a utopian settlement of Norwegian Christians deep in the woods, a charismatic but troubled Hudson Bay officer who lives deep in the forest, a new Company employee who is trying to prove himself and trying to decide which woman he loves, and the mysterious man that young Francis Ross saw and followed after the murder.
Penney's gift for language also elevates this above many a plot-driven mystery. At one point, she describes a narrow-minded resident of the village this way: "She considers herself a well-traveled woman, and from each place she has been to, she has brought away a prejudice as a souvenir."
Or this landscape description: "As suddenly as a smile, the sun causes beauty to break out on this sullen plain. Beyond the pallisade lies a perfect landscape, like a sculpture carved in salt, crystalline and pure. Meanwhile we trudge through roiled slush and dirt, trampled and stained with the effluent of dogs."
And near the end of the book, a description of the son's recuperation: "It has been weeks that he has lain up in the white room, his muscles softening and his skin growing pale like rhubarb under a pot."
A page turner with bonuses. You can't ask for more.
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This book is directed at readers rather than thinkers. I can understand why people like it because there are plenty of wonderfully crafted moments, but the novel lacks focus and depth. I've read a few reviews that ooh and aah over the fact that it's a murder mystery wrapped in a love story hog-tied to a western deep fried in good ol fashioned wilderness tale, but I've always felt that genre divisions are a crutch for people who need the books they read to conform to a series of prearranged att...more
This book is directed at readers rather than thinkers. I can understand why people like it because there are plenty of wonderfully crafted moments, but the novel lacks focus and depth. I've read a few reviews that ooh and aah over the fact that it's a murder mystery wrapped in a love story hog-tied to a western deep fried in good ol fashioned wilderness tale, but I've always felt that genre divisions are a crutch for people who need the books they read to conform to a series of prearranged attributes.
However, what people take away from a novel (or any work of art), as well as the baggage they bring, isn't something the author can be held accountable for. Though Stef Penney was obviously writing for a target audience based on her experience as a screenwriter (I don't like it when I can see the machinery turning), nearly every other review I've read drags in aspects of her personal life, giving them a disproportionate weight that colors one's appreciation of the narrative. The kind of gossip useless to any serious literary discussion.
Aside from the pockets of wonderful writing scattered throughout, what I liked about this novel was the title. Wolves generally rank above snakes but below mice on the Wheel of Tenderness, but I liked the attempt to turn our thinking around. Those of you with access to the discovery channel know that wolves mate for life (awww...), but that their lives are determined mainly by a constant struggle for physical dominance within the pack. Food is always scarce; most packs can only support one litter of cubs and any youngsters that don't belong to the pair at the top are killed out of hand, and even for mature wolves their main predators remain other wolf packs. If there is a tenderness of wolves it is characterized by a vicious, selective intensity focused ultimately on survival. Draw whatever parallels you please between the previous statement and people you know and love, or substitute wilderness for wolves.
Where the novel runs aground is the arbitrarily neat division into four sections. Not only do they break the flow of the story, they feel forced, as if Penney was already thinking about where to insert the commercial breaks. At the beginning of 'Fields of Heaven' Penney introduces a number of minor characters that, while well-drawn, don't add anything to the novel, or contribute to it's resolution. Everyone in Himmelvanger is background noise except for Line, who didn't serve any real purpose aside from informing Angus at the end about his wife and son (simultaneously robbing the reader of a scene where Angus comes across his wife with Parker ). At the same time, all of the conflict built up in the first section between Knox, McKinley, and Sturrock is set aside and ultimately left unexplored like so many other plot threads. Sturrock and Marie in particular get robbed in this book; after building them up in the beginning, they spend the rest of the novel literally sitting around.
