Book(s) review: Fiction, empathy and nature

A very successful businessman – and yes, a former English Major – was castigating me for not putting my Master’s Degree in English on my resume. “All my empathy comes from reading fiction,” he said, “and I think my empathy, my ability to understand the emotions and motivations of other people, has been a big contributor to my success in business.”

So it’s with this advice that I deviate from the usual “fiction and non-fiction” pairing of this book(s) review and just write about three really good novels I have read over the past few months. The common thread across these novels is that they are all set in different periods of American history, and they all feature the landscape itself as a major character, combining excellent writing with arresting descriptions of our wild and beautiful country.

Lauren Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds”

A servant girl escapes from an early American colony and flees into the vast wilderness, running from events that only come to light much later in the novel. Often when reading “The Vaster Wilds” by Lauren Groff I paused to re-read a sentence, wanting to enjoy it a second time.?The main character’s plight is so urgent and vivid that I found myself wondering how long I would have survived in the same setting… I fear the answer is not very long. This book has me now reading everything else Groff has written – an investment that so far is paying off.

Daniel Mason’s “North Woods”

“North Woods” by Daniel Mason strangely starts in the same way – this time with a couple rather than a single escapee, out into the untouched American forest, settling in Western Massachusetts. And where they settle becomes really the main character of the novel, as generations inhabit and reshape the landscape, in the past and into the future. “North Woods” reminds us that our lifespans are much shorter than the broader landscape we inhabit, and imagines that we leave traces of ourselves behind to guide – yes, and in some cases, haunt – future generations.

Paul Harding’s “This Other Eden”

Based loosely on a true story, “This Other Eden” by Paul Harding is set on a wind-lashed island off the coast of Maine, first settled by a former slave and his Irish wife. The novel tells us of multiple generations of the island’s inhabitants, with the book’s best writing describing both the landscape, and one of the local artist’s renderings of the people and the landscape. You can feel from the first couple of chapters that this novel will not have a happy ending, but the beauty of the setting and the connections between the island’s inhabitants make this sad wallow well worth the read.?

Any of these novels would be a good read, and taken together they will have you appreciate the craft of shaping plot and character. They will also leave you with a further appreciation of the vast natural beauty of our country. And I can’t help but think they will also cultivate empathy – for these characters and for the natural world we inherit and protect.