The Wake of Forgiveness

Sep 30, 2012 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

A sweeping epic saga across 30 years of a family, brothers and a father and their deceased mother.
Wonderfully layered out in some of the most eloquent words strung together in a sentence.

This guy can really write, literally unheard of by the reading population. A must read this novel deserves immediate attention by the populace, the author has crafted a story that was such a joy to read captivating, deep sense of meaning and place.
I am thinking along the lines of Train Dreams by Denis Johnson an...more A sweeping epic saga across 30 years of a family, brothers and a father and their deceased mother.
Wonderfully layered out in some of the most eloquent words strung together in a sentence.

This guy can really write, literally unheard of by the reading population. A must read this novel deserves immediate attention by the populace, the author has crafted a story that was such a joy to read captivating, deep sense of meaning and place.
I am thinking along the lines of Train Dreams by Denis Johnson and Volt stories by Alan Heathcock with some great descriptive sentences and metaphors like that of James Lee Burke's writing.

Those who love horses will love the beautiful animals that play an important role in the backdrop of this period piece set in the unforgiving Texan landscape from the between the late 1800's and to the early 1900's. It takes you from the death of a mother during child birth and the genesis and birth of brothers to their relationship with their father to their finding of a companion and their findings of lust and love. Through the bitter ugliness of fighting and rivalry amongst brothers and fathers, to the steps of reconciliation and gratitude to the greater things than man holds in their midst.
They fall, they err but will they forgive for the past and move forward with hope and love?

This is possibly another retelling of a kind of Greek tragedy in fiction.
Motherhood and fatherhood. Sons and daughters these are important characters in this story their flaws, their triumphs and their hopes and challenges.
A memorable story on love between spouses and kin those lost and that could have been and love in lust and most importantly love that will be newly re-discovered as the story ends for life, for humanity.
Sacrifice,love and trust are very important elements that string through this story from beginning to end.
One not to be missed beautiful prose of staggering violence and beauty that could be carved out into trees for generations to come to splendor at.
A few excerpts below some more to come in a few days.

"The townsfolk would assume, from this day forward, that Klara's death had turned a gentle man bitter and hard, but the truth, Vaclav knew, was that her absence only rendered him, again, the man he'd been before he'd met her, one only her proximity had ever softened."

"men are eroded of kindness by the slow, interminable friction of their unrealized desires."
"He gathers the horse's lead and puts a foot in the stirrup, wondering just how in the hell a man is supposed to go about asking the dead to forgive him for ever finding comfort at another woman's breast. Or for going on living at all when she could not. Or for doing his father's delirious bidding and leaving him to die in the mud alone. Or for leaving their children so long at odds with one another in the world. And then he wonders if he's just done it, if it could be that simple."

"reckoned that family was another. A man couldn't any more choose which one he was born into than he could will it to stay together when so many things abraded and raveled the fibers that were meant to keep it bound. Try to hold it all together with force, with a harness and a hard hand the way their father had, and it grew so thick with the cordage of resentment that you couldn't even get your hands around it."

"My father says that if we look for ourselves in others, we're likely to find someone we don't recognize."

"His hearing, after these five years of marriage, was attuned to her voice in the way common only to husbands who adore their wives and those who lie to them with regularity. To Karel's mind, he practised the latter because of the former, because Sophie was a good woman, kind and hearty and generous, so much so, in fact, that he suspected she knew when he was less than honest, less than wholly hers, and that she endured the indiscretions the way a good horse will endure shoeing and hard harness work, blinded to everything but the promise of brushstrokes and oats, of kindness and comfort. With eyes affixed only to a future worth forsaking the present for."

"In the distance, coyotes have found their voices in the damp promise of weather, calling out as if in answer to the inconsiderate onset of cold. Visibly agitated along the fence line, the horses blow and complain, their hides shuddering violently with the worried work of their muscles. To the west, when Villasenor's surrey rolls dark and polished as a hearse to the gate, the sky hangs swollen and sickly above the distant horizon as if the whole mass of the heavens has been wounded and gauzed with clouds and backlit feebly by the diminishing moon."

"He watches the girl leaning forward over her horse's neck, her hair falling crimped in wet ripples down her back. Even on a stationery horse, her weight is centred over her bent knees, her spine held straight. There's a seasoned confidence to her, he thinks, and she carries it in her body, in her upright and unflagging posture, a solidness in her legs and shoulders that is almost masculine. But then there is the breathtaking taper of her back, it's sudden slope into a waist so slight that Karel feels certain it's smaller around than a man's hatband. There's the wide, smooth flare of her hips. If she were reclined such that you could run a finger along the side of her body from ribs to thighs, it might put you in mind of a single, perfect valley found in a landscape of irregular, rolling foothills, of a horizon you'd gladly ride all day to reach. Sure enough, she's her fathers child. She has his olive skin, his dark hair and eyes, his easy assuredness, but one look at her would make any man wonder how lovely was her mother."

