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64th out of 91 books
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15 voters
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In the Forest: A Novel
by
Edna O'Brien
In the Forest returns to the countryside of western Ireland, the vivid backdrop of Edna O'Brien's best-selling Wild Decembers. Here O'Brien unravels a classic confrontation of evil and innocence centering on the young, troubled Michael O'Kane, christened by his neighbors "the Kindershrek," someone of whom small children are afraid. O'Kane loses his mother as a bo...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
April 17th 2003
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 2002)
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Several years ago, when I was first introduced to the work of the great Irish writer, Edna O’Brien, I immediately fell in love with the savage and poetic "word pictures" she paints. Her writing never fails to draw me in, emotionally and intellectually, on the very first page, and it really never lets me go. Edna O’Brien’s writing is writing that stays with me - resonating, enchanting, mesmerizing - long after I’ve read the final page.
O’Brien’s novel, In the Forest, is based...more
O’Brien’s novel, In the Forest, is based...more
Jeff
rated it
Recommended to Jeff by:
Thomas Foster's How to Read Novels Like a Professor
Shelves:
prof-foster-recommends,
murderers-row
Beautiful descriptions (and i usually feel like i'm slogging through a novel if it has this much descriptiveness about objects and places) and a great array of voices tell the story of a murderer and his crime and the place where it happened and the people it happened to.
Compare this Irish novel of murder with Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman and John Banville's The Book of Evidence.
Highly recommended for anybody who loves good writing; anybody who wonders not only wha...more
Compare this Irish novel of murder with Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman and John Banville's The Book of Evidence.
Highly recommended for anybody who loves good writing; anybody who wonders not only wha...more
Moody, even "Gothic" (as at least one reviewer suggested), this novel tells the story of three horrific murders in West Ireland countryside. Based on a true story, it recounts the story of a young man who was locked away in a juvenile facility, subject to horrific abuse both sexual and otherwise, who now returns to his home town to wreak revenge. He is obviously mentally ill. There is no sympathy for him and a lot of fear. The local constabulary is afraid of him. Soon he sets his sight...more
Bij de bieb alleen het Nederlandstalige exemplaar van het boekgrrlsmaandboek van juni voorhanden. Nou ja, dat mag de pret niet drukken, dacht ik. Inderdaad, dat is niet van belang.
Het is een behoorlijk goede vertaling (al ken ik het origineel niet :-) ), maar pret? Nee, want wat een naar boek. En dan bedoel ik niet dat het een slecht boek is, in tegendeel, maar het verhaal is zo ijzingwekkend dat ik er niet van kon slapen. Het is overigens een whydunnit en geen whodunnit.
Ik l...more
Het is een behoorlijk goede vertaling (al ken ik het origineel niet :-) ), maar pret? Nee, want wat een naar boek. En dan bedoel ik niet dat het een slecht boek is, in tegendeel, maar het verhaal is zo ijzingwekkend dat ik er niet van kon slapen. Het is overigens een whydunnit en geen whodunnit.
Ik l...more
This is the novel that gave O'Brien so much trouble b/c she was prompted to write it by a real and gruesome murder case in the 1990s. She was accosted by legions of people for using a painful tragedy to create a novel. On that topic: I have always believed that no one has the right to tell an author what to write, and if O'Brien wished to build a fictional narrative, having known of and researched a real crime, she had every right to do so. And, of course, she's never been one to run away fro...more
Michael O’Kane is one of those troubled kids who slips through the cracks. After the death of his beloved mother, he gets into one increasingly more serious scrape after another until he is finally sent away. His stint in reform school is brutal and not even the priests offer solace.
O’Kane is the central character of Edna O’Brien’s riveting (and difficult) novel In the Forest. Reading this book reminded me a little bit of reading Joyce Carol Oates. I want to like Oates but I find he...more
O’Kane is the central character of Edna O’Brien’s riveting (and difficult) novel In the Forest. Reading this book reminded me a little bit of reading Joyce Carol Oates. I want to like Oates but I find he...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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"'Bastards. They said my mother was treated for depression...she was never depressed. She loved me. She knit me a jumper'" (36).
"'Yes, everyone thinks his or her own calling the most taxing'" (40).