Overall this book confused me, and not in a tantalizing way. I felt jerked around, as though Penney had started to say something, changed her mind, and then sprung mid-sentence in a completely different direction....less
bookshelves:
canadian-lit,
historicalfiction,
mystery,
queerlit
Read in December, 2007
A historical mystery set in Canada, and featuring what are essentially the precursors to Mounties and gay characters. I really thought I was going to like this book. Instead, I struggled to keep up with its meandering pace and mostly unsympathetic characters, only to be confronted by a conclusion that just cuts out like the end of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” I know that sort of thing is supposed to be arty and true-to-life, but is a little bit of closure so much to ask? Se...more
A historical mystery set in Canada, and featuring what are essentially the precursors to Mounties and gay characters. I really thought I was going to like this book. Instead, I struggled to keep up with its meandering pace and mostly unsympathetic characters, only to be confronted by a conclusion that just cuts out like the end of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” I know that sort of thing is supposed to be arty and true-to-life, but is a little bit of closure so much to ask? Several plot threads are completely abandoned, dropped five or ten or fifteen pages from the end and never picked up again. Blargh. Forgive me, but I was reading to find out what happens, not to…I don’t know, muse on how mostly things suck and it’s very cold in Canada....less
Read in May, 2008
Well it's 1:20 AM and I just finished this well written page turner. Would probably give it 4 1/2 for capturing my interest. When my book club chose this I didn't think I would like it because I usually don't read murder mysteries. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the weaving storylines and plots and the way the characters were connected in what I was imagining to be a vast wintery wilderness. I also enjoyed the contrast of the first and third person narratives. I'm not sure I...more
Well it's 1:20 AM and I just finished this well written page turner. Would probably give it 4 1/2 for capturing my interest. When my book club chose this I didn't think I would like it because I usually don't read murder mysteries. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the weaving storylines and plots and the way the characters were connected in what I was imagining to be a vast wintery wilderness. I also enjoyed the contrast of the first and third person narratives. I'm not sure I get the title.
Although it took me a while to warm up to Mrs. Ross (in the beginning she seemed kind of simple and mousey) but as the story went on I really admired her. I was pulling for her all the way. And...cuddling with Parker in the cabin for warmth...much better than...you know. I could feel it!
I got a little confused with some of the characters and keeping them straight and I still don't get the Seton girls - can't wait to talk about this at book club. Were they both alive or only one of them??? I don't get it!?
I was mildly disappointed in the ending. I wanted a little more. I didn't feel that everything got wrapped up well enough, but that could be because I'm always one for the fairytale endings, girl gets the guy, conflicts are resolved, etc. AND what the hell is her first name??
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Read in March, 2008
I picked this up at Penn Station one evening when I was unexpectedly stuck in NYC. I couldn't decide which book to buy, and my boyfriend made the decision for me. (I think he picked it because his last name means wolves.)
I started to read, and I was immediately struck by the interesting choice of having only one character in first person. The other chapters, though not in first person, are for the most part closely aligned with a single character. I could see why Penney chose Mrs. Ross f...more
I picked this up at Penn Station one evening when I was unexpectedly stuck in NYC. I couldn't decide which book to buy, and my boyfriend made the decision for me. (I think he picked it because his last name means wolves.)
I started to read, and I was immediately struck by the interesting choice of having only one character in first person. The other chapters, though not in first person, are for the most part closely aligned with a single character. I could see why Penney chose Mrs. Ross for her first person voice. I found her interesting and very easy to like and sympathize with.
That said, I never fell for this book, but even then, it is more complicated. I've read a few other reviews, and one said that though the reader never connected with the novel, she kept picking it up. A similar thing happened to me. In so many ways, I felt like the novel fell short. Like some other readers, I was quite surprised that the novel was a Costa award-winner. I just didn't feel it was award-winning good. However, I kept coming back to it. I mostly read it on the train to and from work, and I would be disappointed when I arrived.
