Set in the Olympics the book begins with a wonderful narrative of a new settlement - Port Bonita - that seems to be the key to the future and it brings in the native people, a crusading female pregnant with an unwanted child, a tavern owner with his whores who only wants to meet the lowest denominator of instincts and make money from them - whiskey and whores. Then there is the dandy who comes to a pristine wilderness and sells out his homestead and instincts to Eastern Money so that a dam can be built and the wilderness ravaged. All this is in the 1890's and then we jump to 2006, the year we see the dam come toppling down.
I have to admit I am also getting bored with this popular form of writing where the author jumps back and forth between time periods and narratives. We went through a phase where the flashback was the rage, now we have to check the date at the beginning of each chapter. Why? There was nothing in one narration that made the second narration more enlightening. It could have had one thread completed and the second done consecutively.
Throughout this very long narrative there are many people who become central to the story, but unfortunately I could care less about any of them. I do not find one I would want to befriend, not one I have great sympathy for. It is a story of people who move in and challenge a wilderness and somehow the story attempts to go full circle back to the wilderness with and ex-con and his parole officer who both commit to hiking in the Olympic wilderness. But it does not work. The only character I like is Rupert the dog.
Yet all 480 pages compelled me forward. I like the writer. And then the end came - inevitable I know, but in fact it was totally unsatisfactory and I continue to wonder about the purpose of the Indian child who is known as the Storm King and his modern counterpart - Curtis. Because in the end they do not matter. But then what does. Sorry. I enjoyed reading, but I am trying to figure out why.
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