“He drew nearer and nearer, his nose puttied to the window…” (76).
“…Lalla holds up her best present, a plastic wristwatch, the colour of raspberry cordial, and he licks it to show how much she loves it” (84).
“…walking in a closed knot, trampling their lit-up ...more
"'Yes, everyone thinks his or her own calling the most taxing'" (40).
“He drew nearer and nearer, his nose puttied to the window…” (76).
“…Lalla holds up her best present, a plastic wristwatch, the colour of raspberry cordial, and he licks it to show how much she loves it” (84).
“…walking in a closed knot, trampling their lit-up ...more
Edna O'Brien's writing has a strange effect on me: it is extremely plain and simple, and yet it is compelling; I keep turning page-after-page, amazing myself at the speed with which the numbers pile up. She is not a great stylist, like William Trevor or John Banville; there are no sublime moments that make me sigh or weep, no turns of phrase that cause me to giggle with mirth at the shear joy of the language. And yet she always manages to hook me and hold me, even when the characters aren't part...more
I like books that make me think about something even after I finished reading. And this book is one of them. And Edna O'Brien sure makes it possible in such a simple way.
I like the way the book was written, from different points of view. I think it really illustrates the authors intention to let us know that there are always more than one side of the story. I kept going back and forth between hating the main character and feeling sorry for him. I think the ultimate question that this book emphas...more
I like the way the book was written, from different points of view. I think it really illustrates the authors intention to let us know that there are always more than one side of the story. I kept going back and forth between hating the main character and feeling sorry for him. I think the ultimate question that this book emphas...more
A very different type of book to my usual ones. I nearly put it down after the first few chapters due to the style of writing, as I found it hard to follow jumping from character to character with no narrative explanation. However; if you feel tempted to stop part way through then do not! Keep going with it, as it turns out to be an excellent read. It is harrowing, and I was left feeling pretty hollow when I'd finished it, especially with the knowledge it was based on a true story, but it is so ...more
I do not think I am spoiling anything by mentioning that the psychotic central character does murder the woman he is obsessively stalking. That actually occurs about half-way through and is hardly a surprise even at that point - nor is it particularly graphic.
The focus is mainly on what goes through the madman's head (and he seems to be quite unequivocally schizophrenic or something like it - the worldview here is not the sort that presents sanity as a spectrum along which we are all at v...more
The focus is mainly on what goes through the madman's head (and he seems to be quite unequivocally schizophrenic or something like it - the worldview here is not the sort that presents sanity as a spectrum along which we are all at v...more
While I found "In the Forest" quite a gripping read, it was also a rather sensationalist depiction of the devastation that mental illness can wreak on multiple lives. Loosely based on a true story, O'Kane was abused as a child, had the obligatory fiddling by ruthless priests, was in and out of prison and thoroughly done badly by the system. He's messed up with definite psychotic tendencies, but it's all a bit heavy handed. He becomes obsessed with Eily, a young mother with hippy tend...more
I was reluctant to read this book- I do nt know why, but my fears were misplaced.
In the Forest is based on a true story of abduction and murder carried out by a disturbed young man in Ireland in the nineties.
The book skilfully captures the fear of the community, and sets up for discussion whether the shocking treatment of the killer as a boy at the hands of the state authorities and the church was significant reason for the ensuing tragedy. It also left me casting about a...more
In the Forest is based on a true story of abduction and murder carried out by a disturbed young man in Ireland in the nineties.
The book skilfully captures the fear of the community, and sets up for discussion whether the shocking treatment of the killer as a boy at the hands of the state authorities and the church was significant reason for the ensuing tragedy. It also left me casting about a...more
Jennifer
rated it
Recommends it for:
people looking for literary true-crime, fans of suspense
Shelves:
fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Well, I was a little leery (?sp.) of this book after reading a friend's comment. But I liked it. Okay, parts of it were hard. A lot of parts. Perhaps the most disturbing thing is to peer into the mind of a crazy person, not enough to really know what it would be like to be crazy, but enough to be scared, and to wish to change it.