In the end, though, I was just disappointed. The characters and story were interesting, as were some of the creative choices like the episodic structure and the choice to have one first person voice mixed in with the third person voices. Unfortunately, the writing was not on the same level as the the other elements, and in fact, the quality of the writing was a bit erratic. Some parts were far superior to others. Furthermore, as the novel went on and each chapter had its own mini-cliffhangers, I got a little annoyed. It felt like I was watching a TV show (Another reviewer mentioned a soap opera.) instead of reading a book, and the cliffhangers weren't all that exciting, either. Most elements of the mystery were way too transparent. Another big problem for me was the loose ends Penney left. I have no problem with loose ends on principle, but I just felt like she was leaving something open for a sequel. I don't want to feel that way about a book.
Even with my reservations and my disappointments, I don't think that reading this book was a waste of time. I'm confident that most readers will not be sorry.
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Read in March, 2008
This book received the Costa (Whitbred)Award which I find totally surprising. Certainly the book has all the makings of a great novel. But it is not.
A host of interesting characters, a dramatic environment, a historical setting, even a murder mystery. Lots of interesting characters and criss-crossing paths. Yet it feels more like a soap opera at times than anything else.
I think the choice of the author to give a first person voice to one character and then use third person all the rest...more
This book received the Costa (Whitbred)Award which I find totally surprising. Certainly the book has all the makings of a great novel. But it is not.
A host of interesting characters, a dramatic environment, a historical setting, even a murder mystery. Lots of interesting characters and criss-crossing paths. Yet it feels more like a soap opera at times than anything else.
I think the choice of the author to give a first person voice to one character and then use third person all the rest of the way through the book is a major mistake (in the discussion in the book she says Dickens did it in Bleak House so why can't I -- because he is a literary genius, that's why). Although all of the characters are interesting, the author gives us more insights into some than others. The result is a feeling that this was designed to be a Dickensian book but the author just wasn't up to it.
I don't think you will feel that you wasted time reading this book and there are some wonderful passages about life in wintry Canada. But I wouldn't put it at the top of my list. ...less
Read in February, 2008
This book is set in backwoods Canada in 1867. It tells a series of interconnected stories about events in a small settlement on the edge of the forest. In many ways the Hudson Bay Company is the villain in its practices toward fur traders and Native Americans. There are several mysteries to be solved. One is the decades-old disappearance of two sisters who went walking and never returned and the other is the murder of a local Frenchman who traps and trades furs. One part of the story ...more
This book is set in backwoods Canada in 1867. It tells a series of interconnected stories about events in a small settlement on the edge of the forest. In many ways the Hudson Bay Company is the villain in its practices toward fur traders and Native Americans. There are several mysteries to be solved. One is the decades-old disappearance of two sisters who went walking and never returned and the other is the murder of a local Frenchman who traps and trades furs. One part of the story is told in the first person by a woman whose son is suspected of the trapper's murder. The other parts are third-person tellings about residents of the small town, other settlers in the wilderness, employees of the Hudson Bay Company, and Native Americans. It gives an interesting view of life on a frontier with its isolation and limited opportunities. Women's lives and choices are shown as very narrow yet individual women are portrayed as strong characters. More a history than a mystery and very well written....less
Read in June, 2007
Penney is a wordsmith and good historian. So what is the matter with her book that I won't give it five stars? It did not seem to have flesh and blood northerners or come from the Arctic.
I just read this by the Guardian: "The (Costa) judges said it made them feel 'enveloped in the snowy wastes' of Canada in 1867. Penney, agoraphobic at the time, did all her research in the British Library."
That must be the problem. I did not feel 'enveloped' by the wastes created in Penney's im...more
Penney is a wordsmith and good historian. So what is the matter with her book that I won't give it five stars? It did not seem to have flesh and blood northerners or come from the Arctic.
I just read this by the Guardian: "The (Costa) judges said it made them feel 'enveloped in the snowy wastes' of Canada in 1867. Penney, agoraphobic at the time, did all her research in the British Library."