"And then shes running hard and away, hugging the perimeter of the trees as she widens her lead and whips her horse, her braided hair flung back and black and dancing playfully in the air behind her shoulders.
Alive in Karel's mind is only a whisper of suspicion, one muted by the astonishing beauty of what he's seen, and he smiles at the fortune of having borne witness to something so graceful and yet so capable and strong, to a girl turned woman before his eyes, to that woman flashing her white teeth at him, smiling because, for her, as or Karel, there is nothing quite so thrilling as a race run on horseback, nothing filled more with wonder, nothing so able to convince you that you are flesh and blood and alive in the world that offers so few joys other than this running."

"He has seen father and son both spilling blood, the exuberance of the crowd around them-he is bearing witness now to something far more regrettable than a race for land and bridegrooms' hands. This is the bloodlust of brothers, the vengeful rage of the father, all of it born out and somehow flawless in its wickedness, like some depraved reenactment of Genesis staged solely for the amusement of reprobates. How far? He wonders. How far may we follow one ill-chosen and descending path?"

"Whiskey takes no notice, moves forward, his hooves splashing in the standing water of the pasture, and Karel shudders against the unexpected rise of penitential guilt. He has seen, he knows, something he was not meant to see, and on a night when all but the nocturnal are deprived of sight, and on the skin of his arms he wears the prickle of conscience-laden exhilaration, the same as he'd felt when, as a boy skipping rocks on a summer Sunday, he'd stumbled across three bathing schoolgirls in the swollen creek, their sun-flushed skin appointed with beads of water and a smooth newness from which Karel couldn't pull his eyes-the arc of their spines when they bent to splash water onto one another, the dark mystery of their nipples, so different from his own, wind kissed and erect and upturned on their budding breast.
Karel smiles and shakes his head. How is it that seeing the priest who baptised him could occasion memories of naked girls? How is it that anything ever gives rise to what it does instead of what it should?
After half a mile spent all but blind on his horse, when the rain lets up further without stopping altogether, Karel's eyes find some discernible depth in the darkness. Whiskey blows, his hide rippling beneath the saddle, and Karel breathes through his nose, inhaling the sweet, musky smell of wet horsehair. His eye is puffed up near to closed, aching still, but only as a muted throbbing deep beneath the skin. There's something to be taken from this, he thinks. Something about the body, something about the eyes, about the flesh and the bones and the heart. About how they want to adjust, to heal, to see and feel. And they do, he thinks, if never entirely."

"The horse exhales with a shudder, its breath coming in laboured bursts of steam, the hollow music of the rain striking its hide like that of a wet-skinned drum played only with the fingertips of children. Karel has never thought of what he felt for the animal as love, and even now he isn't sure that's the word he would choose. But it is certainly something akin to affection, something as fluttering and warm as the fine quivering of the horse's musculature now at work beneath its damp hide. The trouble with animals, with caring for beasts, is that, if you do it very long at all, you have to witness the end of something you've seen born. Karel curses under his breath. He thinks of the rifle leaning by the kitchen door, of the long walk through the rain and mud he'll have to take so that, when he returns, he can do so equipped for a loud and necessary and violent kindness.
The horse, absent the heavy breathing, sprawls so quietly, its pain sustained without much of any outward complaint. Karel marvels at it, at the inborn capacity for such silent suffering."

"He considers the countless times he's imagined his mother, the length of her hair, the crinkling pleat work of her skirts, the soft blue consolation of her eyes. He'd never seen any of it, but now he can't check himself, can't help but think that he might very well have heard her voice, that he might have known the sound of her even from within her body, that she might have sung to her unborn while she went about her chores or cried out in those final moments of her labor pains, and that, though he can't recall it or reproduce it, he's been carrying it around inside of him, the memory of it, an actual memory of her, a real memory, for the whole of his life."

Review with book trailer @http://more2read.com/review/the-wake-of-forgiveness-by-bruce-machart/(less)

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May 06, 2013 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kick-ass

This was an impulse buy at Barnes and Noble. I ignored the book at first in favor of looking at the books around it, but then I caught the words “Tim O’Brien” during a cursory glance at a book blurb on the cover. One of my rules in life is to pick up anything with Tim O’Brien’s name on it and buy it immediately, no questions asked. To date, this rule has served me well and The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart is no exception.

Set in Texas at the dawn of the 20th century, the novel focuses on...more This was an impulse buy at Barnes and Noble. I ignored the book at first in favor of looking at the books around it, but then I caught the words “Tim O’Brien” during a cursory glance at a book blurb on the cover. One of my rules in life is to pick up anything with Tim O’Brien’s name on it and buy it immediately, no questions asked. To date, this rule has served me well and The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart is no exception.

Set in Texas at the dawn of the 20th century, the novel focuses on the Skala family, which consists of an immigrant father and his four motherless sons. Vaclav’s wife, Klara, dies while giving birth to their fourth son, Karel, and the book focuses on the physical and emotional marks these men carry as a result of her death. Despite her early death, the shadow of Klara haunts every page. In a cruel and unforgiving landscape, Klara would have served as the buffer between the physical and emotional demands of pioneer life, between the immigrant and his new homeland, between father and son, and between the sons themselves. Without her, these men throw themselves against each other, against the landscape, and against life itself with a brutal tenacity that can only be born of intense pain and loss.

