Review of Barkskins, by Annie Proulx

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In her sprawling novel Barkskins, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx tells the story of the destruction of the great forests of North America and beyond, from the late 17th century to the present. The novel follows the descendants of two Frenchmen, Charles Duquet and René Sel, who immigrate to Canada to become woodcutters (barkskins) in the 1690’s. Duquet founds a timber company with ties around the world, while Sel marries a Mi’kmaw woman, whose descendants are torn between European and Indian values and life ways. In unforeseen ways, these 2 families intertwine over the years, and both entwine with the fate of the forests, from the eastern seaboard of North America to the kauri forests of New Zealand, and the Amazon jungles. Proulx writes beautifully of the mystery of nature, as in this passage: “The moon was a slice of white radish, the shadows of incomparable blackness. The shapes of trees fell sharply on the snow, of blackness so profound they seemed gashes into the underworld” (23). With a sense of voraciousness, the newcomers hew away at this woodland world, believing it to be limitless; and believing in the civilizing good of clearing the land for farms and settlements. Trees are hacked, sliced, ground, burned and floated, and the clearing moves ever on to new regions and new species. Only much later do some begin to talk about reseeding and replacing what has been lost.

Just as the trees are cut, so the human characters are cut down by an amazing array of accidents, illnesses, and catastrophes. And faster than the trees, they regenerate and give birth to the next generation. While it can be challenging to keep up with the many generations and relatives in the two families, a number of characters stand out: Charles Duquet himself (who changes his name to Duke), an ambitious and not very likeable man who is successful nevertheless. His descendant Lavinia Duke, a pioneering woman in the lumber industry, who meets her soul mate in Dieter Breitsprecher, an early proponent of reseeding and replanting. Outger Duke, a scientific enthusiast who abandons his half-Indian daughter, Beatrix, to return to Europe. Beatrix, wanting to understand her Native American roots, weds one of the Mi’kmaw Sels, and while at first they seem happy, neither finds in the other the wholeness they are looking for. A counterpoint of greed and generosity, dissatisfaction and hope runs through the novel, as many characters seem broken by their own histories and their struggles with nature. The novel ends with a new generation hoping to turn the tide of global warming. Sapatisia Sel, a descendant of both families, is aware of the coming dangers that we all face. “’A great crisis is just ahead,’ said one scientist”--in reference to the melting of the Greenland ice. “Sapatisia Sel thought he meant that they had been looking at human extinction. She wanted to cry out, ‘The forests, the trees, they can change everything!’ but her voice froze in her throat” (712).




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