That must be the problem. I did not feel 'enveloped' by the wastes created in Penney's imagination; in fact, I had not read the Guardian review before I read the novel, and I was puzzled why I found it so UNgripping and inauthentic, so UNarctic/subarctic. But perhaps these award-givers and reviewers are city folk. I actually come from the Arctic, from a family that is a mixture of Native and white; we hunted and lived in cabins amongst wolves, blizzards. I have also spent days in the British Museum and can vouch that no exhibit is going to give you a real feel for the Great Land or its people. You end up with artifacts. Karl Marx did his bookish research in the British Museum, it is true, but he also was out living with flesh and blood lumpenproletarians.
That being said, this is historical fiction, and Penney could hardly visit 1857. Historical writers must rely on imagination. Other novelists have won Pulitzer prizes for novels set in cultures they never visited. And look at Lars Von Trier making satires of American society without ever setting foot in the USA, due to his fear of flying - and I like those films. Dancer in the Dark (New Line Platinum Series)
Another aspect that left me disappointed was a dearth of indigenous culture, in spite of promises in blurbs that I'd go on an unforgettable journey into the "forgotten" Native American culture of the North. But aside from an odd staleness and lack of northern mood or feeling or evocation in "The Tenderness", Cree culture is barely delved into in this book. And neither are wolves.
A wise choice on the author's part, considering that she never went to Canada; there are already many white authors in trouble for writing about aboriginal culture that they know nothing of - well, probably it was the marketing department and not her that misled us. If you want an historical novel with real snow, real Native culture, white settlers and real wolves (but no murder mystery)see Ordinary Wolves: A Novel, anything by Louise Erdrich, (Love Medicine: A Novel), or Linda Hogan's Solar Storms, among others.
I also agree with some readers who found the murder mystery hardly compelling, but rather staid and meandering, and that is fine, really; stories can make up for lack of formulas and contrived suspense with characterization and literary quality, social commentary, fascinating takes on history, etc, as Martin Cruz Smith does for Russia in Wolves Eat Dogs I know that historical novelists are often forced by the marketplace, their editors, to include a murder mystery, or no go. I have been ordered to do this myself, as a writer. If that was what happened to Penney, her lack of command in the thriller genre is understandable.
Alas, I didn't find the characters all that interesting in Penney's tale, either. At the core of the story I didn't find much in relationships either, to keep me going. The protagonist lacks richness of psyche. There was no great love. I got bored with her and the others, found myself skimming, searching for some quality, some tension or moral struggle that would make me care about their fates.
Nowadays most literary novels, especially the big award winners with the most lavish critical acclaim, disappoint me in the same way; I am an old fashioned reader bred on the classics. Give me Jack London The Call of the Wild instead.
Lesley Thomas, author of arctic novel Flight of the Goose
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I read a review of The Tenderness of Wolves in the New York Times Book Review and thought it sounded like something I'd love. However it turned out to be less -- and more -- than I expected.
The story involves a mother's search for her teenage son in the Canadian wilderness in the late 1800s. Had the author stayed with that storyline, I think I would have liked the book more. However, it veered all over the place, jumping to subplots about a missing bone tablet with mysterious inscriptions, ...more
I read a review of The Tenderness of Wolves in the New York Times Book Review and thought it sounded like something I'd love. However it turned out to be less -- and more -- than I expected.
The story involves a mother's search for her teenage son in the Canadian wilderness in the late 1800s. Had the author stayed with that storyline, I think I would have liked the book more. However, it veered all over the place, jumping to subplots about a missing bone tablet with mysterious inscriptions, two sisters who disappeared several years ago, a Hudson Bay official who might be a murderer, and on and on.