What I imagine, is an author who was aware of all the various and conflicting emotions and viewpoints in the community of the events that inspired the ...more
What I imagine, is an author who was aware of all the various and conflicting emotions and viewpoints in the community of the events that inspired the ...more
My favorite movie of all time is 1978's Halloween, and this book has all the elements which, to me, seem essential in a modern horror. Rob Zombie tried to justify the killer's motive in the new version of that film, and pretty much messed the story up. Edna O'Brien, on the other hand, an amazing voice very particular about understating things and giving veneer to objects both alive and not, merges motive and magic... the woods themselves are a character, perhaps the very main one.
A m...more
A m...more
Finished this book this morning and lcould not put it down (hence a bit late for work!!). I loved the way the book was written with each chapter from from a different perspective, it made for a very tense read. Shocking that people like this live in the world and worrying that the police were too scared to do anything for a while, maybe living in a little village is not such a good idea!
First I think it's strange that I've read a book called In the Forest and I've also read a book called In the Woods and both are by female Irish writers. Anyways, the book was well written but strange. The point of view of the book changes rapidly and made it a bit hard to follow because it doesn't really give the reader much time to develop a relationship with any of the characters. The premise is that as a young boy Michen was sent away to a Catholic reform school for some petty crimes. He was...more
This book was written the way I wrote horror novels when I was in the 4th grade and I was obsessed with R.L. Stine. Except less engrossing.
I have no idea why anyone would list this as a good book, let alone on the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." The characters were completely undeveloped. I felt no pity for the victims, or the perpetrator, nor did I feel like O'Kane was even portrayed as a successful murderer or mental patient. He was sort of lame.
When I star...more
I have no idea why anyone would list this as a good book, let alone on the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." The characters were completely undeveloped. I felt no pity for the victims, or the perpetrator, nor did I feel like O'Kane was even portrayed as a successful murderer or mental patient. He was sort of lame.
When I star...more
Set in western Ireland, this novel is based a story of terror that took place in Ireland in 1966. It is a disturbing and devastating story of a mass murderer- from his tragic childhood to the height of his murder spree- and the community that seems helpless to stop him, or worse- that unwittingly aids him in his crime spree. It shows a society in denial of the abuse of children in detention and in school, easily abandoning its own, and unwilling to believe that they have unleashed a monster.
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This book is really creepy, mainly (I found) due to the fact that we get inside the head of the psycho-killer man. I really usually hate reading dialect, and his warped mind made it all the worse. As with most horror movies or books, the victim is laughably stupid -- I woudln't go so far as to say she asks for it, but she does seem to invite the killer into her home by leaving her doors unlocked and the like. Nonetheless, this novel is sad and scary, and I was shocked to learn of the things that...more
A chilling story of a boy turned bad. His name is O'Kane and he lives in the forest and the whole Irish county is afraid of him.
The description of the landscape is lush. The book is very plot driven but also very character driven and the forest is as much a character as the people who fear it.
Chapters are short and told in the voices/perspectives of various people. This style develops the story and makes the novel multi dimensional and freaky because some townspeople kno...more
The description of the landscape is lush. The book is very plot driven but also very character driven and the forest is as much a character as the people who fear it.
Chapters are short and told in the voices/perspectives of various people. This style develops the story and makes the novel multi dimensional and freaky because some townspeople kno...more
This book was wonderful. Disturbing, but really great. A small west Ireland village is terrorized by a local man since his childhood. He started with minor crimes that the people try to deal with, but as he grows up they become terrified of him and refuse to do anything to stop him for fear of retribution. You see what may have caused his actions/mental health problems. You get to know the people whose lives are affected by his presence, his crimes, his sickness. I won't go into detail too much ...more
I can't say I liked this book, because of its subject matter examining the life and mind of a disturbed criminal.
i'm a little freaked out to read this one, i gotta say. but there it is on the shelf ...
Gave it up. Too dark. Maybe a dead-of-winter read....
creepy and Irish. Sounds like a winner.
Sara
marked it as to-read
03 long list-orange prize
it was creepy
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Edna O'Brien was born in Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland in 1930, a place she would later describe as "fervid", "enclosed" and "catastrophic". According to O'Brien, her mother was a strong, controlling woman who had emigrated temporarily to America, and worked for some time as a maid in Brooklyn, New York for a well-off Irish-American family before returning to Irel...more
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