The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis

 (Little, Brown, 2006)

 

A smart, quirky book, fun and interesting to read, but ultimately disappointing.

The Thin Place is set  in, and mostly about, the small town of Verennes, which seems to be in northern New York  near the Canadian border.  It describes and follows the lives of many of the inhabitants of this town over perhaps a month-long period in early summer.  In addition to the large cast of human beings, the narrator also inhabits the minds of  many animals, both domestic (dogs and cats) and wild (beavers).   The book does not  seem to have a central character or a plot, and perhaps this is why its parts are greater than the whole. 

Davis is a very smart, odd, and playful writer, and appears to see the world -- flora and fauna -- from both a scientific and spiritual perspective. This duality of vision gives the book an idiosyncratic complexity I found both admirable and rewarding.   She is able to create original and compelling characters (both human and animal), but seems unwilling, or unable, to create any sort of plot.  The Thin Place ends with a robbery and shooting at a church service where many of the characters are assembled, and this seems an inorganic and unlikely conclusion to a novel that is originally conceived and beautifully composed.

I've read and admired Davis's earlier novel, The Walking Tour, and now look forward to reading more of her novels.