After the loss of his wife, Vaclav Skala, an ascetic man by nature, becomes even harder and more unforgiving in his dealings with the world. To spare his fine racing horses the detrimental effects of fieldwork, he instead hitches his four sons to the plow. Their time in the harness has left the boys with a peculiar deformity: they all have twisted necks that symbolize their skewed view of the world inflicted upon them by their father. Of all the boys, none are as warped as Karel. Having never known his mother and carrying the burden of guilt for her death, Karel is nonetheless Vaclav’s pride as Karel is a gifted horseback rider whose skills have won his father many a high-stakes gamble. As the novel goes on, the narrative moves back and forth between the story of Karel as a young boy and Karel as a grown man, now alienated from his brothers. The circumstances leading to the severing of the connection with his siblings are revealed as the book goes on and heighten the suspense as the novel moves toward its satisfying resolution.

Machart has created a tragedy that is epic in scope and is often reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s best work (in particular, All the Pretty Horses comes to mind). The language is poetic and so frequently captures the heart of the moment or the quality of the landscape with such a perfect turn of phrase that I often went back and re-read certain lines just to savor them. Another point in Machart’s favor is that his characters are complex and never watered-down; these are hard, often cruel men, but that doesn’t mean they are completely devoid of kindness, poeticism, or intelligence. They are victims of a lifestyle and a landscape that naturally cripples the finest points of humanity to ensure survival in a merciless environment. That any of the characters retain even a shred of their capacity for forgiveness is the ultimate triumph.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
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Feb 08, 2011 Juliana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: h-a-f-amazon-vine, amazon-vine-program, advance-reading-copy-or-galley, set-in-1910s, set-in-1920s, set-in-usa-texas, frontier-novel, fiction, historical-fiction, family-and-relationships, family-saga, 4-stars, 2011-reads, 2011-feb-reads, brothers, fathers-and-sons, mothers-and-sons, difficult-emotional-read, 1890s, 0-own-in-dead-tree-form, 4-to-5-stars, challenge-2011-rrrc-a-to-z-heroes, challenge-2011-rrrc-a-to-z-heroines, challenge-2011-mine-regular-books, challenge-2011-bb-the-50-states

Beautifully stark and well-written prose, but a difficult story that left me somewhat unfulfilled (4 stars)

This book took me much longer to read than most books, and I cannot quite put my finger on why. What I do know is that Machart is a very talented writer whose prose often read like stark and lyrical poetry and sometimes reach the quality of genius. Sounds dramatic, I know, but as a writer myself I was impressed - and envious - of his talent with the written word.

Machart's characters are com...more Beautifully stark and well-written prose, but a difficult story that left me somewhat unfulfilled (4 stars)

This book took me much longer to read than most books, and I cannot quite put my finger on why. What I do know is that Machart is a very talented writer whose prose often read like stark and lyrical poetry and sometimes reach the quality of genius. Sounds dramatic, I know, but as a writer myself I was impressed - and envious - of his talent with the written word.

Machart's characters are compelling, if not always likable - this last being one of the reasons that I think it took me a little longer than usual to finish the book. Karel the boy arouses a variety of emotions in the reader, but none of them negative, which was not at all the case with Karel the man, whom I found unsympathetic and unlikable. My feelings towards him grew increasingly complex as I learned more about both the boy and the man; he's complicated and like everything and everyone else in this novel, while the words describing him are clear-cut, he himself is anything but.

One somewhat side-note is that for those who read a summary and think that a love story is a big part of this novel, I would warn them that it is not. Yes, Karel's longing for Graciela seems to haunt him, but to me it either felt inauthentic or as if Karel had made his longing and its importance bigger things than they actually were - and maybe realizes this in the end. Either way, none of it felt like a love story to me.

The overall plot isn't really much of one, with the variety of the novel focusing on the back and forth between the flashbacks and the present, providing the reader with a picture of Karel Skala, his life, and what led him to this point in it. There is a subplot that moves things along and brings about a change in his world, but in the end, nothing is really "resolved." Karel sees certain things that he did not allow himself to before and there is the possibility or promise of change, but there is no real finishing.

While this lack of an ending left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled, I do not necessarily think that this should have been changed. In a way, I do not think another type of ending would have been appropriate, given the tone and tenor of the rest of the novel. Although I did not feel wholly satisfied, that feeling seemed fitting for the novel, for the story it tells, and for the people it portrays. The best books often leave us somewhat unsettled or off-kilter and I don't think that being uncomfortable is always a bad thing.

Bottom Line
Know that it's a hard book - emotionally, not experientially - so be prepared: if you're wanting a calming and soothing novel after a long day at work, leave The Wake of Forgiveness on the nightstand for another time. Make sure that other time eventually comes though, because for anyone who enjoys beautiful writing and compelling characters, this book is a must-read.
[This review is of an advanced copy format of the book]

(Written on February 7, 2011)(less)

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Mar 06, 2012 Bennet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels-stories, brilliant-voices-and-language

Rather than repeat the much deserved accolades about how beautifully this book is crafted and written, I'll add that it seems to me that all the invoking of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy misses the heart of this story, which strikes me as deeply feminine and feminist.