Even though the book often disappointed me, I kept coming back to it. Usually, if I'm not captured by a book, I'll set it aside and go in search of something better. Life is too short and there are too many books out there to waste time on a book that's doesn't speak to me. So obviously, I found something special in this book. I'm just not sure what it was....less
Read in January, 2008
This is easily one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. The prose, particularly when used in the first person perspective of Mrs. Ross, really drew me in. This combined with the very human nature of both the story and characters made them human. Being from areas near and similar to the setting in the book I was surprised at the author’s ability to craft the feeling of the Northwood’s in winter, and particularly the feelings I had as a child during my first exp...more
This is easily one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. The prose, particularly when used in the first person perspective of Mrs. Ross, really drew me in. This combined with the very human nature of both the story and characters made them human. Being from areas near and similar to the setting in the book I was surprised at the author’s ability to craft the feeling of the Northwood’s in winter, and particularly the feelings I had as a child during my first experiences with the intimidation that can be caused by the isolation and alien nature of the woods. This is particularly impressive for someone who has never visited a place of such beauty and isolation. I think Penney weaved beautifully issues of the human condition both modern and timeless in a way that felt real, and while there is no Hollywood ending the ending is better for being honest and true to both the characters and real life....less
This was a really riveting novel set in the wild north of Canada in 1867; a woman's son disappears after their neighbor is murdered, and she sets off to track him down, with the help of a mysterious man. Various other characters are drawn into the case, including the relatives of two young girls who disappeared seventeen years earlier, various Hudson Bay Company employees, and a woman living in a religious community. While reading, I was at first annoyed that the son's secret was glaringly obvio...more
This was a really riveting novel set in the wild north of Canada in 1867; a woman's son disappears after their neighbor is murdered, and she sets off to track him down, with the help of a mysterious man. Various other characters are drawn into the case, including the relatives of two young girls who disappeared seventeen years earlier, various Hudson Bay Company employees, and a woman living in a religious community. While reading, I was at first annoyed that the son's secret was glaringly obvious and wished Penney would just officially reveal it already, but as the story really got rolling all complaints fell by the wayside. I almost want to reread it, just to try and figure out the narrator's first name! If anyone knows, will you tell me? A....less
Read in October, 2008
"The Tenderness of Wolves" is very well-written, tells a compelling tale, has believable, interesting characters ... so why only three stars? Well, 3.5 would be more precise, but the novel suffers occasionally from being too rich, from having a character or two too many wandering around the Canadian wilderness. At one point it seems as though everyone in Canada is following each other along the same trail, seeking people who've left the scene after a murder, those who are following tho...more
"The Tenderness of Wolves" is very well-written, tells a compelling tale, has believable, interesting characters ... so why only three stars? Well, 3.5 would be more precise, but the novel suffers occasionally from being too rich, from having a character or two too many wandering around the Canadian wilderness. At one point it seems as though everyone in Canada is following each other along the same trail, seeking people who've left the scene after a murder, those who are following those who've bolted, followers of the followers, etc. At one point all the moving around grinds to a halt and, ironically, so does the momentum, even after you've been hoping for the wandering to cease.
There's a lot going on here; the book wears many hats, from frontier tale to character study to backwoods mystery. For the most part, Penney puts these elements together nicely in her debut.
Do read the book. It is worth the time. I'm not sure if it's worth the awards and effusive praise, but I'm very glad I read it, even if I wanted to like it more than I did....less
Read in June, 2007
Was curious to read this book as the story was set in Canada. Read this for my book club and thought it was OK, but not the type of story I would usually pick up. It's basically a murder mystery set in the 1860s. It took a few chapters for me to get into it, and it was really the character of Francis I became most interested in. However, the author's portrayal of him seemed quite naive. There were also some throwaway dialogue & storylines in the book that detracted from the action.
bookshelves:
fiction
Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
People who like good historial murder mysteries
My first review got entirely lost into the web ether so I'll just summarise this one:
* a lengthy book but quite quick to read
* enjoyable!
* good background research (I did spot a few mistakes but mainly in the Norwegian bits)
* Norwegians! (I didn't know in advance!)
* the plot draws you in and the nature descriptions are spot-on (amazing for an agoraphobic!)
* a good murder mystery
Warmly recommended!
