Barkskins - from Annie Proulx
Review by Rachael Wedd
Well, here is some spring reading for you - all 713 pages of it! Curl up in a comfy chair and enjoy this work of well-researched historical fiction.
Barkskins are woodcutters.
This story follows the lives of two young Frenchmen and their descendants and weaves together their stories, the discovery and development of logging in Canada (primarily), the cultural annihilation of various indigenous peoples and the emergence of modern forestry practices.
This novel really reverberated with me, after all my years of working with mining and Aboriginal people - seeing the environmental and cultural impacts that a resources based industry has and what can happen without appropriate management and future needs thinking.
The mindset "it has always been there, it cannot run out" - anything for a dollar - is the basis for most of this novel, but it's not a preachy story. Yes, it shows greed but it also includes hope.
Review by Rachael Wedd
Well, here is some spring reading for you - all 713 pages of it! Curl up in a comfy chair and enjoy this work of well-researched historical fiction.
Barkskins are woodcutters.
This story follows the lives of two young Frenchmen and their descendants and weaves together their stories, the discovery and development of logging in Canada (primarily), the cultural annihilation of various indigenous peoples and the emergence of modern forestry practices.
This novel really reverberated with me, after all my years of working with mining and Aboriginal people - seeing the environmental and cultural impacts that a resources based industry has and what can happen without appropriate management and future needs thinking.
The mindset "it has always been there, it cannot run out" - anything for a dollar - is the basis for most of this novel, but it's not a preachy story. Yes, it shows greed but it also includes hope.