It's a traditionally male story about a family of brothers in the American west, but with a twist: everything that goes right or wrong has ultimately to do with women, mostly with a woman not getting her due or being given a...more Rather than repeat the much deserved accolades about how beautifully this book is crafted and written, I'll add that it seems to me that all the invoking of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy misses the heart of this story, which strikes me as deeply feminine and feminist.

It's a traditionally male story about a family of brothers in the American west, but with a twist: everything that goes right or wrong has ultimately to do with women, mostly with a woman not getting her due or being given a chance. From the start Machart seems to be aiming for the actual and metaphorical reconciliations of male and female necessary to the realization of humanity.

To start, Karel, the youngest son in the featured family, is blamed for the death of his mother, who dies giving him birth. Karel spends the rest of his life longing for all he missed as a result of not having a mother and trying to make it up to his father, who blames Karel for the loss of his wife. Without her, Karel's father proves incapable of compassion and civility.

Then there's the unattainable love of Karel's life. Her horsemanship and horse sense are second to none, but for all her brilliant qualities she's at the mercy of a mercenary father who marries her off to Karel's oldest brother in a business deal. Before the marriage she seduces a willing Karel, who is hoping she means to be his. It's not that simple or romantic, however; the machinations required for her own survival in a man's world resoundingly trump romance.

So much love is lost throughout, mostly on account of women being forced to play by men's rules. Karel's wife, Sophie, proves to be the exception. Over time she provides him with whatever continuity and redemption are to be had.

The book shifts back and forth in time, and it's not a spoiler to say that it ends with the recounting of Karel being nursed through his motherless infancy by a young woman who lost her infant son; it may be a man's world, but again and again in Machart's version, women are the source of wisdom, strength and hope.

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Nov 10, 2010 David Abrams added it

The Wake of Forgiveness, the rich, evocative debut novel by Bruce Machart, doesn’t amble gently into a prolonged introduction of place and characters, but begins bang-on in the middle of a peak scene: a messy, fatal childbirth in the winter of 1895:

The blood had come hard from her, so much of it that, when Vaclav Skala awoke in wet bed linens to find her curled up against him on her side, moaning and glazed with sweat, rosary beads twisted around her clenched fingers, he smiled at the thought th

...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

“The Wake of Forgiveness” is a complex story of several families living in Lacava County, TX, somewhere around 1900. Through the eyes of the author, we are able to glimpse the hard life endured on the farms, and the struggle to establish business and industry. But more than that, it is the story of a father and his four sons; a story filled with anger, fighting, abuse, and maybe even some love. The two main families are the Skala’s and the Villasenor’s. The main character, Karel Skala, is the yo...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Roaldeuller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quite a few people have reviewed this book already, so I will limit myself to a few specific observations. I have rated this book four stars, which is a high grade for fiction from me since there is so much utter crap out there.

My own tastes run to tales of the collapse of people's hopes and dreams and the bleak existence that comes with adulthood (think Ethan Frome - I am a lot of fun at parties), so The Wake of Forgiveness was right up my alley.

A number of people have compared Machart to McCar...more Quite a few people have reviewed this book already, so I will limit myself to a few specific observations. I have rated this book four stars, which is a high grade for fiction from me since there is so much utter crap out there.

My own tastes run to tales of the collapse of people's hopes and dreams and the bleak existence that comes with adulthood (think Ethan Frome - I am a lot of fun at parties), so The Wake of Forgiveness was right up my alley.

A number of people have compared Machart to McCarthy and I have to agree. However, I see McCarthy as more of a prose minimalist, while Machart veers in the opposite direction, never using one adjective when three will do, and piling on the metaphors and similes. That's OK, but I can see why some reviewers think this is a bit overwritten. (I also note that one reviewer believes comparing Machart to McCarthy identifies me as "coastal, urban, and effete"; I guess I have to take my medicine...)

I confess I had a hard time completely understanding the central plot element. Why did Villasnor approach Skala for his sons' hands in marriage in the first place? What made this weird and bitter family stand out from any other in the region, especially since Villasnor is portrayed as wealthy, powerful, and ambitious? My gut feeling is that he would have looked for more promising matches for his daughters.

Another curiosity for me was that all the horse races were run at night, the racecourse lit by bonfires. Now, to be sure, this added greatly to the atmosphere and mood of these events, but it does strike me as odd that this community of hard bitten Texas farmers would have willingly participated in something so bizarre as racing horses in the dark.

But over all, I loved The Wake of Forgiveness. The characters were compelling, and the sense of time and place vivid. I read it straight through in a single weekend, staying up late in bed and then continuing as soon as I woke up the next morning. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from this promising author. (less)

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Mar 17, 2013 Morgan rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: didn-t-finish

I've seen a lot of reviews about how fantastic this book is, but quite honestly I found it so bad that I couldn't even finish it. I'm not a huge Westerns fan so maybe that was part of it, but a lot of it was actually that I felt very deceived by what the jacket said. The jacket or back of the book is supposed to give you a general summary about the book. The summary for this book is crap. For me, it sounded like a horse book, which immediately grabbed my attention, and the rest of the summary wa...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Booknblues rated it 4 of 5 stars

“This is the blood-lust of brothers, the vengeful rage of the father, all of it born out and somehow flawless in its wickedness, like some depraved reenactment of Genesis staged solely for the amusement of reprobates.”