Read in January, 2007
I did not love this book. I should have--wolves, Canada, snow. All my favorite things. But I did not like the present tense, and I thought the mystery was lame. The writing was quite good, but I had to skim the last 100 pages. I can't say why it was such a slog; my guess is that neither the mystery nor the characters engaged me. They were too opaque at the beginning, and by the end, I just didn't care.
bookshelves:
historicalfiction,
mysteries
Read in August, 2007
Penney offers more than a just a murder mystery with several satisfying twists; this richly-detailed and layered novel, written from several characters’ viewpoints, also succeeds as an emotionally compelling and complex historical novel.
bookshelves:
from-library,
historic-novels
Read in October, 2008
De tederheid van wolven – Stef Penney
Op de een of andere manier komen er de laatste tijd allemaal boeken over de immigranten en kolonisten van Noord-Amerika op mijn pad. Maar ik durf te stellen dat De tederheid van Wolven van die reeks tot nog toe de beste is. Een paar dagen geleden las ik het uit, maar het verhaal laat me niet los; ik zou er zo opnieuw in willen beginnen.
Flaptekst
Het Canadese platteland, eind negentiende eeuw. Herfst. Laurent, Jammet, een pelsjager, wordt dood en ge...more
De tederheid van wolven – Stef Penney
Op de een of andere manier komen er de laatste tijd allemaal boeken over de immigranten en kolonisten van Noord-Amerika op mijn pad. Maar ik durf te stellen dat De tederheid van Wolven van die reeks tot nog toe de beste is. Een paar dagen geleden las ik het uit, maar het verhaal laat me niet los; ik zou er zo opnieuw in willen beginnen.
Flaptekst
Het Canadese platteland, eind negentiende eeuw. Herfst. Laurent, Jammet, een pelsjager, wordt dood en gescalpeerd in zijn jagershut gevonden door mevrouw Ross. Omdat er geen politie actief is in deze wilde en dunbefolkte streek, stuurt de invloedrijke Hudson Bay Company, de grootste werkgever in de wijde omtrek, twee experts om de moord te onderzoeken.
Al snel wijzen die een aantal verdachten aan, onder wie de zoon van mevrouw Ross, Francis. Hij is sinds de moord onvindbaar en zou er heel goed iets mee te maken kunnen hebben. Of is Francis zelf iemand op het spoor? Er wordt een man op uit gestuurd om hem te zoeken, maar intussen wordt de Mohawk-indiaan Parker als de schuldige aangewezen – onterecht, zo blijkt. Terwijl de winter invalt besluit mevrouw Ross samen met Parker op zoek te gaan naar haar zoon. Hun tocht voert hen onder meer langs een nederzetting van streng religieuze Noorse immigranten en een eenzaam fort dat bemand wordt door een aan laudanum verslaafde psychopaat.
Uiteindelijk is in De tederheid van wolven niets zoals het lijkt, en heeft iedereen zijn eigen motieven. Stef Penney weet op een prachtige manier de weidsheid en desolaatheid van het besneeuwde Canadese landschap te combineren met een intrigerende en minutieus uitgedachte plot.
Het verhaal trapt zoals hierboven gezegd af met de moord op Laurent Jammet, een eenzame pelsjager die aan de rand van het plaatsje Caulfield woont. In wezen is hij de buurvrouw van mevrouw Ross, en zij is stomtoevallig degene die hem vindt. In zijn bed, met doorgesneden keel en gescalpeerd.
Vanaf dat moment komt het verhaal aan het rollen; mevrouw Ross wordt er ongewild in betrokken omdat haar zoon Francis is verdwenen sinds de moord. De magistraat van het stadje, Knox, wordt door de moord op wrede wijze herinnerd aan de dag dat zijn twee nichtjes in het bos verdwenen en bovendien verblijven de mannen van de dichtstbijzijnde handelspost van de Company, die de moord moeten uitzoeken, in zijn huis en hij mag ze geen van drieën.
Het verhaal wordt verteld in de tegenwoordige tijd en vanuit verschillende perspectieven, en daar gebruikt Penney een bijzondere techniek voor: ze is namelijk niet consequent. En toch stoort dat niet. De verhaallijn van mevrouw Ross wordt vanuit de ik-persoon verteld, de andere verhaallijnen vanuit de derde persoon enkelvoud. Aanvankelijk is het keurig een hoofdstuk per personage, maar gaandeweg het boek, als het zo nodig mocht zijn, wisselt het perspectief net zo gemakkelijk binnen een hoofdstuk.