That one sentence from Bruce Machart’s The Wake of Forgiveness encapsulates the book but does not do justice to the strange beauty of this book. When Karel was born, the fourth son of Vaclav Skala a Czech imigrant to Texas, his mother died and that seemed to twist his father’s Skal...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Eva Nickelson rated it 2 of 5 stars

There are a few reasons why I didn't expect to like this book, mainly the horses and the setting. I do not "get" horses or Texas or the very beginning of the twentieth century. And those all held. I didn't get into the book (read for a book club) because I had very little interest in being drawn into Machart's world. There are a few more reasons why I didn't like this book that I only came upon by reading it. First, some of the rambling sentences used colloquialisms that tripped me up. The struc...more

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Aug 07, 2011 David Carr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-west

Against expectations, I read this book as rapidly as I could, following its inevitable word cadences, complex and exquisitely honed. On nearly every page I wanted to rush forward, but the structure and evolution of each crafted sentence kept me from it and taught me a reader's patience. In this way it is close to the first book of Cormac McCarthy's brilliant trilogy, so strong and compulsive. But in its own way, this book is more furious, darkened and storm-driven by a human hardness even McCart...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Tonya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: western

I did not pick up this book for any other reason than I had nothing else to read & raided my mom's bookshelf. I thought it would be another horse book she is so fond of & didn't even read the flaps, I just started at the beginning.

I was hooked within the first 50 words, Machart's prose was wonderful, his imagery beautiful & stark at the same time. I think the story could have gone onto a better conclusion, could have been more meaty in the end but seeing as I did not write it I can o...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Chantal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Race horses play an instrumental role in this carefully crafted debut novel. By cultivating winning race horses, Vaclav Skala acquires most of the land in LaVaca county. His love for winning horse races, however, comes at the expense of his family.

After his beloved Clara dies, Vaclav is an embittered man who uses his sons as "work horses" to plow the fields. He exempts his own horses from working since he uses them to race. What proves to be Vaclav’s undoing, however, is his blind hubris.

Vacla...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Larry Olson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was sent a copy of Bruce Machart’s The Wake of Forgiveness as a subscriber to a signed first editions club I belong to at Square One books in Oxford. Mississippi. Their taste in selecting books and brining talented authors to their store for signings h...as kept me a member of this group for more than ten years now. This is the best book they have ever sent. The jacket copy comparisons to Kent Haruf and Cormac McCarthy signaled a welcomed familiarity, though since I have written jacket copy in...more I was sent a copy of Bruce Machart’s The Wake of Forgiveness as a subscriber to a signed first editions club I belong to at Square One books in Oxford. Mississippi. Their taste in selecting books and brining talented authors to their store for signings h...as kept me a member of this group for more than ten years now. This is the best book they have ever sent. The jacket copy comparisons to Kent Haruf and Cormac McCarthy signaled a welcomed familiarity, though since I have written jacket copy in my time, I am more than a bit skeptical when comparing first novelists to writers like these. I see where the copywriter was headed, but this writer has a distinctively different story to tell. The story takes place over a thirty year span and centers on the life of Karel Skala, his father, the mother who died bearing him and his band of brothers set in the beauty and harshness of rural Texas. Machart’s character development is the best I’ve read in a long time. There is no escape from the torment of emotional, spiritual and physicality of this well-conceived world. And oh man, is this world physical. In one of the best fight scenes I think I have ever read, the author describes the fight as “flawless in its wickedness.” The language is so richly detailed and the dialogue so spare yet vivid, that you experience a sort of adrenaline rush that is set in a constant state of expectancy. And he never disappoints. The book is sweeping in its broad strokes on the great themes – familial bonds, conflict, and revenge, the absence of maternal and paternal love and how that manifests itself in a character – enough to keep a book group busy for a lengthy discussion. I know this sounds sexist, but this isn’t a book that should be hashed out in a living room over coffee and I’m fully expecting a slap on the back of the head from Maura when she catches wind of what I am about to say, but rather, it should be sent to guys and brothers you’ve fought with and drank with and a note that says, “read this.” See More(less)

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Feb 22, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Family bonds, particularly between fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, are explored with great sorrow and depth in this elegiac and epic tale of the Skala family, hard-working Czech farmers in Lavaca County. In the fertile flat lands of South Texas, in the fictional town of Dalton, 1895, Karel Skala is the fourth son born to Vaclav and Klara, and the one that results in Klara's death. Vaclav's pain shuts him down, and he forsakes holding his son.

Instead, Vaclav treats Karel and his brothers...more Family bonds, particularly between fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, are explored with great sorrow and depth in this elegiac and epic tale of the Skala family, hard-working Czech farmers in Lavaca County. In the fertile flat lands of South Texas, in the fictional town of Dalton, 1895, Karel Skala is the fourth son born to Vaclav and Klara, and the one that results in Klara's death. Vaclav's pain shuts him down, and he forsakes holding his son.