Toch stoort dit niet. De schrijfstijl van Penney is dermate gestroomlijnd, dat je toch wel doorleest. Hoewel ik als kleine aanmerking wil noteren dat de stijl voor alle personages vrijwel gelijk is; iets meer onderscheid in woordkeus tussen de verschillende personages had van mij wel gemogen. Penney beheerst het vak van schrijven echter uitmuntend en de enige keren dat ik over een zin struikelde, was dat m.i. eerder aan de vertaler te wijten (woordvolgorde) dan aan de auteur.
Met zinnen als: ‘Dat bordje spreekt boekdelen over John Scott, over zijn zogenaamde geleerdheid, zijn gewichtigheid, en zijn lafhartige respect voor autoriteit, dat vaak ten koste gaat van de waarheid’ omzeilt ze de ‘show, don’t tell’-regel op behendige wijze. Ze vertelt, maar doet dat vanuit het personage dat op dat moment aan het woord is, zodat het ‘show’ lijkt, maar ‘tell’ is. Heel knap en nergens irritant.
Wat ook heel knap is, is de onderhuidse spanning tussen de personages onderling. Tussen mevrouw Ross en Parker, tussen Knox en Sturrock, Knox en Mackinley. Ik kan er nog wel meer noemen, maar wil niets over de plot prijsgeven en dat zou ik beslist doen als ik die twee namen in één adem noemde.
Zelfs Jammet maakt, zij het postuum, als personage een karakterontwikkeling door. Van allerlei mensen, en dus gekleurd door allerlei meningen, krijgen we snippers informatie over hem, zonder dat die ooit volledig wordt en Jammet tot aan het eind het mysterie blijft dat hij voor de meeste mensen – en dus ook voor de lezer - was. Het beeld dat geschetst wordt is echter volledig genoeg om tegen het eind van het boek te begrijpen waarom hij is vermoord en door wie.
Het eind van het boek overviel me. Ik was nog maar zo’n dertig bladzijden van het eind verwijderd, toen ik me afvroeg hoe alle gebeurtenissen die onvermijdelijk nog stonden te gebeuren, in zo weinig bladzijden geperst konden worden. Mijn complimenten voor de wijze waarop Penney dat heeft opgelost: zij laat verhaallijnen bewust onaf. Een open eind voor die elementen waarvan de lezer zelf wel kan bedenken hoe ze aflopen. Hoe het Espen vergaat en Line. Wat er met Francis gebeurt. Nergens voor nodig om daarover te lezen, veel spannender om dat als lezer voor jezelf uit te maken. Zo word je als lezer nog meer bij het verhaal betrokken, je wordt in staat gesteld je eigen eind eraan te breien. Ik weet precies wat er naderhand met deze mensen gebeurt, ook al staat het nergens.
Door deze aanpak lijkt het boek een open einde te hebben, maar dat heeft het geenszins. Alle plotlijnen komen aan het eind op minutieuze wijze samen, zelfs degene die niet opgeschreven zijn maar slechts in het hoofd van lezer en auteur bestaan.
Een onbevredigend einde? Misschien wel. Ik had sommige karakters een ander lot gegund, maar daar staat tegenover dat dit weliswaar fictie, maar toch een realistisch verhaal is, en in het echte leven laat men soms ook kansen liggen, loopt het ook niet altijd goed af en doen mensen ook dingen waarvan ze later misschien spijt krijgen. En misschien kun je achteraf ook wel denken: ‘eigenlijk is het maar beter zo’.
De karakters uit dit boek, en dan voornamelijk de POV- karakters, zijn stuk voor stuk reëel en heel menselijk, met elk hun eigen, soms minder lovenswaardige (en derhalve juist erg geloofwaardige) motieven.