Instead, Vaclav treats Karel and his brothers like draught horses and works them to the bone on the farm. As Karel grows and develops into an apt horse rider and racer, Vaclav gambles land, and Karel rides to win. A particular race in 1910 squeezes the last morsel of strained loyalty and affection between Karel, his three brothers, and his father.

The story goes back and forth in time between 1895 and 1924, in a seamless and tension-building tale that is both heart stopping and lushly evocative. Machart writes like a veteran writer and is reminiscent of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, both for his brutal tale of family instability and his towering, metaphorical passages tying the land to the people, and the narrative of his social and moral themes surrounding the decay, anguish, and redemption of the human heart. Like McCarthy, Machart has an arresting, commanding sense of predator and prey:

"Across the creek along the far bank, near the tangle of water oak and pine roots and the deep impression of boot soles in the wet silt, she [the amber-eyed horned-owl] discerns the slightest distinction in the clustered dancing of bluestem spires, knowing by some sharp and instinctive insistence in the grainy fibers of her muscles that rain and wind bend the uppermost inches of grass blades while the scuttling of prey and the dragging of a tail will set the reeds to shivering upward from the tillers."

Machart's frequently long and undulating sentences are not awkward or burdensome, as his assured, poetic, and elegant style takes the reader deeper and more evocatively into the richness of the landscape and the texture of Karel's pain. Soon after the race of 1910, Karel quits riding, folds up into himself, and begins his own family and future without reconciling his past. The story brings the reader into key events in a well-paced manner that also teases out the facts gradually. The past and the present intersect in the denouement with an uncompromising and resolute exhilaration. Getting there allows the reader to accompany Karel into the territory of his tormented soul.

"It occurred to Karel that this was the way the whole county must see them, as the family that everyone but they themselves recognized as such, and the thought of being the kind of fool who called for fair weather when green clouds folded up in hail-bearing corrugations on the horizon wicked at him until he felt parched and withered and longing, like a cotton plant wilting in a month-long drought, for the unabated battering of that which might save him."

Whether it is the rich, metallic smell of rain; the mineral scent of flooded soil; a sun-struck fence; a moonlit winter pine; or stray swirls of cotton in the brisk, smoky air of a burning mesquite tree, Machart sears the images of his story so thoroughly that they will cascade down your spine and give you an electric buzz. I can open the book anywhere and return to eloquent passages that, even lifted from the story and taken independently will cause my heart to flutter. Compelling, unyielding, and utterly satisfying.

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Oct 24, 2010 Felice rated it 4 of 5 stars

What do you get when you mix Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Shakespearean tragedy and an exceptional cover with homesteaders? Wait, wait, wait we'll be adding in strong, evocative writing too. No need to guess my friend. It's The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart.

Take a look at that cover. Isn't it beautiful? It's smart too. Everyone loves a horse. It is not a gender specific symbol. The photo is powerful so the consumer/reader can expect drama but it isn't overwhelmingly masculine or th...more What do you get when you mix Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Shakespearean tragedy and an exceptional cover with homesteaders? Wait, wait, wait we'll be adding in strong, evocative writing too. No need to guess my friend. It's The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart.

Take a look at that cover. Isn't it beautiful? It's smart too. Everyone loves a horse. It is not a gender specific symbol. The photo is powerful so the consumer/reader can expect drama but it isn't overwhelmingly masculine or threatening. You don't immediately think "Oh this is about male characters and that's not what I read" and stroll on. You pick it up to see what it's about and that alone is a win.

In Lavaca County, Texas 1895 Czech immigrant Vaclav Skala is left alone to raise his four sons and work his land. His wife has died giving birth to their son Kaval. We don't know what Vaclav was like prior to his wife's death but afterward he is a heartless man obsessed with success. His sons are worked so hard their necks are permanently bent from plowing. He is a brutal man with one Achilles heel, horses. When his son Kaval displays an aptitude for horse racing, Vaclav tries to use it to increase his wealth. This is fathers verses sons and brother verses brother on an operatic scale but never unbelievable.

The writing in Wake is gorgeous. It's the great strength of this novel that these emotionally harsh lives are described in wonderful language. You can feel the texture of the wind, smell the tobacco and wrap yourself up in the bitter complexity of the family relationships. Machart doesn't allow the poetry of his writing to interferer with the action. Wake has the prerequisite amount of hustle and bustle for a western it just describes all that activity with juicy vigor.

All of the westerns I read are judged up against Lonesome Dove--a perfect novel. How did The Wake of Forgiveness match up? They are very different books despite the commonality of setting. Lonesome is a celebration of people. Wake is a study of Fate. For better or worse Lonesome Dove is my benchmark--oh well. The Wake of Forgiveness is no Lonesome Dove but it is very good and holds the promise of a writer capable of a Lonesome Dove of his own.
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Aug 31, 2010 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

"This is the bloodlust of brothers, the vengeful rage of the father, all of it born out and somehow flawless in its wickedness, like some depraved reenactment of Genesis staged solely for the amusement of reprobates." -The Wake of Forgiveness

Every once in a great while you come across a book that does all the things you want a book to do. Prose so sumptuous you hold your breath through whole sections because breathing - even breathing - would disrupt the amazing way a thought is unfolding. A pl...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Denise rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Wake of Forgiveness is a beautifully written story of hope and forgiveness set in the harsh landscape of Texas at the turn of the century.