Gaandeweg het verhaal boet de moord op Laurent Jammet in aan belang, en komen de interpersoonlijke ontwikkelingen steeds meer naar de voorgrond.
Dit alles tegen de achtergrond van het desolate, winterse landschap in het nog maar net gekoloniseerde Canada. Een landschap dat ondanks de weinige woorden die eraan besteed worden zo indringend aanwezig is, dat je het bijna als een van de personages zou kunnen beschouwen.
Het enige minpuntje aan dit boek dat ik kan bedenken is dat bij aanvang van een nieuw hoofdstuk soms niet helemaal duidelijk vanuit welk perspectief het wordt verteld. Toen er bijvoorbeeld een hoofdstuk begon met drie ruiters die in de verte kwamen aanrijden, voelde het voor mij als een perspectiefbreuk toen een van die drie ruiters degene bleek vanuit wie het hoofdstuk geschreven was.
En dit gebeurde helaas meer dan eens.
Desalniettemin: een van de fijnste boeken die ik de laatste tijd heb gelezen.
4,5 ster
ISBN 9789044609301
Prometheus
2006
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Read in October, 2008
The title is perhaps a little allegorical (I was hoping for a kind of Romulus and Remus story, I guess) but there is one rather lovely scene where a wolf does appear.
I enjoyed this book very much - it's a great page-turner and it also really brought alive for me the reality of the Canadian wilderness for those who actually lived there in the 19th century. The desolation and the cold were never so real during those school geography & history lessons about the Great Lakes, Hudson's Bay and...more
The title is perhaps a little allegorical (I was hoping for a kind of Romulus and Remus story, I guess) but there is one rather lovely scene where a wolf does appear.
I enjoyed this book very much - it's a great page-turner and it also really brought alive for me the reality of the Canadian wilderness for those who actually lived there in the 19th century. The desolation and the cold were never so real during those school geography & history lessons about the Great Lakes, Hudson's Bay and the HB Company.
If I ever meet the author I plan to ask her why she uses such an odd narrative technique. There's a first person narrator providing a thread through the story, but parts of it are also told by an omnipotent 3rd person narrator outside the novel who sees into the thoughts and feelings of particular characters (but not all of them) in various scenes.
The characters are rich and deep and multifaceted (and there are many of them) and the plot combines several strands that meet up in a kind of unity at the end. Fun to read!
The ending itself left me a bit confused - just felt there were some inexplicable developments (won't spoil it for you but I wondered how some characters figured out where they would find certain things). ...less
Read in September, 2008
recommended to Diane by:
Harry Schwartz Booksellers
recommends it for:
Mystery/adventure readers
Set in the Northern Territory during winter of 1867, I enjoyed this multilayered tale of a search for the murderer of a pelt trader that is really the story of many searches: for the murderer, for a mother's missing son, for a long-lost bundle of rare furs, for children that disappeared years ago into the wilderness, for pride, revenge, credibility, freedom and love. I liked the grittiness of this book, the way the story unfolds like the blanket of white snow in front of the searchers, hiding ...more
Set in the Northern Territory during winter of 1867, I enjoyed this multilayered tale of a search for the murderer of a pelt trader that is really the story of many searches: for the murderer, for a mother's missing son, for a long-lost bundle of rare furs, for children that disappeared years ago into the wilderness, for pride, revenge, credibility, freedom and love. I liked the grittiness of this book, the way the story unfolds like the blanket of white snow in front of the searchers, hiding some things, exposing others. The wolves of the title are both human and animal, predators all, with the real wolves more human than the human wolves.
I also enjoyed the book's style, with some parts narrated by Mrs. Ross, whose son goes missing the night of the murder, and other chapters told by her son, Francis; Donald Moody, one of the company searchers; and Maria, daughter of Dove River's magistrate, and Sturrock, a cunning charlaton. Through these eyes, we see the personality of the murdered man, two intriguing guides, ...less
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The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel (Hardcover)
isbn: 1416540741
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The Tenderness of Wolves (Paperback)
isbn: 1847240674