The book opens with the death of Vaclav Skala's wife as she gives birth to their fourth son. Utterly bereft Skala reverts to the brutal and unforgiving man he was before he married. He raises his sons with an iron fist, saving any kindness for the horses he shrewdly races to win his neighbor's land. Karel, the youngest son, grows up without ever having fe...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Charles Dee Mitchell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-lit

All the elements and then some of the Texas Family Saga novel are here -- except for the oil. But there is the land, cotton, cattle,horse racing, adultery, lots of drinking, taciturn men with passive wives, a couple of rubes for comic relief, and parricide. Maybe two parricides, depending on how you count.

There is enough material here to fill a 600 page novel about Czech immigrants in Central Texas at the turn of the century, but Machart's approach is elliptical, roving across the years 1895, 19...more All the elements and then some of the Texas Family Saga novel are here -- except for the oil. But there is the land, cotton, cattle,horse racing, adultery, lots of drinking, taciturn men with passive wives, a couple of rubes for comic relief, and parricide. Maybe two parricides, depending on how you count.

There is enough material here to fill a 600 page novel about Czech immigrants in Central Texas at the turn of the century, but Machart's approach is elliptical, roving across the years 1895, 1910, and 1924, choosing key incidents that will tell his story, even if at times it seems to leave certain of his characters cyphers. Then again, maybe we don't need to know more than that the Sklava boys strain under the control of their wealthy Mexican father-in-law. Perhaps that's what you get when you win your wives by losing a horse race. And then there are the Knedlik twins, one with a crazy mean streak that today would be called psychotic. I liked the little I learned about Elizka Novotny, who spent three years at the University of Texas, Austin, during World War I, but has returned to run her father's store. She will never be happy in this one-horse town.

Machart passes quickly through a quarter century of events, but his real strength is when he stops to describe incidents in what is probably more detail than some readers will want. The novel opens with the bloody birth of Karel, the youngest of the Slaka brothers who will always be known as the baby that killed their mother. As a grown man, Karel has to tie up a dead cow and her only partially delivered dead calf and haul them from the corral to the pasture. A moment like this is awkward in the novel only because it hints at being a "symbol" of something, but it is brilliant as a description of just one of those things you have to do on a ranch.

This is Machart's first novel and it has been popular with readers and critics. It could be argued that what Texas writing needs right now are more adventuresome writers who will toss out traditional forms and push Texas literature in some new direction. But meanwhile, there is no denying the pleasures of the traditional Texas myths well told.(less)

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Oct 17, 2010 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

There was a lot to like about this book. It's a hard-nosed tale of a boy's youth in early 20th century Texas. Skipping back and forth among three traumatic times of his life -- events at his birth, age fifteen, and age twenty-four, the story illuminates his family and his life. The good part is that the story is gripping, and Mr. Machlen is capable of moving it along quite smartly. The bad news is that there are times when the prose bogs down in a welter of obscure clauses; one suspects Mr. Mac...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, western, literature, debut-author

The book is a western in the broadest sense. It is really literature. The language is lush, exquisite, and unforgettable. The work is the debut (!) novel of a young man, but reads as if it were written by a much older man. If I tell you the book is black…dark like I have rarely read, you may be reluctant to dip your head in. But the title has the word forgiveness in it, and it is so. Forgiveness that falls like drops of rain on a parched and cracked soil. It is so unexpected, I didn’t trust it a...more The book is a western in the broadest sense. It is really literature. The language is lush, exquisite, and unforgettable. The work is the debut (!) novel of a young man, but reads as if it were written by a much older man. If I tell you the book is black…dark like I have rarely read, you may be reluctant to dip your head in. But the title has the word forgiveness in it, and it is so. Forgiveness that falls like drops of rain on a parched and cracked soil. It is so unexpected, I didn’t trust it at first. But as one cruelty begets another, one kindness begets another, and so it is with forgiveness. It’s a lesson we need to see again and again to believe.

The main character, Karel, is the youngest of four brothers born to a Czech immigrant farming in Texas at the turn of the twentieth century. Karel’s birth killed his mother, leaving the family warped for the cooling comfort of a loving hand. Life was hard and could be cruel: the boys pulled the plow in the crusty ground until there was a permanent cant to their necks. The family has amassed a large landholding from neighboring farmers when Karel wins land bets jockeying ranch horses. One day a wealthy Spaniard with three nubile daughters makes a race wager.

There will be inevitable comparisons with Cormac McCarthy. Hardscrabble lives lived on the border is the same. The density of feeling is the same. The darkness is the same. I would like to make the case that McCarthy’s work has a lyricism when describing the nature, and the natural way of things, that seems age-old and universal while Wake... focusses more on the blackness in family relations, in men’s hearts. That is not to say Machart doesn’t “do” nature. He is more than skilled in describing the rain, the territory. But nature is not a character, the way it is so central in McCarthy’s work. Machart’s “black”:

“If anything, this was what Karel missed about the company of his brothers—their hardness and loathing had shored up his own, given him title to his own hatred. But there was something else: The older boys had also admired their father—his stubbornness and sharp tongue, the way he refused to beckon the help of other men—and so had Karel, and it was this admiration that he couldn’t cotton to. The reverence for a man you surely hated, the hard plaque of respect that all the bad blood couldn’t scour from your heart. This, too, he and his brothers had shared, and the bile of a common indigestion that rose from the two brands of unsuited feelings had been easier to swallow when there were others around who were burning inside with the same struggle to choke it down.”

Wake... reminds me of a New York Review of Books book that will be republished in 70 years to accolades. “He tells it like it was….” they will say, “A master of writing style…” It is classic, in the ways authors with great skill can paint pictures that seem indelible. But there are reasons why we would not want to wait 70 years to read it. We need to carry the lesson of forgiveness with us every day.

If you read and liked this book, I urge you to pick up another novel by a debut author that I was reminded of while reading this book: American Rust by Philipp Meyer, published by Random House. ...Rust won numerous awards (New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Economist Book of the Year (2009), A Washington Post Top Ten Book of (2009), Kansas City Star Top 100 Book of (2009), Newsweek's "Best. Books. Ever"), but I don't think it made the bestseller lists. Don't let these great books languish.(less)

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Nov 04, 2010 McKenzie rated it 3 of 5 stars

My thoughts on this book are a little conflicted. Machart's writing style is beautiful at times, overbearing at others, and occasionally impossible to follow (I wondered if he ever learned about varying the length of his sentences in elementary school). The subjects he is grappling with in The Wake of Forgiveness are gripping (though it took me about 100 pages to really get into the novel), but his method of solving the problems he's created for his vivid characters seems superficial to me (unle...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

As the author notes, this book has “an old, even timeless, biblical kind of feel. These are, after all, kind of Old Testament struggles at work. Sons and mothers. Brothers and brothers. Fathers and sons.” These people are as mean as the land the try to tame. In some ways it was reminiscent of "Under the Unbroken Sky" by Shandi Mitchell. But that book, written by a woman, focused more on the women and children of the struggling immigrants, and was written in a softer focus. Machart’s book has ver...more

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Sep 25, 2010 MissSusie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Beautifully and lyrically written but very dark. I had trouble getting into this book at first because it was dark and depressing but the writing was so beautiful that I kept reading and I’m glad I did. In the beginning I didn’t think I’d feel compassion or empathy for anyone in this book but that changed as the book progressed.

Vaclav Skala and his boys are alone since the death of his wife when she gave birth to Karel. People say Vaclav was a good man when he was with his wife but we don’t see...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Crossett Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reviewed by Jared:
One of the most beautiful books I've ever read! Machart has a masterpiece on his hand, vividly painting human emotion atop a Texas-in-the-early-1900s background. You are initially drawn in through the heart-rending loss of a mother, and then flash back and forth through the youngest son's life as he copes with a harsh father, the loss of a relationship with his brothers, and his own hard shell. But as tough as that shell is, you can still peer through the cracks to the heart be...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Kristina rated it 1 of 5 stars

Based in the early 1900’s, “The Wake of Forgiveness” gives us a thorough look into the time and lives of the residents of Lacava County, Texas. The author, through shifting time periods, takes us through the life of Karel Skala, a boy who loses his mother from complications of his own birth and grows up the youngest of four boys with a bitter and resentful father. Suffering a childhood of abuse and guilt, Karel grows up and after the birth of his own son, begins to look back at all his suffering...more

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Nov 27, 2010 Yvonne rated it 5 of 5 stars

While reading this book I kept thinking that in many ways this book was the total opposite of KINGS OF THE EARTH, where as the brothers were so intimately tied together that you could feel the love and admiration they had for each other whereas the brothers in this book were so far apart in the emotions category you would not expect they were brothers for the exception of their crooked necks.

These boys were from a father who treated no better than a work horse, actually the work horses were trea...more

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Nov 06, 2010 Terzah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fans of Cormac McCarthy and Kent Haruf should pick up this impressive novel, its author's first. The story of two motherless families in southeast Texas at the turn of the century and the rift among and ultimate reconciliation of brothers, the lyrical language and well-drawn characters will quickly draw you in. I especially loved the author's portrayals of children, for whom he (and several of his characters) exhibit endearing but unsentimental affection. The book lost a star for me due to a pro...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, contemporary, fiction

It took me a long time to read this book by debut author, Bruce Machart. I handpick my recommendations in this new format of reviews and, while the recommendation of The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a no-brainer, the other two took a bit more thought. Like my experience with The Road, this book had me flipping back and forth to remember details. I couldn't just read a chapter and then move on, most of the time I'd have to go back and re-read large sections of it to make sure I understood what was...more

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Aug 26, 2010 Bill Preston rated it 5 of 5 stars

My friend Marilyn secured a copy of this for me at Book Expo and I have always made it a point to read her recommendations. She is simply never wrong.

The comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and maybe Faulkner are probably going to be inevitable here with the rich descreptive passages that describe the landscape, weather, animals and reflections of characters. These take a bit of effort, but so worth the concentration. Bruce Machart knows how to use the language. As the jacket image suggests, horses p...more

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